Cathy Mattes

Cathy Mattes is a Michif curator (MMF citizen, Westman Local-Southwest Region), writer, and art history professor based out of Sprucewoods, Manitoba, Canada. Her curation, research and writing centers on dialogic and Indigenous knowledge-centered curatorial practice as strategies for care. Curatorial projects include Kwaata-nihtaawakihk (Co-curator Sherry Farrell Racette, Winnipeg Art Gallery, March 2022), Radical Stitch (Co-curators Sherry Farrell Racette and Michelle Lavallee, Mackenzie Art Gallery, April 2022), and Inheritance: Amy Malbeuf (March 2017, Kelowna Art Gallery). She has a PhD in Indigenous Studies from the University of Manitoba, and currently teaches at the University of Winnipeg in the History of Art and Curatorial Studies programs. Mattes has contributed writing to various publications, most recently to Radicalizing Care – Feminist and Queer Activism in Curating (Sternberg Press), and A Routledge Companion to Indigenous Art Histories in Canada (Routledge).  Mattes has been beading since she was 20 years old, when she was first taught by her auntie Jean Baron Ward. Since then, she has taught beading and moccasin-making in workshops, university courses, and around her kitchen table with family and friends.