2025–26 Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor Event
Aki (2025) Film Screening & Panel Discussion
In-person film screening
Sunday, April 26, 2026
Doors open at 2:30 p.m.
Programming starts at 3:00 p.m.
Innis Town Hall, Innis College
2 Sussex Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5
Please join University College, Cinema Studies and the Canadian Film Forum for a screening of Aki (2025) directed by Darlene Naponse. Set on Atikameksheng Anishnawbek (formerly known as Whitefish Lake), this visual art documentary follows the seasons in Darlene Naponse’s home community in Northern Ontario. The film captures soundscapes, the natural world, and the generations of inhabitants and all types of creatures calling this territory home. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Naponse, Julia Pegahmagabow, and the 2025-26 Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor, Wanda Nanibush.
This event is co-organized with the Cinema Studies Institute and the Canadian Film Forum.
The event is free, and all are welcome, though registration is required. Please submit a registration form for each person who plans to attend.
About the Director
Darlene Naponse is an Anishinaabe Kwe from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, Northern Ontario. She is a writer, film director, and video artist. Naponse completed a Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts and was the 2017 Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize Finalist. Her features include Cradlesong (2003), Every Emotion Costs (2010), Falls Around Her (2018) and Stellar (2022). Aki (2025) is her latest film.
About the Host
Wanda Nanibush is the 2025-26 Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor at University College. She is an Anishinaabe-kwe image and word warrior, curator and community organizer from Beausoleil First Nation. She recently won the Toronto Book Award for her co-authored book Moving the Museum, and is the Helen Frankenthaler Visiting Professor in Curating in the PhD Program in Art History at CUNY in 2025 in the Graduate Department of Art History. Nanibush is part of the curatorial team for Counterpublic 2026, St.Louis’ Triennial, and in 2024, was awarded The Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award for Curatorial Excellence. She is also the founder of aabaakwad, an international yearly gathering of over 80 Indigenous curators, writers and artists.
In Conversation With
Julia Pegahmegabow zhinkaazoo, adik doodeman, wasauksing onjibaa, adikamegshiing debaadendaagwid.
Julia is the founding eniigaanizid (executive director) of Akinoomoshin Inc. an anishinaabe aadiziwin (being) education organization situated in the community of adikamegshiing (Atikameksheng Anishnawbek). The work of Akinoomoshin Inc. is dedicated to transforming the learning experience for anishinaabek through Anishinaabemowin (language) immersion, anishinaabe kendasowin (knowing), and aki kendaman (earth learning) in a teaching lodge learning environment called akinoomoshin wiigwam .
Julia lives with her family in adikamegshiing. She is doodoom (mother) to four children, a nokomis (grandmother) to one little one, and she walks with her wiidigemaagan (husband) for 31 years now. She enjoys making wearable anishinaabe art and clothing, traveling, visiting and learning to speak anishinaabemowin.
The Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitorship in Canadian Culture at University College was established in 1985 to enhance links between the University of Toronto and Canada’s prominent cultural figures by inviting them to enter into the intellectual and social life of the college. The Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor acts as a writer-in-residence, participating in college events and meeting with students for one-on-one mentoring sessions related to all forms of writing. The establishment of the visitorship commemorates the achievements of one of the college’s most distinguished faculty members, Barker Fairley (May 12, 1887 – October 11, 1986).
