The Aunty Collective is a lək̓ʷəŋən territory-based business which centres Indigenous Peoples and artists who seek a space to create and connect.
The Collective was launched by three Indigenous makers, Sarah Rhude, who belongs to the Mi’kmaq Nation; Alysha Brown, who is of the Swampy Cree Peoples; and Megan Whonnock, who is from the Dene First Nation.
Rhude says the genesis of Aunty Collective stemmed from their active participation in selling art and exploring creative endeavours in their own time while working a day job rooted in colonial systems.
“Off the side of our desks we’re doing Indigenous creative practices, like we always do, and then during COVID we got a little bit of a grant in order to make a website,” Rhude told Victoria Buzz.
“At that time I went back to school and did my masters and what came out of that was, for me personally, I wanted to reframe my relationship with the systems I was working in, because they weren’t working for me or our Peoples.”
As a result, Rhude said she and her collaborators decided it best to still work within those systems but do their own thing.
Back in October 2023, Aunty Collective was able to attain a space in Rock Bay, just above Wheelies Motorcycles and now they have over 40 members from throughout Vancouver Island and beyond.
This is a special place to be located because of its significant cultural importance to the Coast Salish Peoples.
“This spot where Aunty Collective is, this is the place where when visitors would come in canoes, they would be sent here to camp and practise our ways of being—so Rock Bay or Matullia Lands, its where we would be sent,” said Rhude
“It’s the perfect place for us to be able to carry on that beautiful tradition of where visitors go.”
Inside the Aunty Collective space is a shop which sells art supplies as well as the products and creations of numerous community members on consignment.
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Additionally, they have the Aunty Collective Indigenous Creative Practice Gallery.
“In this gallery, we centre voices that are often made invisible within the arts sector or within colonial systems, so we centre Two Spirit, LGBTQIA+, women and youth in particular,” explained Rhude.
“But everyone’s welcome—all Indigenous artists of course, as long as they uphold that.”
Lastly, the Aunty Collective space features a workshop space where various arts-centred education workshops take place, for which all are welcome. Some examples of these workshops are drum making, moccasin making, professional development, beading, medicine making, and several other forms of Indigenous creative practices.
Rhude says for those looking to hire them as a resource for professional development, she usually recommends they just come down to one of the workshops, because for them, the easiest and most authentic way to teach is through making.
The workshop space also features a community table, which members of the collective or Indigenous community members have access to in order to work in a space that feels safe.
“Many of us are not from here and we’re away from our territories, or waters, our laws, so it’s a space where we can come and gather,” she said.
At the end of the day, the goal of the Aunty Collective is to create their own framework for a safe space to create and lift each other up in the process.
“Essentially, what we are trying to do is do the things that’s within the arts’ sector, but in our own way,” said Rhude.
“In a way that our community’s elevated, Indigenous ways are elevated, creative practices are elevated because… to be perfectly honest some of us don’t feel comfortable within that sector or we’re not seen in that sector.”
Members of the Aunty Collective
Currently, Molly Long, a Métis, multi-discipline artist is featured in the Aunty Collective Indigenous Creative Practice Gallery and she also tattoos out of the space.
“I’ve been tattooing since the beginning, since November,” Long explained. “It’s just a really special and supportive space to give those offerings.”
Long says she feels uplifted and supported in the space and loves the camaraderie between the members, guests and volunteers.
“When I finish a tattoo, the person comes out here and everyone freaks out, the support is just so beautiful and built in, in that way. It’s also just nice and really accessible for me as a young mom,” she added.
She is the fourth artist to be featured in the gallery space and her art will remain there until the Aunty Collective’s space celebrates its anniversary in October.
The anniversary show will feature collaborations between different artists and members of the collective.
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Another member of the Aunty Gollective, G Jules, a member of the Simpcw First Nation, came to find connection with their culture through Aunty Collective.
“A lot of my culture, I’ve been so disconnected, and I’ve only been reconnecting in the last few years and everything I’ve learned from culture has started and ended here,” Jules told Victoria Buzz.
He continued, saying that for someone who is urban-Indigenous and has been away from their family and territorial lands, the Aunty Collective space is a special place to learn, grow and be.
“Not having to explain myself or who I am as a disconnected Two Spirit person, I don’t have to explain what that means, I can just be here and exist,” Jules concluded
Future of Aunty Collective
Aunty Collective will be setting up pop-ups at both the Rifflandia Festival and the South Island Powwow this year.
Rhude also says that they are beginning to get more markets and events worked out. As of this publication she is excited to be able to invite anyone who wants to, to show up for a drop-in drum making workshop held on the last Monday of every month from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Lastly, when asked what the future holds for Aunty Collective, Rhude says she is most excited to see what the gallery space can do and how it will grow.
“It’s in the works to be in contact with other Two Spirit, Indigo-queer curators from across Turtle Island, and just Indigenous galleries,” they said.
“To be able to just talk to each other and be like, ‘how can we lift each other up and create our own way of networking and creating commerce,’ helping Indigenous people make money within our own art world where we’re taken seriously, we’re valued and our voices are held up.”
Check out the Aunty Collective next time you are in the area! You won’t be disappointed.
