Monique Aura – Exploring By The Seat Of Your Pants

Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants is an organization which knocks down classroom walls and take students anywhere in the world, never having to leave their desks. It aims to inspire the next generation of students by bringing science, exploration, adventure, and conservation into classrooms through virtual speakers and field trips with leading experts across the globe.

For Secret Path Week, Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants will be focusing on Indigenous education featuring Indigenous scientists, explorers, artists, activists, and speakers.  This will be a valuable way to engage your class in reconciliation and encourage your students to “Do Something”!

Monique Aura Bedard (they/them) is a neurodiverse Onyota’a:ka x French art-maker x visual storyteller who is currently based on Dish with One Spoon Territory (Tkaronto). They grew up on Anishinaabe aki, downriver from Aamjiwnaang First Nation.

Through their art practice (sewing, beading, painting murals, journaling), they aim to express and share stories about intergenerational healing, mind health, identity, empowerment, and authenticity. They are inspired by stories, memory, community and growth, individually and collectively. Monique Aura aims to address intergenerational healing in their family by trusting the creative process. The core of their work is about moving through the world with love and fierceness. Their art is their voice, their truth and an extension of who they are. Aura’s hope is that their art reaches others in a way that inspires thoughts and feelings igniting questions, curiosity, reflection and self-love.