Public Art & Selected Works
Tammaro is a multidisciplinary artist with 50+ years of practice, working in media, installation, public art and collaborative projects. Themes include The Natural World, Wyandot narratives, the Body, Womens ‘Mother Wit’ and reverence for “The Allness of Everything.” Her paradigm is Wyandot (and Italian folk teachings) ~ widely animistic, exploring liminal spaces between the Spirit World and this one – consciousness,
collective/personal unconscious, Ancestral Memory (The Ancestral Present), and gifts of earth, water, and sky. Sacred geometry and ceremonial/cultural references are central. Media: oil & acrylic paint, pencil on canvas, music, poetry, and assemblage, often combined.
Often Composes music for installations
(https://subductioncurrent.reverbnation.com/) sculptural forms include poetry. Her work is deeply informed by Wyandot cosmology, animistic practice, and the integration
of Ancestral Memory in contemporary art; she emphasizes relationality, ceremony, and ecological consciousness.
Below are some highlights….and selected works. Tàmmaro’s has extensive work with colleges such as Havergal and Upper Canada College as well as OCAD, Toronto Arts Council (retired), The City of Toronto, and Halton Conservation. She sits on advisory boards at Crawford Lake and with Credit Valley Conservation for the development of the Clan Sites along the Credit River and was involved as Indigenous Designer for L’Amoreaux Kidstown Water Park Redesign & Replacement as well as other projects. She served as Communications Officer for The Wyandot of Anderdon Nation and is now enrolled with the Huron – Wyandotts of Ontario a choice made to help revitalise the Wyandot presence in Ontario. Catherine has worked and been involved in Wendat Confederacy ceremony making for years and is active in her spiritual practise.
The Ceremony of Reclaiming Agency Through Wonder
(Sacred Civics: Publisher: Routledge), A chapter written for Sacred Civics, Tàmmaro argues for the reclamation of Indigenous agency by re-establishing a spiritual and cellular connection to the natural world. She posits that by engaging in collective creative processes and traditional ceremonies, individuals can move beyond the constraints of dominant culture structures and patriarchal social paradigms. This process of “redreaming and restorying” is presented as a way to reawaken wonder and activate an embodied sense of agency within modern urban landscapes.
Tàmmaro has worked on several Public Parks projects and with Toronto History Museums. She had four separate art shows in 2025, including ReDress at
Scarborough Museum, May–June 2025, as well as a piece featured in Nuit Blanche as well as private commissions. She has been recognized by the City’s Toronto Urban Design Awards winning three awards in 2025) and was included in Who’s Who listings for her contributions to public art, interdisciplinary practice, and urban cultural initiatives (2023/2024) and was featured as Top Artist as well.
More information about her work can be found on her website:
Selected Public Works — Toronto, Canada
Greetings to the Natural World
Date: 2015
Location: St. James Town, Toronto
Type: Permanent mural (one of a triptych).
Materials: Exterior paint
Description: Part of Neighbourhood of Nations mural; reflects Indigenous cosmology and ecological narratives. Credit Line: Catherine Tammaro, 2015.
Ihati’ndouhchou’tenh / Clan Totems / Energetic Signatures
Date: 2021–2023
Location: Queen Street West, Toronto
Type: Permanent streetscape integration
Materials: 27 Cast bronze sidewalk inlays
Fabrication / Collaboration: CNC cut by Eunson Studios in collaboration with PMA Landscape Architects.
Interpretive Ground Markers. Description: Distributed network forming relational land-based system reflecting Indigenous worldviews. With extensive multi-community consultation.
Credit Line: Catherine Tàmmaro, 2021–2023.
Toronto Biennial of Art (High Park Program)
Date: 2022
Location: High Park, Toronto
Type: Participatory public program
Description: Workshops on beading, storytelling, and collective making.
Credit Line: Catherine Tàmmaro, 2022.
Fire Over Water
Date: 2022, 2023, 2024
Locations: Crawford Lake (Conservation Halton, 2022) & Remote Gallery, Toronto (2023), Muskoka Discovery Centre 2025, and Blue Mountain Public Library 2025
Type: Multimedia Installation
Description: Explores Wyandot /Wendat women, land, continuity and Ancestral Memory; Crawford Lake emphasizes water, ecology, and ceremonial space. Working with the
Wendat Wandat Women’s Advisory Council and Professor Kathryn Magee Labelle
from 2013 to 2026
Credit Line: Catherine Tàmmaro, 2022–2025 and upcoming.
Autochthonous ~ Infinite Aspects of Connection (Norman Jewison Park)
Date: 2023–2024
Location: Norman Jewison Park, Toronto
Type: Permanent integrated public art/placemaking
Materials: Eight Corten columns – 14 ‘ tall, with accompanying spiritual and integrated elements, symbolic glyphs, in various metals, with reflective poetry.
In Wyandot: kyawakyehsta? “de awahsehsrogyahs (Where We Gather In Ceremony), these works mark the Ancestral sacred spaces of Indigenous Peoples and the shared presence of communities worldwide. Concerned with matters of Spirit, Tammaro creates symbolic representations accessible to all, reflecting seen/unseen spaces, intersectionality, and infinite aspects of connection. The poetry and symbolic forms serve as talismanic Energetic Signatures, honoring land, waters, winds, skyWorld, Motherwork, time, boundless love, and our place in the Natural World. Tàmmaro Acknowledges Wyandot Ancestral ties to Tionontati, Wendat, Attawandaron, Eriehronon, and Wenrohronon. Ontario is the Homeland.
Credit Line: Catherine Tàmmaro, Autochthonous ~ Infinite Aspects of Connection, Norman Jewison Park, 2023–2024.
The Burn
Date: 2023
Locations: Multi-site, Toronto
Type: Temporary participatory installation
Collaborators: Roger Mooking; Javid Jah, Umbereen Inayet
Description: Collective grief, healing, and ceremonial interaction.
Credit Line: Catherine Tàmmaro with collaborators, 2023.
Ayukwenodi (Pickering Sculpture)
Date: 2024–2025
Location: Pickering, Ontario
Type: Public sculpture
Materials: Fabricated sculptural elements: steel, stone, geometric form with spiralic container
Collaborators: Jah Cube
Description: Celebrates Ancestral presence and spiritual connection to the songs of the land and finding one’s voice—
Collectively and singularly. Integrates poetic inscriptions and sacred symbolism.
Credit Line: Catherine Tàmmaro with Jah Cube, 2024–2025.
Pickering Civic Award
ukiʔ yahayǫh (Spirit of the Woods)
Date: 2026
Location: The WELL (Draper Park)
Type: Permanent public installation (multi-part)
Materials: Fabricated sculptural elements (Jah Cube); integrated poetic text
Description: Multi-part installation integrating sculpture and poetry, embedding language, land-based knowledge and relational presence.
Credit Line: Tàmmaro, Fabricator- Jah Cube
Seven Points ~ Phase two: The WELL examining cosmic forms and earthy paradigms in spiralic forms. Allowing movement, acknowledging time and the phases of life as we progress through them.
Credit Line: Tàmmaro, Fabricator- Jah Cube
Curatorial Note
Embedded, distributed, and relational interventions
Integration of ceremonial practice, Ancestral Memory, ecological consciousness
Use of language, sacred geometry, and animistic paradigms
Toronto works demonstrate liminal connection between Spirit World and human experience, reflecting Ancestral continuity and Allness of Everything.
With thanks to Professor Kathryn Magee Labelle USask; History Department. Dr Craig Kopris, Linguist, Dr Anders Sandberg, York University. Conservation Halton, Jah Cube, Nazarene Pope, Ihsan Alemdaroglu, Phil Ogison, Jeff Howard, Reid Robins, Laura Divilio, Sallie Cotter Andrews, Richard Zane Smith and so many more.