First Nations Gathering Series: Woodland Art Workshop

Our First Nations Gathering Series, programmed by local Indigenous singer-songwriter Pam Levi, returns with a workshop on the art of traditional healing.

The First Nations Gathering Series offers a slate of workshops where all community members can come together to learn about First Nations cultures while using their hands and hearts to create meaningful crafts.

Every workshop will feature a brief history of what participants will be making, introduced by series programmer Pam Levi and the featured guest artist. After each workshop, participants will have created something signficant to take home.

In this workshop, you will learn the fundamentals of Woodland style art through hands-on drawing exercises and an engaging presentation from artist, activist, historian and traditional wisdom keeper, Philip Cote, MFA. The workshop will provide an overview of traditional symbolism, storytelling techniques, and the unique visual language of Indigenous Woodland art. You will then create your own Woodland style inspired artwork.

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Accessibility: If you are a Brampton resident who needs assistance or support to participate, such as an ASL interpreter, please get in touch with us at [email protected] as soon as possible (minimum of five days in advance) so that we can make the necessary arrangements.

Transportation: We can provide all-ages Brampton Transit Tickets to Brampton residents free of charge to those who need them for all BAO in-person events. If you would like to pick up a ticket for yourself and others attending with you, please email [email protected] prior to the event and we will have them available for you onsite. Tickets work for both Brampton Transit and Züm buses.

Pam Levi is a multidisciplinary Mi’kmaq artist from Elsipogtog First Nation, New Brunswick. Her creativity flows through many forms—singing, dancing, acting, painting, and drawing—each one a reflection of her deep connection to culture and spirit.

Pam’s vibrant murals, inspired by Indigenous teachings, have transformed school spaces across the TCDSB, inviting students into a visual journey of identity and tradition. With a passion for sharing knowledge, she’s brought Indigenous perspectives to hundreds of classrooms, blending storytelling and expression in powerful, visual ways.

For Pam, art isn’t just a medium—it’s medicine. It’s a way of being, of feeling, of remembering. Through her work, she reminds us that art lives in all of us.

(Noodjmowin – The Healer) is a Sundancer, Pipe Carrier, and Sweat Ceremony leader recognized by Elders Vern Harper and Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand. A member of the Falseface Society, he integrates Indigenous storytelling and spiritual perspectives into sculpture, painting, and multimedia art.

A graduate of OCAD University’s Interdisciplinary Art Media and Design Masters program in 2015, Cote has been exploring new ways to imbue sculpture and painting through oral traditions of storytelling and with traditional spiritual perspectives. In 2002, Cote was commissioned to create a 1000 square foot mural Kiinwin Dabaadjmowin (Our Story) Mural for the Mississauga’s of New Credit First Nation. As part of the Planet Indigenous Festival, 2004, he was artist in residence at the McMichael Art Gallery sculpting with soapstone. In 2005, Cote created a large-scale mural at Fort York entitled Niinwin Dabaadjmowin – (We Are Talking) a 20-panel, 80-foot mural depicting the rich history of the Anishinaabe people with First Nations street level youth and community members.

As an Indigenous artist, the purpose of Cote’s research is to unearth, and reveal, his cultural experience and knowledge of signs of Indigenous symbols, language and interpretation. Openings are thus created both within the archive/academia and broader public that enable these imbedded stereotypes to transform under the gaze of an Indigenous based interpreted presence and intervene in the cross generational colonial bias.

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