Mary Ann Marangowi Manatcha
My language was lost with my grandmother,
all I learned was what she wanted us to know.
-
Nookmis’ Miinan (2025) Digital Print, ?”x?”
Biography
Mary Ann Maiangowi Manatch is an emerging Odawa (Wiikwemkoong) & Algonquin (Mitchikanibikok Inik) artist, a friend, and a protector of the earth. Practising on Anishinabeg territory alongside the land, Mary Ann specializes in birch bark work, brain hide tanning, and acrylic and oil paintings. Mary Ann’s work focuses on healing and ancestral knowledge pulling from her life experiences to create culturally significant pieces that help discuss Indigenous issues as well as Anishinabek pedagogies. She is an advocate for Land-Based Learning initiatives and the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge into education. Mary Ann also works closely with Anishinabek youth, allowing them to experience the land as she does.
Mary Ann holds a Fine Arts diploma from Centennial College. Mary Ann has been a three time participant with Ngig Indigenous Regalia Residency with OCADu and has also completed three traditional hide tanning camps with Niizh Manidook Hide Camp, and has assisted in facilitating a camp with Endaayaan Awejaa in 2022. In the summer of 2023, Mary Ann became a Youth Ambassador with the The Kickback Foundation and the Toronto Raptors.
Mary Ann is currently completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Indigenous Visual Culture at the Ontario College of Art and Design University.
Statement
After receiving Jennie Clark’s piece; we spoke about how much loss and grief have affected both of us and our art over the last few years. I created a piece of my sister (miinan) and my nookmis. My two best friends. My nookmis was a survivor but she wanted the best education for us. So filled with love, she was the clay I am made of.
My work is a photo print of my nookmis and sister, with the words “oh my nookmis, how I wish to speak my language with you” a play on bear fox’s song kanienkeha blues. Overlayed on photos of my smoked hides. It contains two of my favourite people, my nookmis who was a fluent speaker, and my sister, who for a long time was her favourite. Jennie spoke to me about how hard it was to create without her mom in the picture, I feel the same without my nookmis. I used broken Anishinaabemwn in the title to reflect how my language was lost with my grandmother, and all I learned was what she wanted us to know.
Miigwetch,
Mary Ann Maiangowi Manatch (kwe/they/she)