​June 20 - July 12, 2017

Cree is the largest of Canada’s Indigenous languages with over 100,000 mother tongue speakers. Cree is also the widest spread First Nations language, with dialects spoken from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. This exhibit introduces visitors to many fascinating aspects of the Cree language.

Did you know that one Cree word can be equivalent to a whole English sentence? Or that Cree distinguishes between animate and inanimate nouns, rather than between masculine and feminine? Can you write your name using Cree syllabics?

Cree: The People’s Language is one of six bilingual travelling exhibits created by the Canadian Language Museum. This exhibit was created in close consultation with Indigenous speakers of Cree and has travelled from coast to coast to coast in Canada.

About Artist Violet Chum

My work reflects the nature and lifestyle of family and friends from my hometown, Moose Factory Island in northern Ontario. My work captures the playful energy of those enjoying the great outdoors. Allen Sapp's work brings me back to a time and place during my childhood of playing in the snow with family. It has inspired me to pursue landscape painting, which allowed me to explore figurative compositions within a landscape setting. Loose brushstrokes capture the essence of the openness of landscape scenery and freshness of harmonized colours. Painting landscapes enables me to explore and experiment with textural content and underlying colours of crystallized snow and moving waters, and observe the liveliness interaction between each figure caught in a specific moment.

Violet Chum - Biography

Violet Chum is a Moose Cree First Nation member from Moose Factory Island, Ontario. She graduated with a BFA from the Drawing & Painting program at OCAD U in 2011. She also has a BA from the Indigenous Learning program at Lakehead University. Violet’s art work has been exhibited at Capital One Bank, Harbourfront Centre (Planet IndigenUS), Mercedes Benz Financial Services, Gallery CC, Professional Gallery at OCAD University, in Toronto, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario. Her work reflects the nature and lifestyle of family and friends in the northern and cultural environment of her hometown.