• Age: 18
• Grade: 12

Tired of reading negative and disparaging remarks directed at Indigenous people of Winnipeg in the press and social media, artist KC Adams created a photo series that presented another perspective. Called “Perception Photo Series,” it confronted common stereotypes of First Nation, Inuit and Métis people to illustrate a more contemporary truthful story. First appearing on billboards, in storefronts, in bus shelters, and projected onto Winnipeg’s downtown buildings, Adams’s stunning photographs now appear in the book, Perception: A Photo Series. Meant to challenge the culture of apathy and willful ignorance about Indigenous issues, Adams hopes to unite readers in the fight against prejudice of all kinds.

Perception is one title in The Debwe Series.

KC Adams (she/her/hers) is a Cree/Ojibway/British Winnipeg-based artist who graduated from Concordia University with a B.F.A in studio arts.  Adams has had several solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and was included in the PHOTOQUAI: Biennale des images du monde in Paris, France. KC has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre, the Confederation Art Centre in Charlottetown, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Parramatta Arts Gallery in Australia. Adams has received several grants and awards from Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts. KC’s work is in many permanent collections Nationally and Internationally.  Twenty pieces from the Cyborg Hybrid series are in the permanent collection of the National Art Gallery in Ottawa and from the installation Birch Bark Ltd, four trees are in the collection of the Canadian Consulate of Australia, NSW. Adams was the set designer for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation. Adams has designed public art sculptures for the Winnipeg Forks South Point Project and the United Way of Winnipeg called Community. Adams have been teaching about Indigenous pottery and learning from elders at the annual nibi (water) gathering at Whiteshell Provincial Park. KC recently won the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making A Mark Award and the Aboriginal Circle of Educator’s Trailblazing Award.  She is an instructor in Visual and Aboriginal Art at Brandon University.

K.C. Adams' profile page

KATHERENA VERMETTE is a Métis writer from Treaty One territory, the heart of the Métis nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her first book, North End Love Songs (The Muses Company), won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. Her National Film Board short documentary, this river, won the Coup de Coeur award at the Montreal First Peoples Festival and a Canadian Screen Award.

Her first novel, The Break, was a national bestseller and won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award; the Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Young Adult Literature; and three Manitoba Book Awards. It was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and CBC’s Canada Reads. She is also the author of the children’s picture book series The Seven Teaching Stories and recently published the first book, Pemmican Wars, in the young adult book series A Girl Called Echo. Ms. Vermette’s second book of poetry, river woman, is forthcoming in the fall of 2018 from House of Anansi Press.

katherena vermette's profile page

Cathy Mattes' profile page

• Nominated, SOLS First Nations Communities READ
• Short-listed, Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award / Prix Littéraire Carol-Shields De La Ville De Winnipeg
• Short-listed, McNally Robinson Book of the Year
• Short-listed, Eileen Mctavish Sykes Award for First Book

Selected for the Outstanding 2020 International Books List

The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY)

KC Adams' Perception series challenges us to bridge thought and reality; emerging on the other side better having challenged ourselves to see Indigenous peoples for what they really are. We are grandparents, parents, children - and everything in between. As Adams shows through this incredible exhibition of faces and feelings, we are beautiful, whole, and complex peoples irreducible to stereotypes and slander.

Romeo Saganash, MP for Quebec (2011-2019), lawyer

Indeed, the potential lasting impact of this collection can’t be underestimated; this is socially engaged art at its best.

Kirkus Reviews

Perception is an impressive collection...an inside look into a living legend’s photography practice (I say this in no uncertain terms) and, more importantly, as Adams intended, a reminder to look past the hurt in search of a love that can bring us all home.

Lindsay Nixon, editor-at-large for Canadian Art, award-winning author of nîtisânak

KC Adams's Perception series absolutely captured the most devastating perceptions from the colonial mind, and the accompanying lack of knowledge about the truth of Canada's historical relationship to Indigenous Peoples. Succinctly and beautifully, KC transformed that narrative in this series. It is a prolific piece which will always be a source of inspiration for truth and reconciliation. It is unforgettable. Kichi miigwetch KC Adams!

Tina Keeper, award-winning actor/producer