Ode’imini-giizis: Strawberry Moon
Antoinette Baxter, Hazel Baxter, Denise Baxter, and Albany Sutherland

Opening Reception: Friday, June 5th, 7-9pm

Ode’imini-giizis: Strawberry Moon brings together the work of four generations of women through intergenerational knowledge. Ode’imini-giizis refers to the month of June which is when the first berry of the year ripens. The strawberry means heart berry in Anishinaabemowin, which reflects its teachings of love. 

Ode’imini-giizis features the work of four artists: the late Antoinette Baxter, Hazel Baxter, Denise Baxter, and Albany Sutherland. These four generations of women are connected through family ties and to the Albany River. Their work highlights generations of knowledge passed down through story and ceremony. 

In Anishinaabe culture, matriarchal lineage plays a central role in the transmission of teachings and responsibilities. This exhibition is a reflection of that ongoing transfer of love, memory, and cultural continuity. It honours the labour of women and highlights the value of artistry that has been under-acknowledged. 

Antoinette’s work features home-tanned mitts and moccasins with beaded woodland floral patterns. Hazel shares a strawberry-themed quilt to honour the first harvest of the season. Denise presents home-tanned hides made in collaboration with her community and students, honouring collective knowledge and the act of returning to land-based practices. Albany presents a collection of mixed media works developed ten years after completing her Berry Fast. Ode’imini-giizis explores how these artistic practices serve as a means for intergenerational knowledge and sharing. 

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Albany Sutherland (she/her) is an artist and curator based in Hamilton, ON and a member of Marten Falls First Nation in Treaty 9 territory. She brings a community-centered and relational approach to her work, grounded in storytelling and land-based knowledge.
She creates hand-cut and digital collages sourced from books, magazines, and photographs from the 1920s to the 2000s. Albany uses surreal landscapes to express her connection to the Land. She was the Artist-in-Residence at Hamilton Artists Inc. in 2025, where she completed a solo show and artist talk.
Her curatorial projects include Gikinoo’amaatowin - This Is All Learning at Art Gallery of Burlington, Radical Transformations and Conversation Pit at 486 Barton Gallery, and Fantasia and Reality Check at B-Side Gallery. Her research explores traditional plants and medicines, with a focus on their role in Indigenous food sovereignty. She examines the intersection of traditional knowledge and contemporary art to amplify and celebrate Indigenous voices.

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Denise Baxter (she/her) has served as Vice Provost of Indigenous Initiatives at Lakehead University since 2017.  She also teaches in the Department of Indigenous Learning and previously in the Department of Continuing Education. As an established education leader, Denise has worked in multiple contexts including public school boards, the Ministry of Education, Lakehead University, and First Nations private schools for the past 33 years. Within each of these contexts, she has built capacity and partnerships with multiple community stakeholders. Her work with the community has involved education conferences, workshop presentations, research, and capacity building with educators in First Nations schools.
As a member of Marten Falls First Nation, she continues to preserve and practice cultural traditions and ceremony that keeps her connected to the community, Indigenous cultures, traditions, and protocols. She works to establish networks, strengthen relationships with Indigenous communities and governments, and build capacity between Indigenous, public, and private partners which have supported multiple initiatives that advance educational outcomes for Indigenous students.

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Hazel Baxter is a quilter, gardener, retired nurse, mother, and grandmother. In 1955, at the age of 10, she started to sew the tops for quilts on a treadle sewing machine. She later returned to quilting in 1994, when being treated for breast cancer, where she took a quilting course using a wide ruler and rotary cutter. She started with a sampler quilt and progressed to queen-sized quilts using hand quilting techniques. In 1997, she studied to be a Master Gardener, taking the course from Guelph University. For 22 years, she volunteered providing information and advice to community members. During these years, she started a garden club at two elementary schools, teaching students about seed saving, planting, gathering food, cooking, relationships with the Land, including native plants, birds and insects. For 48 years, she worked as a registered nurse in the operating room, caring for people during traumatic times in their lives.

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Antoinette Baxter (1919-2016) was the eldest of 5 children born to Jacob and Maggie Achneepineskum on Pym Island on the Attawapiskat River. Antoinette was a formidable trapper, beginning at the age of 9 years when she accompanied her father on the family trap line. 
Antoinette was a master hide tanner and beader who made snowshoes, moccasins, mitts, vests, and more. She snared rabbits herself that were used in her work. A pair of her hand tanned, beaded moccasins were presented to Pope John Paul II. 
Antoinette married John Baxter in 1937 and together they raised 11 kids on Washi Lake on the Albany River. They lived on and from the Land until they returned later in life to their home community of Marten Falls. Together, they fished sturgeon commercially that went from Thunder Bay to New York City. In 2002, Antoinette and John moved to Thunder Bay, where they lived for 14 years before she passed.