This multifaceted exhibition explores Jannuska’s new path towards making artwork that delves into Indigenous healing through one’s own culture and spirituality for both Jannuska herself and that of others. ‘Mending with Tradition’ focuses on the personal stories of growth and perseverance of three Indigenous women that she looks up to– Debbie Huntinghawk, Julia Stoneman, and Grace Masse. The show explores themes of motherhood, community, ceremony, the Red Road, grief, and self-exploration. ‘The Wolf and the Eagle in the Rain’ mixed-media comic has enabled Jannuska the ability to create a visual language for how she views the beautiful intricacies of Indigenous spirituality and healing while exploring a comic storytelling format that can reach people beyond that of an exhibition space.

The use of mixed media including a blend of beadwork, painting, textile work elements, and drawing allows exploration through technique, texture, and color. Jannuska uses realistic portraiture, expressive mark making, and contrast between the empty/cold and the busy/colorful compositions. This helps depict times of difficulty in contrast to times of growth and female empowerment. She uses painstaking attention to detail and time put in the drawings of faces and stylized elements as a cathartic way for her to relate to the themes of loss, addiction, and cancer and the effect it has had on her own life and family members’ lives. The beadwork being tacked down meticulously, and the careful hand stitching of the canvas pieces speak to the tradition of Indigenous ancestors’ hand sewing, adorning themselves, and making everything they needed for survival. There is an unfinished quality to using unstretched canvas and exploring with other fabrics shown in the fragility of the fraying edges, the shadows cast on the wall, and the gentle hand and care that goes into creating with and storing it. Jannuska’s slow art-making process gives her time to sit with the comic’s heavy content and put love, spirit, and good medicine into the work.

This exhibition is heavily rooted in the Brandon community having grown from relationships made while Jannuska completed her BFA at Brandon University and from joining the Brandon University Beading Babes group. There she met Debbie, Grace, Julia, and Knowledge Keepers and Elders - Frank Tacan, Deborah Tacan, and Barb Blind who also appear in the comic. This is a living exhibition that will continue to grow over time. Currently in progress is a third comic chapter installment about Grace Masse and a Community Healing Beading group artwork made in partnership with Brandon University Indigenous People’s Centre, with the help of the Brandon University Beading Babes and BU students.

Upcoming Exhibition Stops:

Mending with Tradition, Graffiti Arts Programming Inc. (GAP), Sept 5th, 2025, The full exhibition body of work will be shown here first.

Mending with Tradition, Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba (AGSM), May - July 2026

Photo Credit: Rylaan Gimby