b'ART & MEDIAARTJORDAN BENNETTJordan Bennett is a Mikmaq visual artist who was recently awarded $25,000 from the annual 2020 Sobey Art Award, the most prestigious contemporary art prize in Canada. He was also shortlisted for the 2018 Sobey Art Award and longlisted for the 2016 and 2015 Sobey Art Awards. Bennett received a Hnatyshan Foundation REVEAL award and was presented with the 2014 Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Councils Artist ofthe Year.Originally from Stephenville Crossing, Ktaqamkuk (Newfoundland), Bennett lives and works on his ancestral territory of Mikmaki in Terence Bay, Nova Scotia. His works have used painting, sculpture, video and more to challenge colonial perceptions of Indigenous histories and presence, with a focus on exploring Mikmaq and Beothuk visual culture of Ktaqamkuk. Q&A WITH MICHELLE GOODMichelle Good is a Cree writer and lawyer from Red Pheasant Cree Nation. She has a law degree and Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia. Good is a long-time advocate for residential school survivors. Though she didnt go to a residential school herself, she has been surrounded by survivors all her life, which has given her a heightened awareness of the topic. In her debut novel, Five Little Indians, she chronicles, with insight and compassion, the desperate quest of five residential school survivors as they come to terms with their past and ultimately find a way forward. Prior to her writing and publishing her first novel, Good also contributed shorter works to a variety of poetry and nonfiction collections. She is currently working on her second book.AFN: What was the inspiration for your new book?Michelle Good (MG): I worked in the area of advocating for residential school survivors for many, many years. It became painfully clear to me that a significant response from Canadians generally was, This was a long time ago, why cant people just get over it? I felt that by responding through the creation of a story that illustrates the profound impact of these schools, people might be more open to understanding and compassion.AFN: What are your literary goals for the future?MG: I hope to continue creating works that confront history as we know it and provide a unique and Indigenous perspective on events that have shaped the formation of this country and the reality of being Indigenous in Canada.AFN: Would you rather be invisible or time-travel, and why?MG: I would definitely choose time travel, so I could go back to critical times in Indigenous history and then be able to come back to modern times and to reflect on them in a meaningful way.AFN: What was the best advice you ever received on writing?MG: To be true to my voice and to read, read, read! Theres nothing like reading brilliant authors to inspire your own voice.AFN: What are you working on next?MG: Im working on a novel that confronts history around the time of the Cree and Metis resistance in what was then the Northwest Territories, but what we now know as Saskatchewan and Alberta. It will be historical fiction, loosely based on the stories of the lives of my mother and great-grandmother.84 The Circle Winter Issue 1 2020'