Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series: Jackson 2bears

Tékeniyáhsen Ohkwá:ri (Jackson 2bears) is a Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) multimedia installation/ performance artist and cultural theorist from Six Nations and Tyendinaga, who is currently based in Lethbridge, Alberta—Treaty 7, Blackfoot Territory. 2bears’ research-creation activities focus on Indigenous land-based histories and embodied cultural knowledge, wherein they explore the creative use of digital Games (Cowichan, BC); and the Futur-en-Seine Festival (Paris, France).

2bears is a co-director of 2RO MEDIA, with Mohawk poet and producer January Rogers, and Mohawk curator Ryan Rice. 2RO Media is an artist/curatorial collective based in Ohsweken, Six Nations of the Grand River. Active since 2015, 2RO MEDIA produces events, experimental documentaries, art installations, media works, and performances with a mandate to support Indigenous projects, productions, cultural activities, and language revitalization through community engagement, programming, and other creative initiatives. In the Fall of 2023 they will launch a new media arts festival in Six Nations, which will feature art installations, film & video, audio projects, performance, spoken word and artists panels/ talks (October 19-22) with additional community gatherings, workshops, outreach, and other activities occurring throughout the year.

2bears is a member of Beat Nation [Live]—a First Nations artist collective that combines hip hop, live music and digital technology as a way to celebrate the spirit of contemporary Indigenous culture. He is also a co-founding member of Noxious Sector—a communal forum dedicated to the exploration of interdisciplinary artistic practice and creative expression. 

2bears is currently working on two multi-year projects that are currently in production: Kanónhsa Otkon Tkahthos is a research-creation project and series of multimedia artworks combining Onkwehonwe (Indigenous) creative and cultural practices and technology-based production; it involves the development of a Virtual Reality Environment (VRE) created in the spirit and image of a Haudenosaunee longhouse, and when competed will be a site for artists, elders, knowledge-keepers and youth from the Six Nations for the Grand River community to remotely gather, exchange ideas, share stories, and create new virtual artworks and digital-performances. Ne:Kahwistará:ken Kanónhsa’kówa í:se Onkwehonwe is a Multimedia Panoramic Installation by 2RO MEDIA, in collaboration with members of the Six Nations Community. The installation consists of a 34ft panorama screen, where multiple video projectors are used to create an immersive environment, with 14 channel surround audio. This artwork is a fictional re-telling of the Haudenosaunee Creation Story, with a cyclical narrative that weaves through the past, present, and future. 
Recently published scholarly essays can be found in peer-reviewed journals such as C-Theory and the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA), as well as in the text Coded Territories: Tracing Indigenous Pathways in New Media Art published by the University of Calgary Press (2014). His Keynote address at the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Summit can be found on-line. 2bears holds a BA. in Art & Art History from the University of Toronto, as well as a Diploma in Fine Arts from Sheridan College, Oakville. He received his MFA from the University of Victoria during which time he produced digital media installation and performance artworks that variously explored themes of Indigenous heritage, resistance, and cultural renewal. His thesis exhibition was a telematic/ interactive installation and performance that explored such themes as distributed reality and technological immersion in relation to transformations in First Nations identity and culture. 
In 2012 2bears completed his PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Victoria, Victoria BC. where he studied with esteemed professors Arthur Kroker, Taiaiake Alfred, Steve Gibson and Andrew Schloss. His Doctoral work takes a cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary approach to questions of contemporary Indigenous identity, technology and interactive/performance art. His dissertation, entitled Mythologies of an [Un]dead Indian, explores the aesthetics of contemporary Indigenous identity—its various manifestations, transformations, simulations and hybridizations—within the context of our hyper-mediated, technologically saturated culture. This manuscript is currently being prepared for publication.

2bears is formerly Audain Professor of Contemporary Art of the Pacific Northwest at the University of Victoria; he is currently Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts Research & Technology at Western University, London ON; Canada. 

Since 1999, 2bears has exhibited his work extensively across Canada in public galleries, museums, and artist-run centres, as well as internationally in festivals and group exhibitions. 2bears is an active researcher in the areas of video arts, digital media, and extended media, with a focus on embodied interaction, live audio/visual (Live Cinema) performance, and immersive, multimedia installation. Some recent exhibitions include: Musée d'art Contemporain de Montréal; Urban Shaman (Winnipeg, MB); Bbeyond (Belfast, Ireland); SAW Gallery (Ottawa, ON); A Space (Toronto, ON); the Vancouver New Music Festival (Vancouver, BC.); Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC.); Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Victoria, BC.); EM Media (Calgary, AB.); the Banff Centre (Banff, AB.); Redshift Gallery (Saskatoon, SK.); Digital Art Weeks (Zurich, Switzerland); North American Indigenous