Education
2002 Doctor of Philosophy. Native American (Indigenous, First Nations) Studies, Painting. University of California, DavisDissertation: One Mother Earth, One Doctor Water: Environmental Justice in the Age of Nuclearism. A Native American View
1988 Master of Arts. Native American Art History, Museology, Painting. University of Washington, SeattleThesis: Stories, The Sea and the People: the Manifestation of Whaling Magic, Anatomy, and Ritual in the Bentwood Hunting Helmet of the Aleut.
Biography
annie ross (Maya) is a Professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies at Simon Fraser University. Daughter of a strong traditional Maya mother and auntie and WWII veteran storyteller father (Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia). Began education at home with plants, animals, art, Indigenous hand work, storytelling, and history in Compton, California, from parents dispossessed of their traditional lands.
Developed and taught courses focusing on rights and title, environmental justice, and testimonio as a means to remedy from past political oppressions; Indigenous art histories, technologies/studio/craft, weaving, poetry and poetics, and printmaking as part of a panoply, a canon, of what we mean when we say Indigenous Bioregionalisms.
Exhibitions
2022 ross, annie. land love land defense. Massey Arts, Vancouver.
2017 ross, annie. land, land, forever. from O K’inadas UBC Kelowna artist residency (2016). Studio 111 Gallery, Kelowna
2016 ross, annie. Heroes/ Ghosts solo artist painting exhibition. Gorman Museum, University of California.
2008 ross, annie. Sasquatch Held in the Basket of Memory . Blackberry Gallery, Port Moody.
2008 ross, annie. Deer Grandmother Give-away . Blackberry Gallery, Port Moody.
Exhibitions, stand-alone installation pieces
2014-16 ross, annie. Little Red Goes Home .Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Reconciliation Canada. SFU Halpern Center, SFU Harbour Center, February - March, 2014
2012 ross, annie. Forest One. The Grand Hall, the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), University of British Columbia (UBC).
2011 ross, annie. Forest One. The Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, Washington.
2011-p ross, annie. Rain Snow Mountain Hu(man). Skwxwu7mesh Lilwat7ul, Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Center, Whistler, B. C. (permanent display)
2011-p ross, annie. Medicine Man, Crown of Thorns. Skwxwu7mesh Lilwat7ul, Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Center, Whistler, B. C. (permanent display)
Exhibition Catalogues (solo exhibitions)
2016 Heroes/Ghosts. Solo exhibition catalogue of art series by same name (38 separate paintings in series, 20 published here). Gorman Museum, University of California, Davis.
Exhibition Catalogues (group exhibitions)
2020 ross, annie. “re-sanctify. (reconciliation is remediation)”. Personal and Material geographies: An Exhibit of Contemporary Craft. Craft Council of British Columbia. Vancouver.
2007 Cascade Print Exchange. Group exhibition, catalogue of prints (1 print), University of Oregon, Eugene.
2007 6th Annual Lessedra World Print Show, and Festival of Contemporary World Printmaking Art. Sofia, Bulgaria. http://www.lessedra.com/archive.php?d=2007&w=artists
Publications
Books
2022 ross, annie. some people fall in the lodge and then eat berries all winter (poems and print series). Talon Press, Vancouver.
2019 ross, annie. pots and other living beings (paired photographs with prose/poems). Talon Press, Vancouver.
Book Chapter
2021 ross, annie. Don’t Cry, Fight! vs. Deference to the Corporate State. Abrogation of Indigenous Rights and Tile, Civil Rights, and Social and Environmental Justice at the Imperialist University. Coloniality and Racial (In)Justice in the Canadian University. Dr. Sunera Thobani, editor. University of Toronto Press.
Publications (refereed articles)
2019 ross, annie. Indigenous Bioregionalisms (love Mother Earth): Relationship, Creation, Ethics, Love. The Canadian Geographer. 63 (4); p. 553-572.
2013 ross, annie (with Albert Smith). “Our Mother Earth is my Purpose”: Recollections From A Navajo Code Talker, Mr. Albert Smith, Na’ashq’ii dich’izhii” (21 pages), American Indian Culture and Research Journal, volume 37, no. 1 (2013). University of California, Los Angeles.
2010 ross, annie (with Chepximiya Siyam’ Chief Janice George and Skwetsimeltx Willard Joseph). “L’hen Awtxw: A Squamish Weaving House”. American Indian Art Magazine, Spring, 2010.
2003 ross, annie. Meditation and the Passing of Time: Recent Paintings by Harry Fonseca. “Continuum 12 Artist Series,” National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (Juried by a panel of experts in Native American modern art, by invitation).
Publications: Fine Art Prints (by invitation)
2007 ross, annie. Pray and Give Thanks to Water. In chapter Water, a handmade limited-edition book of fine art prints, with Joe Feddersen, editor and master printmaker, Olympia, Washington.
Publications: Paintings
2018 ross, annie. Magpie (‘Gossip’ is Democracy). Painting, oil on canvas. Cover art for Migration Songs, edited by Stephen Collis, Lorna Crozier, and Kurt Trzcinski. Nose in Book Publishing, Castlegar, BC. Launched at International Ornithological Congress, 2018.
Publications: Poems (juried)
2022 ross, annie with Catriona Strang. ‘f variations’. Capilano Review. Vancouver.
2019 ross, annie. “no, not that one”. Salt Chuck Review. Vancouver.
2018 ross, annie. ‘on gathering tree roots’. EVENT Magazine. Winter, 2018. Vancouver.
2017 ross, annie. ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘what a prayer looks like’, and ‘pottery and other beings’. Capilano Review. Issue 3.3 (Fall, November 2017). Vancouver.
2017 ross, annie. ‘flower headband’, and ‘land is more than land’. Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review. 230/231. Indigenous Literature and the Arts of Community. Autumn/Winter 2016 (dated 2016), published September, 2017). The University of British Columbia.
2017 ross, annie. ‘wild, sacred, good’. Rachel Rose, (Editor). Sustenance (anthology). Anvil Press. October, 2017.
2017 ross, annie. ‘boxcars, paper plates”. The Maynard, Vancouver. Spring, 2017. http://www.themaynard.org/Vol10No1/boxcarspaperplates.php
2015 ross, annie. “revenge/reincarnation”. The Maynard, Vancouver. Fall, 2015. http://www.themaynard.org/Vol8No2/revengereincarnation.php
2014 ross, annie. “sun atomic wake up (call)” in Yellow Medicine Review, Fall 2014, Tiffany Midge, editor. Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, Minnesota.
2014 ross, annie. “amulet”, and “all life is sacred” (poem/photo). Project Intersect Clarion Call, Issue I, (in print and internet version), inaugural issue, September 2014. Public launch at The National Museum of Animals and Society, Los Angeles, California.
2014 ross, annie. "it isn't/this". Quills Poetry Magazine. Volume X, Erotica. September 2014.
2012 ross, annie. “birthplace bear” and “corona mirror”. IQ5// Incongruous Quarterly. Issue 5, November 2012. http://incongruousquarterly.com/issue-5-contents/
2011 ross, annie. “seeds” and “LAX” (two poems) in Turtle Island to Abya Yala: Native American Women’s Poetry Anthology, Malinalli Press, California.
2011 ross, annie. “What Made Me, Here” (poem). Leaf Press (on-line version, Monday’s Poem competition). http://www.leafpress.ca/Mondays_Poems_2011/Annie-Ross/What-Made-Me-Here.html
2011 ross, annie. “Arms” (poem w/ images). YesPoetry Mag. http://yespoetry.com/ November, 2011.
2005 ross, annie. “Modernity.” Atlantis Magazine, Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia.
Publications; Community
2018 Open Letter to Justin Trudeau by Rita Wong, annie ross, Cecily Nicholson, Stephen Collis. Social Justice Center.
Work Adopted as texts in University Teaching
2019-20 ross, annie. Pots and Other Living Beings. Talon Press, Vancouver.
--- Simon Fraser University. Textbook. Professor Stephen Collis (Spring 2020); Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Cathy Stonehouse (Spring 2020); Indigenous Literature and the Environment. University of British Columbia. Professor Deena Rymhs (Fall 2019)
2016 ross, annie. light/dark (Se los Llevaron, Los queremos!), for Mauricio Ortega Valerio. History of Art & Visual Culture, University of California, Santa Cruz. Lorraine Affourtit, San Francisco State University.
2009 ross, annie. Happy Birthday Super Cheaper (visual art and prose series)
2019 Honors Seminar, University of British Columbia. Textbook, Professor Deena Rymhs (Fall 2019). English 476, University of British Columbia. Textbook for Indigenous Literature course, Professor Deena Rymhs (winter 2015, 2019)
Community Engaged Public Scholarship
The University to the People: Community Work (a small sample)
2019-p ross, annie, with Faith Childs Davis, Michaelyn Hawk. Artists, students, Montana Indian Reservations.
2019 Katzie First Nation Nettle official workshop.
2018 ross, annie, with Susan Russell (linguist, Barnston Island), Roma Leon, Siyamiyateliyot (Elizabeth Phillips), Leah Meunier, and other members of Katzie First Nation. Nettle, gathering, processing, weaving.
2017 ross, annie with Sarah Bainbridge and Cheakamus Center. Environmental Learning and Sustainability. Brackendale, B.C.
2016 ross, annie. Theory/Philosophy/Spirituality: Painting (a conversation series). With Kevin DeForest, Daniel Galant, other Indigenous painters. UBC Okanagan.
2016 ross, annie. Belonging to Land (a conversation series). SFU Philosopher’s Café. SFU Continuing Studies. Burnaby Public Library.
----- Dirt Philosophy and Feeding Bees: Transforming Relationship to Place Through Urban Gardens
----- Tar Sands: What Is the Spiritual Cost?
----- Painting: To What End?
----- Wild Salmon: What do we Mean, When we say Sacred?
----- Relatives or Resource: Whom Is for Sale?
2016 Beadwork, Identity, Loneliness. Guest teaching, Professor Hulleah Tsisnajinnie, University of California, Davis.
2016 Salmon Rivers. Poetry event honouring Sacred Wild Salmon. With Rachel Rose, Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, and many others
2016 Salmon. Organization for community project with Graham Hamilton, Splash (Aaron Nelson Moody), Xwalacktun (Rick Harry).
2015 Creative Action Lab. Creating community art action. With Rita Wong and others, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver.
2014-15 Elder Grandmothers. Creating circles with elders and community. With Linda Kaysaywaysemat, and others. Aboriginal Front Door, Friendship House, Vancouver.
2014-15 Coast Salish Weavers with weavers and MOA UBC, Vancouver.
2014-15 Star Quilts. Families of Missing and Murdered Women of Vancouver and Highway of Tears Memorial Star Quilt Project (making and teaching with family members of the Missing and Murdered for the annual MMW Memorial March). Vancouver Aboriginal Policing Center, with Lorelei Williams, Gertie Pierre, and many family members. August 2014 – February 2015.
2014 Coast Salish Weavers Gathering (November). Musqueam First Nation, BC.
2014 Tumpline weaving workshop. Lil’wat Nation, Mt. Currie Reserve, B.C.
2014 Four-Colored Ceremonial Shawls. Joseph Family Memorial. Capilano Reserve, Vancouver, BC.
2013 Hats, Baskets. George Family Memorial pole raising and ceremony, M Creek, B.C.
2013 -2014 Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Center and Cheakamus Centre, Sarah Bainbridge. topics: community art projects and grants.
2012 Writer’s Challenge (juried panel of indigenous writers/poets), with Joanne Arnott, Nicola Campbell, Wil George, January Rogers, Wanda Kehewin, Francine Burning, K. Roulette. Talking Stick Festival. The Clutch, Vancouver, B.C.
2011 Tree Constellation art installation with community members in Compton, Watts, and south central Los Angeles.
2009 Consultant (by invitation). First People’s Marketplace, (International Folklife Festival), Montana.
2008-10 Traditional practice, modern concerns, western methods. Heiltsuk Nation members, Bella Bella, B.C. (with Xanius Geetla Elroy White, Heiltsuk).
2007 Anishanabeg Aesthetics and Native American Art. Bemidji State University, Minnesota (with Professor Benjamin Burgess, Anishanabeg).
2006 The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington (with Joe Feddersen, Okanagan) (book projects, student print exchange).
Courses
Spring 2025
This instructor is currently not teaching any courses.