Awanigiizhik Bruce - Anishinaabe - Diverse Media Artist

11/10/2025

Ambe omaa ji-waabamiyeg! Niwii-zhiizhoobii’ishim! Today thru Wednesday I’ll be performing!

08/26/2025

Y’all gotta visit this group show! My art will be localized to one main wall in the front of the show. You’ll see a wide range of art forms —of my Diverse media practice— from ledger art, to fashion, to mixed media, to ceremonial art, and finally Indigenous Futurist with a environmentally reactive LED and robotics jewelry piece.

07/06/2025

04/25/2025

Come join us for an interactive workshop and presentation of Plains Cree/Ojibwe tattooing practices from Turtle Mountain and surrounding communities in the US and Canada.

and .art are recipients of the 2025 NDCA Folk and Traditional arts Master/apprenticeship. Whereas Awanigiizhik is apprenticing under Nipinet to learn traditional Cree handpoke tattooing. Whereas Awani is teaching ceremonial and traditional protocols and teachings and strategies and together they’re revitalizing the traditional/ceremonial bundles and practices in their community of Turtle Mountain Reservation and their urban communities.

03/11/2025

Come join us for an interactive workshop and presentation of Plains Cree/Ojibwe tattooing practices from Turtle Mountain and surrounding communities in the US and Canada.

and .art are recipients of the 2025 NDCA Folk and Traditional arts Master/apprenticeship. Whereas Awanigiizhik is apprenticing under Nipinet and they’re revitalizing the traditional/ceremonial bundle and practice in their community of Turtle Mountain Reservation and urban communities.

The First Annual Mni Sota Akitho Festival is an immersive celebration of Indigenous culture, music, art, and community. Hosted at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Saint Paul, MN, this festival brings together Indigenous tattoo artists, musicians, vendors, and cultural leaders to highlight the rich artistic traditions and contemporary expressions of Indigenous peoples.

03/06/2025

A groundbreaking art exhibit, Queering Indigeneity, opens June 5 in St. Paul, Minnesota, featuring works by 16 Indigenous Two-Spirit, q***r, and gender-diver...

11/12/2024

Join us at UMD for a panel discussion featuring Tweed Exhibit Dreaming Our Futures artists, Awanigiizhik Bruce, Andrea Carlson, and Sylvia Houle.

11/12/2024

Join the department for a Dreaming Our Futures Artists' Panel on November 14, 2024. More information at https://calendar.d.umn.edu/cahss/event/97552-zhizhoobiiige-a-dreaming-our-futures-artists

11/12/2024

Throughout November we’ll be highlighting the artists included in our "Contemporary Indigeneity 2024" exhibition in recognition of Native American Heritage Month. Today we're featuring Awanigiizhik Bruce (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa).

Awanigiizhik Bruce’s art is continuously shaped by Indigenous worldviews, modes, people, and languages, specifically of the Ojibwe, Cree, Métis, Dakota, and Assiniboine. Their dream is to revitalize ancient art and make it relevant to today, but not in the way that their art only exists as an anachronism. Awanigiizhik’s vision includes creating Indigenous Futurisms as a modern contemporist, utilizing what technology is around them. They envision new fusions and constructions of Indigenous art in a modern era.

"Aanikoobijiganag"
2022
Microcontroller computer chip, fairy LEDs, 3D-printed thunderbird case, antique trade beads, glass beads, dentalium shells, coral, turquoise, leather, vinyl electrical tape, nylon string, and brass bells
28 x 10 x 3 inches
Photo by Bill Ganzel, Ganzel Group Communications
© Awanigiizhik Bruce

Artist statement:
Aanikoobijigan is thought of as an infinite string that connects and ties us all together. The word “Aanikoobijiganag” represents the encompassing idea of both our ancestors and descendants. This microelectronics jewelry piece offers a real sense of Aanikoobijiganag. It’s based on medicine necklaces and loop necklaces found all around the Northern Plains. The necklace elements represent the past (antique trade beads, dentalium, coral, turquoise, and silverberry seeds) and future (LEDs and gold beaded wrapped red wires).

In Anishinaabek culture, we say our people come from the stars; the LEDs are reminiscent of those luminary beings akin to our star relatives coming into and leaving their human lives via Bagone-Giizhig (Hole in the Sky). The LEDs figuratively represent individuals in an interconnected timeline of Aanikoobijigan. Similar to the individuality of our relatives, the LEDs are sound-reactive from speech and music while animating, glowing, dimming, and changing colors. There are brass bells that are beaded onto the necklace to help create sound for a dynamic-sound-listening-reacting potential action for the microphone of the computer chip and the animations of the LEDs.

The high-resolution screen display slideshows pictures of our ancestors and our living relatives with a specific focus to Awanigiizhik’s relatives. Each slide represents Indigenous leadership, resistance, resilience, history, and excellence within the stories of the Nehiyaw-Pwat kinship/confederacy. The 3D-printed thunderbird computer chip case references a powerful spirit helper and the National icon for the Anishinaabek. The thunderbird represents power, electricity, and changes, which is fitting for an Indigenous Futuristic art piece. There are thunderbolt buttons on the wings of the thunderbird case that power off the device, while the other single click skips through each picture slide.

See this artwork at the Great Plains Art Museum through Dec. 20.