Principle Investigator
Dr. Joshua Schwab Cartas is a mixed race Indigenous Binnizá-Austrian researcher, filmmaker, parent and language revitalization activist, with over 20 years of lived experience of working with Indigenous youth and Elders in his maternal grandfather’s community, as well as many other Indigenous communities in North America. He is also an Assistant Professor at NSCAD University in the division of Art History and contemporary culture, specifically teaching in the Masters of Art Education department. Schwab Cartas is a leading specialist in cellphilming, a participatory visual method that uses participants’ own cell phones and their everyday media making skills to address social and or community concerns. More specifically he developed a cellphilm method grounded in his ancestral binnizá epistemology to create a culturally responsive approach to researching language revitalization and cultural preservation. As a parent, Schwab Cartas alongside other Indigenous students, staff and faculty have collaboratively developed a series of culturally sustaining workshops celebrating Indigenous languages, foodways and culture from across Turtle Island. These initiatives are aimed at exploring how when arts are coupled with cultural practices can help Indigenous students feel more connected to their ancestral lifeways, such as languages, land based practices and traditional food practices. The ultimate goal of these workshops are to create events and spaces where Indigenous students feel they can be in community, while being heard, seen and represented on campus.
Land Connects Us 