Image © Ayumi Goto, in sonours shadows of nishiyuu. Photo Ashok Mathur.

Canada

Ayumi Goto is a performance apprentice, currently based in Toronto, traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Huron-Wendat, Anishinaabe, and Missisaugas of the Credit First Nations. Born in Canada, she identifies as Japanese-diasporic and often draws upon her cultural heritage and language to creatively challenge sedimented notions of nation-building, cultural belonging, and activism. Inspired by collaborative work, she also explores inbetweeness, land-human relations, and (beyond) space-time beingness. She has served as the art facilitator at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre in Vancouver, Traditional Coast Salish Territories. Ayumi has performed in London, England, Berlin, Germany, Naha, Okinawa, Kyoto, Japan, and within and outside of artistic institutions across this land currently called Canada. Ayumi has a Ph.D. in Communication Studies at Simon Fraser University. In her thesis, she investigated and presented a practice-based sense of collective responsibility and creative critiques of reconciliation through forming a personalized performance art training in response to the art works and lives of Cree Métis multi-media artist, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Siksika interdisciplinary artist, Adrian Stimson, and Tahltan performance artist, object maker and best friend, Peter Morin. Ayumi is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto.