Open Conversations | Thursday 8 November

Working with prominent individuals from the community, KWAG provides a platform for dialogue on cultural topics reflected in our current exhibitions. Join our guest hosts as they explore the importance of family and intergenerational knowledge.    

Donations will be collected for The Food Bank of Waterloo Region.

8 November:  Amy Smoke with Geri Duguid, Jaci Duguid & Skye Smoke

Intergenerational relations and healing will be at the forefront of this family dialogue between Indigenous advocate Amy Smoke, her mother Geri Duguid, and daughters Jaci (age 18) and Skye (age 4).

Amy Smoke is a Mohawk woman, Turtle clan from Six Nations of the Grand River. She holds a BA and a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Waterloo. Amy has overcome many of the intergenerational traumas that First Nations face including substance abuse, homelessness, incarceration, poverty, and domestic violence. She uses her personal story to advocate and speak for Indigenous women and youth and actively works to Indigenize post-secondary academic structures.

11 October: Emily Urquhart with Jennifer Farquhar

Join Emily and Jennifer for an Open Conversation that will talk about family as a topic that arises in writing through both fiction and non-fiction.

Emily Urquhart is a National Magazine Award-winning writer and has a PhD in folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her first book, Beyond the Pale: Folklore, Family and the Mystery of our Hidden Genes, was a Maclean’s bestseller, a finalist for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and a 2015 Globe and Mail Best Book. Her freelance writing has appeared in Hakai Magazine, Reader’s Digest and The Walrus among other publications. After a decade split between St. John's, Newfoundland and Victoria, British Columbia, she recently moved to Kitchener, Ontario with her husband and their two children.

Jennifer Farquhar is a novelist, an elementary school teacher, and mother of three young children. Her short stories have won awards in the Manitoulin Expositor and the Toronto Star. She lives in Kitchener, and her debut novel, Watermark, was released in June 2018.