Jasmine Wemigwans, from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory and of mixed Ojibwe heritage, set aside art after attending Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts, studying English at Toronto Metropolitan University and working in administration instead. In her Master of Information at U of T, Associate Professor Jenna Hartel's course INF1323H introduced her to the 'Red Thread of Information,' a concept originated by Marcia Bates, and an Ontario Arts Council bursary funded the supplies to start painting again.
The result was a self-portrait in acrylics that remixes Leonardo da Vinci's Saint John the Baptist: her painted hand points to the red quadrant of a Medicine Wheel instead of a Christian cross, and the work includes an abalone shell, White Sage smoke with hidden ancestral faces, and a beaded dress. The work in progress was later used as an assignment in Professor Seamus Ross's Remix Culture course, INF2320H.
Since graduating, Wemigwans has worked at the Indigenous-led Technoscience Research Unit, developing an Indigenous data sovereignty protocol. "I hope it inspires other Indigenous folks to want to venture into information studies," she says.
Reported from Master of Information grad Jasmine Wemigwans' self-portrait, by Not stated (originally published by the Faculty of Information) (U of T Alumni News, February 11, 2026).
More from the original reporting: alumni.utoronto.ca/news/master-information-grad-jasmine-wemigwans-self-portrait