Skawennati (b. 1969, Kanien’kehá:ka of the Hotinonshón:ni) makes art across a variety of media. Her machinimas and machinimagraphs (movies and still images made in virtual environments), textiles and sculpture have been presented and collected internationally.
From her perspectives as an urban Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) woman and as a cyberpunk avatar, internationally exhibiting artist Skawennati has spent this millenium imagining Indigenous people thriving. In her virtual studio she customizes avatars and environments to create scenarios that can be recorded as movies (aka machinimas) and still images (machinimagraphs). She also makes physical objects including sculpture and costumes, and writes the occasional song. Her practice is gradually coalescing into an alternate universe.
Her works have been presented online and in-person in galleries, classrooms, festivals and fashion shows, and are included in the a number of collections, such as the National Gallery of Canada and the Thoma Foundation. She is honoured to have received a 2025 Meritorious Service Medal; a 2022 Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions Grant; a 2020 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship; and a 2011 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. She holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Over the years, Skawennati has been active in various communities. In the 80s she joined the nuclear-disarmament peace group, SAGE (Students Against Global Extermination), and the Quebec Native Women’s Association. In the 90s she co-founded Nation to Nation, a First Nations artist collective, while working in and with various Indigenous organizations and artist-run centres, including the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal and Oboro. In 2005, she co-founded Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC), a research-creation network based at Concordia University whose projects include the Skins workshops on Aboriginal Storytelling and Digital Media as well as the Initiative for Indigenous Futures. Throughout most of the teens, she volunteered extensively for her children’s elementary school, where she also initiated an Indigenous Awareness programme. In 2019, she co-founded centre d’art daphne, Montreal’s first Indigenous artist-run centre. In 2023, she also joined the board of Rhizome, an international hub for new media.
Originally from Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory, Skawennati belongs to the Turtle clan. She holds a Bachelor degree of Fine Arts from Concordia University in Montreal, where she resides. She is represented by ELLEPHANT.
Photo by Ruvan Wijesooriya.