Hunter Kissing Karahkwenhawi, Machinimagraph from TimeTraveller™ by Skawennati

Skawennati makes art that addresses history, the future, and change from her perspective as an urban Mohawk woman and as a cyberpunk avatar. Her early adoption of cyberspace as both a location and a medium for her practice has led to groundbreaking projects such as CyberPowWow and the Skins workshops on Aboriginal Storytelling and Digital Media.

Renowned for her machinimas (movies made in virtual environments), and her machinimagraphs (photographs taken in virtual environments), she also produces beadwork, clothing and sculptures. Active since the late 1990’s, she has used cyberspace – websites, video games and virtual environments – as both a metaphor for the future and a tool to create representations of Indigenous people in a revised history, a contemporary present and an anticipated tomorrow.

Born in Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory, Skawennati is Kanien'kehá:ka of the turtle clan.

Artist Bio (PDF)

"Other Places, Outer Spaces: Skawennati's Virtual Futurism", by Matthew Ryan Smith, PhD - First American Art Magazine, Winter 2021

"Skawennati's TimeTraveller™: Deconstructing the colonial matrix in virtual reality", by Treva Michelle Pullen - AlterNative, Vol 12, Issue 3, 2016