Eruoma Awashish

Eruoma Awashish was born and raised in the Obedjiwan community, in a family of artists. The daughter of an Atikamekw father and a Québécoise mother, she is in contact with both cultures, which are at the heart of her artistic approach. She is part of the post-boarding school generation, educated in Quebec’s post-Catholic school system. This new generation, which has escaped the deep wounds inflicted by residential schools, is at the heart of a resurgence and reaffirmation of identity that has been developing in recent years.

Eruoma is an active participant in various environmental anti-globalization struggles, such as the Idle No More Movement, created by First Nations women and led in Quebec by activists Widia Larivière and Melissa Mollen Dupuis. She has also updated and enriched several traditions that had gradually disappeared or been suppressed by American and Canadian laws, such as the traditional pow-wow dance she practices.

She now resides in the Innu community of Mashteuiatsh, near Lac Piekuakami (Lac Saint-Jean), in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, where she has held the position of exhibition curator at the Musée amérindien de Mashteuiatsh since 2017.