Ntshadi Mirriam Moeketsi Barlow is a South African dwelling in Duluth, MN with her little family. Prior to (happily) being a stay-at-home, homeschool mom, she travelled the world and taught English. “Untold Dieties of Duluth challenged me to creatively explore my story of being here (in Duluth). Being a foreigner in Duluth, MN (since 2022) has not been easy. I’ve been met with violent racism and coordinated community harassment from grannies to their progeny; men and women in uniform to those who’ve since left their service. The gift of this experience for me has been in choosing to answer any aggression or manipulation with truth and self knowledge. Thank you, Duluth, for shining a light on some of my best qualities. I shall carry these forth proudly.”

Mari Boine is a renowned Norwegian Sámi musician, singer, and activist who revolutionized traditional Sámi music by blending it with jazz, rock, and electronic influences. Born in Gámehisnjárga, Norway into a strict Laestadian Christian community, she overcame cultural repression of the Sámi joik to become a global voice for Indigenous rights and cultural pride. Her music acts as a form of healing and protest, focusing on environmentalism, Sámi identity, and emotional liberation from colonial oppression. She sings in her native Sámi tongue.

jacklyn janeksela is a writer and visual artist whose work explores identity, ancestral memory, and the relationship between landscape and spirit. A descendant of Saami lineage, she draws inspiration from Northern mythologies and cultural traditions. Her creative work spans literature, visual art, and community storytelling. In her exploration of identity and place, language and silence, healing and trauma, jacklyn evokes ancient ways of navigating and existing in the world, leaning deeply into animism, intuition, and elders as conduits. Her work is inspired by the past and used to project her Saami kin into the future.

Kofu, artistic alias for Moriamo Ahmed, is a Finnish-born Nigerian multidisciplinary artist - poetry, large vocals, and heartful electronic production symbolises the character of Kofu’s music. Based and raised in Helsinki, they have long explored the inner workings of their mind through music, performance, and poetry. Like many individuals of the ever-growing diaspora, Kofu’s work revolves around concepts of love and identity, and the strain it causes when the two don’t meet. Through words, they seek to reach into the obstacles that plague their everyday life, including themes of depression, existential crisis and the occasional proclamations of love and make sense of them.

Berit Margrethe Oskal is a Sámi artist and joik performer from Kautokeino, Norway. She has been performing with her own music since 2001, and in 2007 Berits' debut album Mátki (Journey) was released.

Riv Shapiro (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist, organizer, educator and ritualist based on Dakota land in South Minneapolis. As a 2026 MFA candidate at Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Riv’s evolving work is grounded in diasporic Jewish spirituality, political solidarity, and eco-mysticism. They use material and symbolic metaphors (saltwater, fabric, safety pins, vessels, pomegranates) to explore grief, ancestral memory, land connection and solidarity. Riv’s projects span performance, sound, sculpture, film, photography, social gatherings, and ritual-based installation.

Toussaint Stewart is a holistic health and wellness educator author and practitioner who currently is the Community Wellness and Food Access Specialist for a nonprofit in Duluth, MN. Toussaint also teaches creative writing and percussion as a guest instructor at Northeast Regional Correctional Facilities. “It is my intention to make art that inspires people to decolonize and break generational curses.”

Thomlin Swan (they/he) is a queer, Jewish multidisciplinary artist who seeks to ‘heal haunted histories’ through art, media, and storytelling. Originally from New York City, Thomlin became acquainted with the Great Lakes in 2016 while touring an outdoor folk opera about environmental grief called The Wastelands. Moving to Nahgahchiwanong (Fond du Lac Ojibwe Reservation) in 2021, their theatre, collage, somatic therapy, parenting, and community organizing continue to center ways of unsettling and restoring this land and all its relations.

Kaitlyn Walsh is a Duluth-based writer, seedkeeper, facilitator, and learner, committed to deep relationship with Gichigami, the land, and the unseen. Kaitlyn is Anishinaabe, a direct descendant of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. “I want to thank Thomlin, my co-collaborators, my sweetie, my puppy, my ancestors, and everyone I love for holding me through Untold Deities of Duluth and my continual unraveling.”