The 2025 Bonavista Biennale, String Games, curated by IAF Board President Heather Igloliorte in collaboration with Rose Bouthillier, the Biennale’s Artistic Director, brings together a variety of exciting works by artists and collectives from Canada and abroad, including works by several Inuit artists. A special exhibition within the Biennale, Stitches We Share: From Grandmothers’ Hands to Ours, has a compelling intergenerational aspect to it: the show features works by renowned Nunatsiavut textile artists Sarah Baikie, Andrea Flowers (1934–2019) and Nellie Winters LLD (hc), and it was curated by their respective granddaughters: Ella Jacque, Vanessa Flowers and Jessica Winters.
On view at the Union House Arts in Port Union, NL, from August 16–September 14, the exhibition displays select works from each artist, including detailed embroidery, intricate grasswork and finely made traditional clothing—but it also demonstrates the role women have held and continue to hold in Nunatsiavut communities as matriarchs and Knowledge Keepers. In the following conversation with the Inuit Art Quarterly, the co-curators share their experience working on this familial exhibition.
IAQ: What is the significance of intergenerational knowledge sharing to you, your artmaking and/or this exhibition?
Ella Jacque: For me, it's significant on a cultural level—like the passing down of knowledge and keeping tradition alive—but it's more significant to me on a personal level: between myself, my mom and my gram and the way that they taught me how to sew grasswork and the relationship that we created through that. The significance is more so to strengthen the connection between us through culture and the land.
Jessica Winters: It’s as normal as getting up to have breakfast to ask, “Hey, Mom, what are you working on? Why? How do you do it?” But thinking about it deeper, I get really bad anxiety sometimes thinking: there's so much my grandma knows that I don't know yet. And all these skills that she learned from her grandma and she learned from her grandma. There's only a handful of people that know how to do these things the traditional way anymore, so having the opportunity to sit with my grandma and my mom and learn is a huge responsibility. I think the show is not only about strengthening these matriarchal relationships that we have with our moms and our grandmas but also this responsibility to carry on tradition and knowledge of being an artist and craft maker.
Vanessa Flowers: Yes, I feel the same. It's so important, us three being artists ourselves, to learn all we can from our grandmothers and to pass on their knowledge through us. It's a little bit different for myself because my grandmother passed away. I learned as much as I could from her when she was still alive, and I'm happy with what I did learn, but after anybody passes, you think: I wish I had learned more. So, I'm taking what I did learn and I'm passing it on to other family members and friends and communities. I feel a big responsibility, too, but it means a lot—our grandmothers made us who we are as artists and people.
Installation view of Stitches We Share: From Grandmothers’ Hands to Ours, with Sarah Baikie’s grasswork foregrounded, Port Union, 2025
IAQ: What were your goals for the exhibition? What did you keep having to think about?
JW: My grandma has been featured in exhibitions in the past, but sometimes only one of her pieces was in the show. I wanted to make sure that you could really see the range she has as an artist. I kept thinking, how do I give her the moment in a gallery that she deserves?
EJ: I feel the same way with my gram, so my biggest goal was to make sure that she was able to choose which pieces she wanted and which ones she was most proud of. I wanted to make everything behind the scenes a bit easier, while still showcasing who she is and the versatility in her work. I was thinking, what would she want? and what would make her happy with the way that I'm doing it right now?
VF: Because nan's not here with us anymore, I had to think: which pieces would she like to have in the exhibition? It wasn't a hard choice to pick items because I was very limited to the items that I could find—most just came from our family, but kamiit wear out over time, so I had to find ones that were in decent shape. I kept thinking, I want to showcase her best work and what she was known for. I wanted to show some pieces that were made back in the ’80s and ’90s, and her last pair of boots, and everything in between—from different sizes and styles.
Installation view of Stitches We Share: From Grandmothers’ Hands to Ours, featuring Vanessa’s mitts (2000) by Andrea Flowers, Port Union, 2025
IAQ: What’s it like curating artwork made by someone related to you?
JW: I thought it was great because I knew all her work. I knew where it was, I knew who owned it, so the behind-the-scenes part of the process was a lot easier than past exhibitions I've done.
EJ: I can't compare it to curating an exhibit of someone not related to me because I've never done it before, but I feel like a lot more heart goes into it when it's a person that you love and a person whose artwork you cherish. Our grandmothers all knew each other and they have all been Knowledge Keepers and trailblazers in their community, but they were all connected as well, emotionally, culturally and spiritually, and I think that made it really special.
VF: I also can't speak on other experiences, but because I know each piece—who owned it, where it came from, when Nan made it, who she made it for—I don't feel any anxiety about discussing them during the Biennale. If anybody has any questions, I can answer them.
Installation view of Stitches We Share: From Grandmothers’ Hands to Ours, featuring dolls, embroidery and a painting by Nellie Winters, Port Union, 2025
IAQ: What motivated you or your grandmother to select some of the artworks?
JW: I was really excited to include the painting she did of Okak Bay, NL, where she's from, since everyone knows my gram for her crafts and sewing.
EJ: My gram made a list of ones she wanted to include, and the first couple pieces were the ones that she was most proud of and always really liked. She said to me, even if they were made in the ’80s, “I can still remember making it; I loved the process and I loved the outcome.”
VF: There were three works that I knew had to be included. The first was the pair of moosehide-bottom sealskin boots with beadwork that were featured in the SakKijâjuk exhibition, because they're brand new. The second was one of the last pairs that she made, but it was the first pair that myself and my sister, Veronica Flowers, helped her make. After she passed away, the owner sold them back to me. And the third was a pair of moosehide-bottom boots which were the ones that she always wore. They are not within the exhibition because she didn't do the beadwork, but I'll be wearing them when I’m at the Biennale.
IAQ: Were there teachings, principles or cultural influences you wanted to bring to the show?
EJ: My gram always taught me the value of making artwork more so than the end product. I feel like, even though the end product is what you’re seeing, the process of making it is a part of the art—and it's that part I value the most.
JW: For me, it was stressing the importance of matriarchs. I feel like that's culturally specific for a lot of Inuit; the women in our families are the backbone, and they do all this work and labour and loving. It was important for me to weave that through the show, but then also show the technical ability and expertise of these women, and give them a platform that they deserve to show their work.
VF: I wanted to showcase that, yes, this is my grandmother's art, but it was something she had to do to keep her family warm. This was her job. She cooked, she cleaned, she cared for the kids; she had to make mitts, boots and coats for them. I want people to see that this is more than art, this was our grandmothers’ lives; how they made a living and what they had to do to raise their families in Labrador.
Installation view of Stitches We Share: From Grandmothers’ Hands to Ours, featuring kamiit by Andrea Flowers, Port Union, 2025
IAQ: How do you expect people might feel after seeing the show? Was there a kind of mood you wanted to evoke?
EJ: We really tried to embody sitting in our grandmother's houses as we would on a normal day with the music and vibes. It’s specific to us but also universal to a lot of Inuit—like Jessica said the women in our lives are so important, and our grandmothers are such beacons in our families.
VF: We made a soundtrack of audio clips from OKâlaKatiget (the local radio station) for the exhibition, because we would always hear the radio station playing in the background when we would visit our grandmothers back home: hymns, weather announcements, ’80s rock music. We think the soundtrack will really bring the exhibition to life, and make it feel welcoming, homey.
JW: We want to show that these works are a labour of love and evoke this feeling of being nurtured, both creatively, but also in life.
VF: I also hope people gain a greater understanding of who we are and where we came from, and a deep respect. We have a deep respect for our grandmothers, our communities, our Elders and Nunatsiavut as a whole, and I hope people feel that too.
Installation view of Stitches We Share: From Grandmothers’ Hands to Ours, Port Union, 2025
IAQ: How would you summarize this show in a few words?
JW: Warm, intricate and, for me, homey or familiar. But for the audience, welcoming.
EJ: Love.
VF: I was going to say love as well, and honour and respect.
IAQ: What’s one thing people should know about the exhibition?
VF: That these practices are living things; we still do them. The three of us are artists ourselves, and these are our grandmothers, and we're still passing these practices on. So this is not something from the past; this is what we do today. I’ll need all of the boots on display back for the winter, because those are my boots and my brother's, my mom's, and Ross's boots, and we all need them for the winter, so it's very much living and it's very much alive.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and condensed.