
Jordan Bennett
February 11, 2022

Jordan Bennett lives and works on his ancestral territory of Mi’kma’ki in Terence Bay, Nova Scotia.
He explores land, language, and familial histories in his art to challenge colonial perceptions of Indigenous histories.
His signature style consists of elaborate patterns and bold colors that are rooted in a deep history of Mi’kmaq porcupine quillwork. Over the years he has studied and acquired these cultural objects. Today, Bennett connects with his ancestral visual language, remembering and reimagining our relations to each other, to our histories, and with the land.
For generations, Indigenous peoples have measured the year by a lunar cycle of 13 full moons, which are visible every 28 days over the course of the 365 days that make up a year. In 13 Moons: Full Suite, each circular print represents one of the moons in the Mi’kmaq year. The Mi’kmaq lunar cycle begins in Siwkewikús (March), the forerunner of spring, and ends in Apunknajit (February), the snow-blinding month. The names of the full moons vary from tribe to tribe and from region to region, since each full moon was known by whichever natural resources were most abundant at that time. Bennett’s prints capture time and changing seasons, as well as ancestral knowledge of stewarding and sustaining the land as it is portrayed in Mi’kmaq visual culture. Bennett’s 13 Moons: Full Suite visualize, mark, and address such annual Mi’kmaq traditions.













Jordan Bennett (Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland), Mi’kma’ki, born 1986), 13 Moons: Full Suite, 2020, giclée print on rag paper, 24 x 24 inches. Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Museum purchase with support from the Contemporary Art Fund, 2021.13.1–13. © Jordan Bennett. Photography by Luc Demers
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