Kjipuktuk (Halifax)-based artist Tyshan Wright works at the intersection of contemporary art and traditional Jamaican Maroon culture and craft. Regarded as a “Keeper of the Heritage” of the Jamaican Maroons, Wright is a descendant of Africans who evaded enslavement and created their own self-sustaining communities in the mountains of Jamaica in the 1600s. His work unites present with past narratives of Maroon experience in diaspora—from the Maroons’ origins in the Akan region of Ghana, to their resistance towards slavery in 17th century Jamaica, to the exile of more than 500 Maroons from Trelawny Town to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1796, and beyond. Using wood and natural forest products that exiled Maroons might have sourced locally to create their ceremonial instruments, he champions a resurgence of Maroon spirituality, language and material culture. In 2022, he was the Atlantic region nominee shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award.