An MI grad’s self-portrait

For Jasmine Wemigwans, a recent Master of Information graduate, her return to painting wasn’t merely a creative outlet. It became a way to visually explore some of the most intriguing academic concepts she encountered during her MI studies. Prompted by an assignment and a desire to connect her studies to her Anishinaabe worldview, Wemigwans’ created a self-portrait in vibrant acrylics that represents interwoven threads of identity, culture and information. 

Wemigwans, who is from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory and of mixed Ojibwe heritage, had largely set aside her artwork after attending Toronto’s Wexford Collegiate School of the Arts. At Toronto Metropolitan University, she studied English and then, post-graduation, moved on to an administrative job before deciding to return to school to complete a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science. 

Her original interest in the field was driven in part by the lack of Indigenous representation and insufficient integration of Indigenous knowledges she had observed in libraries. “I was interested to see how indigenous knowledges were tied into the curriculum and how I could potentially talk about it a bit more in my assignments and discuss how indigenous ways of knowing are respected or categorized in libraries,” she says. Wemigwans envisions a future where she can work with Indigenous communities to re-classify information in ways that honor Indigenous experience. 

As a student, Wemigwans found herself drawn to the “Red Thread of Information” concept, something she learned about in Associate Professor Jenna Hartel’s Information Experience course (INF1323H). Originated by Marcia Bates as the core informational storyline in people’s lives, the red thread idea resonated with Wemigwans, who saw parallels in the red threads used in tobacco ties and medicine bundles within her own culture. 

Newly inspired, she applied for an Ontario Arts Council bursary, which provided the funds for art supplies she needed to restart painting. In keeping with the bursary’s requirements to produce a piece of artwork, Wemigwans chose to create a self-portrait that would reflect both her journey through post-secondary education and her Indigenous identity.  

The red thread in the painting was a late but crucial addition, serving as a visual bridge to her information studies. In the portrait, the red thread tugging on Wemigwans’ finger symbolizes a call to listen more closely to her intuition and ancestral guidance. 

The artwork itself is a “remix” of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Saint John the Baptist, imagined through an Indigenous lens. Instead of pointing towards a Christian cross, Wemigwans’ hand gestures towards the red quadrant of a Medicine Wheel, a symbol of wholeness, balance and healing in Ojibwe teachings.  

The painting also contains other Indigenous symbols including an abalone shell, White Sage smoke with hidden ancestral faces, and the Medicine Wheel’s four colors – red, yellow, black, and white – reflecting her Toronto upbringing. Wemigwans’ beaded dress celebrates Ojibwe femininity and floral woodland art.  

The painting was partly inspired and then used as an assignment, while still a work in progress, in Professor Seamus Ross’s Remix Culture course (INF2320H) 

Since graduation,  Wemigwans has been working at U of T’s Technoscience Research Unit, an Indigenous-led lab connected to the School of Environment, which is home to critical and creative research on the politics of technoscience. She is developing a data protocol focused on Indigenous data sovereignty.  

This work champions the idea that Indigenous communities must have “ultimate power and say over their data,” especially given the historical context of frequent lack of consent regarding information usage. Wemigwans advocates for proper credit and honorariums for tribes and their right to revoke any information deemed inappropriate for public sharing. 

Though she has taken a brief hiatus from painting, Wemigwans plans to pick it up again this fall and winter. “I really want this painting to inspire others to try to bring their artwork into the academia in a way that they see fit,” she says. “I hope it inspires other indigenous folks to want to venture into information studies and see that it won’t be as rigid as they might assume.” 

Read the reflective essay, Jasmine Wemigwans wrote about her painting, parts of which were used in this article.