Sonny Assu (Ligwiłda’xw of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) was raised in North Delta, BC, over 250 km away from his ancestral home on Vancouver Island. Having been raised as your everyday, average suburbanite, it wasn’t until he was eight years old that he discovered his Liǥwildaʼx̱w/ Kwakwaka’wakw heritage. Later in life, this discovery would be the conceptual focal point of his contemporary art practice. His work is diverse, exploring multiple mediums and materials to negotiate Western and Kwakwaka’wakw principles of art making. His work often explores his family history as a way to shed light on Canada’s hidden history and treatment of the First People.
Assu received his BFA from the Emily Carr University in 2002 and his MFA from Concordia University in 2017. He has been awarded Emily Carr University’s distinguished alumni award (2006), the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations Art (2011), and is a 2017 Laureate
for the REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards. His work has been accepted into in various other public and private collections across Canada, the United States, and the UK. He currently resides in unceded Ligwiłda’xw territory
(Campbell River, BC).
