TJ: Medicine Bundle

Weaving together family narratives and current thoughts on the pandemic, the ethics of representation, and the nature of the sacred, TJ Cuthand discusses a medicine bundle which was used to heal the artist’s great-great-grandfather from a Gatling gunshot wound in 1885, and his grandfather from the Spanish flu in 1918. In this film, Cuthand reflects on the ways that the bear cub spirit contained within the since-buried bundle has continued to protect him and his family from the trauma and diseases brought on by colonization.

TJ Jean Cuthand (she/they) was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1978, and grew up in Saskatoon. Since 1995, he has been making short experimental narrative videos and films about sexuality, madness, Queer identity and love, and Indigeneity, which have screened in festivals internationally, including the Tribeca Film Festival (New York City), Mix Brasil Festival of Sexual Diversity (São Paulo), ImagineNATIVE (Toronto) Ann Arbour Film Festival, Images (Toronto) Berlinale (Berlin), and Oberhausen International Short Film Festival. Cuthand’s work has also been presented at galleries including the Remai Modern (Saskatoon), the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), and the 2019 Whitney Biennial (New York City). Cuthand is also a performance artist who has presented work at LIVE (Vancouver), 7a*11d (Toronto) and Performatorium (Regina). The recipient of numerous awards, commissions, and residencies, Cuthand completed his BFA in Film and Video at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2005, and his MA in Media Production at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2015.  He is of Plains Cree and Scots descent, a member of Little Pine First Nation, and currently resides in Toronto, Canada.