UWinnipeg’s Wild Strawberry Collective presents the exhibit, Reaching Toward Queer Wild Strawberry Entanglements, that runs until July 27, 2026, at Matter Queer Space Manitoba Inc., 433 Graham, in collaboration with the UWinnipeg greenhouse artlab.
This mixed-media exhibit explores varied relationships with the wild strawberry plant. The works shown in Reaching Toward Queer Wild Strawberry Entanglements are coming from a variety of perspectives, histories and “fields” of study.
Lily Gautron, Anna Hunter, Max Noonan, and Salem Roby are the UWinnipeg students who make up the collective with Dr. Crowe who are entangled together by art and the connection with the wild strawberry plant.
Learning from plants as a teacher and caring for plants as a loved one, we begin to remember our unity with nature and can begin to repair relationships with the land and each other.
Salem Roby
They are inspired by the wild strawberry, also known as Ode’imin, Ohtihimin, and Lii Frayz. These berry-producing beings survive and flourish through our harsh winters on the prairies. Ode’imin provides some of the earliest nectar for bumble, leafcutter, mason, carpenter and cuckoo bees and embody generosity, reaching out and strewing, setting out runners to find ground to establish new plants.
Roby, whose work is included in the exhibit, is in his final year of his Bachelor of Science degree in environmental science. Roby enjoyed exploring concepts that differ from his academic work in ecology, which is his specialization.
He was inspired by the incredible interdisciplinary artists and scholars who are part of the collective and the creative process that helped create the exhibit.
As an ecologist he sees no division between nature and humanity, “only one incredibly complex system.”
“Learning from plants as a teacher and caring for plants as a loved one, we begin to remember our unity with nature and can begin to repair relationships with the land and each other,” explained Roby.
Gautron, whose beadwork is part of the exhibit, is in their final year of her Bachelor of Arts in Women’s and Gender Studies. They were inspired by strawberry stories, ancestorial beadwork, and by the beadworkers in Gallery 1C03’s Beading Métis Resurgence exhibition.
“The wild strawberry is the heart berry – ode’imin – and the heart motif is central in my beaded wall pocket.”
Gautron studied ancestor Métis beaded wall pockets to create Pawatamihk dii frayz (dreaming of strawberries) which is reflected in their work for the exhibit.
Roby notes, “The work I have done with this collective has had a huge impact on how I think about how we teach and practice ecology, and I will carry and continue to develop these ideas in my future work.”
Visit the greenhouse artlab on Instagram for more info and gallery hours.
