REGINA — It has been an active year so far for Regina’s Indigenous artist in residence, Jessie Ray Short.
Short, who has Métis, Ukrainian and German background, is an artist and a filmmaker and is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Regina. She was selected through an application process for the Indigenous artist-in-residence role and is now about midway through her residency.
"Basically this gives me the opportunity to focus more fully on my project while the residency is happening to get some new artworks created," said Short.
For her project, Short says she proposed "writing a short film script and also making some art, like physical objects that will accompany that film script, sort of like the narrative themes of the script."
The short film script is inspired by Rugaru, which Short describes as "a story from Métis culture, and it’s about a shapeshifter being."
Short says the Rugaru "shapeshifts. Usually it’s like a wolf or a dog, it’s always a person, but sometimes it’s other animals, like a horse or a pig, or even other ones. So I’m working with this idea of kind of horror film and looking at this specific being from Métis stories."
"I’ve been checking out new materials, developing my story, and also I’ve done some research. I’ve gone down to Willow Bunch, which is where my Métis family is from originally, and talked to some elders there about my subject."
In addition, as part of the city project, Short says she is going to be making a sculpture, which is something new for her, but she said she is excited about it.
The plan is for a sculpture about a Rugaru being. "And then I’m going to make some kind of visual scenes of the film as I imagine them, but I’ll make them more like a print so that you can hang on the wall or something like that, in addition to the film script."
It has been an active few months so far for Short. According to a City of Regina news release, during the first months of her residency Short has hosted two community events, including a power glove crafting workshop on Aug. 23 and an open studio Aug. 27.
Short believes having the role as Indigenous artist in residence has drawn her closer to that Métis part of her background.
"It’s an important part of who I am for sure, because it’s all around me," said Short. "It’s right here in Regina. I have cousins here in Regina. My auntie, who passed, was here for a long time. It’s also nice to be able to go look at different historic communities that I know my family was in and have stories about. And of course, when you’re working with, say, Métis, my Métis ancestors and history more specifically, you learn more about that for sure."
She said she knows a fair bit about her Ukrainian side of the family as well. "And sometimes it’s really interesting to see where those cultures meet, because there’s different stories about people coming together for good or for bad, whatever the reasons are. So I think it gives me an expansive overview of my own history. And then just trying to see where I fit in the broader cultural landscape. It’s interesting to engage with."
Short spoke about how her background has shaped her art and her projects.
"I’m Métis and also Ukrainian and German. Those are all my grandparents. And I knew a lot about the Ukrainian and German side when I was growing up, and I didn’t know as much about Métis, which seemed strange to me because that’s where Métis people are from. So I started doing more research. My dad would tell me little stories and I would start looking into them. And I realized that it was just a really interesting and rich culture that has so much that I wanted to explore and understand. So that’s how I started working with these stories and these histories, these Métis histories."
Short spoke of her first film, which is going to be coming out in 2026.
"I’ve been working on it for a long time. It’s about Edouard Beaupré, the Willow Bunch Giant, who was my great-grandma’s brother."
A quick Google search reveals that Beaupré was a Canadian circus performer and a star in the Barnum and Bailey circus, as well as a professional wrestler and strongman. He was also one of the tallest men ever recorded, standing 8 feet 3 inches.
"And so I’m almost done a documentary about him. It’ll be the first time that a family-based documentary or any kind of work really about him will be coming out in a large release public format. And that’s how I reconnected with people in Willow Bunch and started to learn more from there. That was over 10 years ago. And the thing is, every story seems to feed the next."
With National Truth and Reconciliation Day coming up SaskToday asked Short what that day means for her.
"For me it's about just really engaging deeply with these histories that are part of my family," she said.
"Looking at what’s happened, historic events between Métis people, even Métis people and First Nations people, those interrelationships, they’re complex, they exist. They’re obviously part of who we are, but then also with settler Canadians, too. There’s a lot of complex histories there. So I like to look at all of that and I study historical events quite a lot in the work that I do. And at the same time, I also think that the truth is about acknowledging what has been, and what is. And trying to look at the vastness of stories that all Indigenous people have. And really what you hear maybe in the public generally is very surface, right? Like how can you know any culture, in a two second, two minute news clip or something like that. So I think a big part of it for me is uncovering these stories that exist and try to delve into them deeply and really get a sense of what they mean for people. And how they affected people, how they could affect people now. And then finding a forum or a format to present that publicly."
With the Rugaru, "a lot of people know about that character, that being, and a lot of people don’t. So I’m hoping that it’ll be an interesting way to engage new members of the public to learn more about that story."
As for the importance of City of Regina having the Indigenous artist-in-residence program, Short said it was a "really good opportunity for the artists who get it because you get some dedicated time and budget to help you develop work. And that’s not always possible, right? You have to work, you have a job, you’re doing other things.
"So it’s really nice to have the support to be able to develop new work. And then also from the other artists I know who’ve done this residency, everybody’s work is so different. And so that’s really cool too. You’re always going to get a new point of view and a totally new style of work. And it all contributes to, I think, the larger conversation between Indigenous artists and then artists more broadly."
