Skawennati is a visionary pioneer of new media art. Her online work and her Machinimas explore the contemporary realities of Indigenous existence while also imagining how Indigenous people, their world views and cultures will guide them into the future.
Born on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka people, Skawennati’s family moved to the community of Châteauguay when she was three years old. She attended Concordia University and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in design in 1992, and received a Graduate Diploma in Institutional Administration (Art Specialization) in 1995. In 1994 she co-founded Nation to Nation, a collective of First Nations artists and community organisers. The collective was formed to create a forum for dialogue about First Nations art and to respond to the lack of opportunities for young Indigenous artists to exhibit their work. Nation to Nation curated exhibitions and organised events and workshops to achieve their goals.

Harnessing the potential of the internet by replicating the social function of the Pow Wow, Skawennati developed the CyberPowWow project (1996). From 1996 to 2004 she created a series of internet events in a virtual environment. Inviting artists to create avatars and digital artwork, she orchestrated virtual live art happenings in cyberspace. This project laid the groundwork for AbTeC (Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace). Co-founded and co-directed by Skawennati and Jason Edward Lewis, AbTeC is a research-creation project that supports artwork, workshops, residencies and exhibitions. With a focus on the future, one of AbTeC’s projects, the Skins Workshops, teaches Indigenous youth how to utilise digital media to tell stories from their communities.

Skawennati’s passion for science fiction and desire to create a place for Indigenous people in cyberspace is also reflected in her Machinimas. Constructed in the virtual reality environment of Second Life, Skawennati breathes new life into the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) oral traditions and history. These narratives take us back in time while propelling us light years into the future. Time Traveller (2007-2014), her first episodic series, follows the avatar, Hunter, a Kanien’kehá:ka warrior, living in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal in 2121. Groundbreaking for its imaginative portrayal of historical events from the perspective of an Indigenous participant, her other Machinima She Falls for Ages (2017) is a futurist retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story. These projects have generated different artistic outputs such as sculptures, still images, fashion and performative works.

In 2019 Skawennati’s inspired vision for cyberspace was recognised with an honorary PhD from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. That same year, she served as McGill University’s Indigenous Knowledge Holder. Her Machinimas received the Best New Media Award at ImagineNative in 2009 and 2013. In 2019 she co-founded daphne, the only Indigenous artist-run centre in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal.
Her work can be found in the National Gallery of Canada collections, the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Buffalo AKG Art Museum and the Thoma Foundation, Dallas.
In 2023, Skawennati resides in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal; she is the co-director AbTeC and Partnership Coordinator of the Initiative for Indigenous Futures at Concordia University