A call to consciousness

Integrating Indigenous ways of thinking and making in all their work, Professor Jay Havens offers audiences, colleagues and students opportunities to learn and reciprocate By Wendy Philpott Faculty of Arts Across their professional activities as artist, theatre designer, and University professor, Jay Havens creates welcoming channels for indigenization, reconciliation, and decolonization. Joining Waterloo's Department of Communication Arts in January 2023, Havens is a 2Spirit multi-media artist and educator and member of the Kanien'kehà:ka Bear Clan from Six Nations of the Grand River. Havens has created large scale artworks and interdisciplinary projects throughout Turtle Island and is a set and costume designer for professional stage companies. At a wampum ceremony on campus this spring Havens exemplified institutional decolonization when they presented their department with a wampum belt as a tangible reminder of their contract of "good-minded relationship" with the University of Waterloo. Decolonization on the international stage. More recently, Havens was one of five designers chosen to present inside Canada's pavilion at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial (PQ23) of Performance Design and Space, a prestigious international gathering of theatre designers. The installation entitled A Carrying Vessel features their work called The Redcoat emphasizing decolonization and opening space "for both traditional ways of knowing and the wisdom of newcomers to broaden the national discourse." For Havens, who first experienced PQ in 2007, this ten-day gathering is a unique, horizon-expanding opportunity for designer and student communities as well as international audiences.