Nanibush is a member of the Beausoleil First Nation. She obtained an MA in visual arts from the University of Toronto. She has also served as Curator in Residence at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery. Nanibush has a long-standing relationship with Anishinaabe multimedia artist Rebecca Belmore and has curated a series of shows featuring her work including KWE: Photography, Sculpture, Video and Performance by Rebecca Belmore at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, and Rebecca Belmore:Facing the Monumental a retrospective of Belmore's 30 year career at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Nanibush has been an active community organizer participating in demonstrations against the Iraq War and uranium processing, and raising awareness about the relationship between racism and lack of education. She has also worked as an organizer for Idle No More Toronto talks and teach-ins to help with education efforts.
Art Gallery of Ontario
Nanibush began work at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2016 as an assistant curator of Canadian and Indigenous Art in the department of Canadian art. Her first curatorial project at the AGO was assisting with Toronto: Tributes + Tributaries, 1971–1989, for which she included Anishinaabemowin interpretive text alongside English and French as a way of marking Toronto as traditional Indigenous territory. When the AGO restructured in 2017, renaming the department of Canadian Art to the department of Indigenous and Canadian Art, Nanibush was promoted to curator of Indigenous Art. As part of the role, Nanibush co heads the department with Georgiana Uhlyarik, the curator of Canadian Art. Together they have made a series of changes to the exhibition of Indigenous and Canadian art ranging from the renaming of an Emily Carr painting from The Indian Church to Church in Yuquot Village as a way of paying respect to the peoplethe artist admired throughout her career and positioning Anishinaabe as the first available text on display in the J.S. McLean Center for Indigenous and Canadian Art, followed by English and French, as a way of recognizing Indigenous peoples as the first occupiers of what is now Canada. Since becoming the curator of Indigenous Art, Nanibush's influence has led to Indigenous artists representing nearly one third of those featured at the AGO. In a 2018 profile about the changes underway at the Gallery and other institutions featuring Indigenous art, the New York Times noted Nanibush as "one of the most powerful voices for Indigenous culture in the North American art world."
