Ursula Johnson (born 1980) is a multidisciplinary Mi’kmaq artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her work combines the Mi’kmaq tradition of basket weaving with sculpture, installation, and performance art. In all its manifestations her work operates as didactic intervention, seeking to both confront and educate her viewers about issues of identity, colonial history, tradition, and cultural practice. In 2017 she won the Sobey Art Award. Early life and education Ursula A. Johnson was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, in 1980. She was raised in Eskasoni First Nation, Cape Breton, which lays claim to be the largest Mi’kmaq community in the world. She was taught basket weaving by her great-grandmother, renowned artist Caroline Gould. Johnson pursued a secondary education, first enrolling in the Theatre Arts Program at the University of Cape Breton (1998-2000) in nearby Sydney, NS. She then moved to Halifax in 2002 to attend NSCAD University, earning an interdisciplinary BFA degree in 2006. Johnson then became the first Artist-in-residence at Cape Breton University. Basket weaving Many of Johnson’s exhibitions and performances include basket weaving, emphasizing traditional Mi’kmaq techniques and forms. Johnson's work in basket weaving draws attention to the way in which baskets have traditionally been placed in anthropological and historical exhibits instead of being celebrated as a continuing indigenous cultural practice. Her work blurs the line between baskets as artifacts, commodities, and art objects. Several of her experimental basket works were shown in O’pltek (It’s Not Right), a solo show at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery in 2011. In her 2006 piece for Nations in a Circle in Halifax Johnson wove a basket around herself, employing the traditional methods for the first time since her move off the reserve in an exploration of her self-defined identity as an Urban Aboriginal artist engaged with traditional Mi’kmaq cultural production and traditions. As part of her residency at Cape Breton University, Johnson developed and taught a course called “The Role of the Mi’kmaw Basket in Contemporary Fine Craft”. Johnson has also taught basket weaving through NSCAD’s extended studies department. Johnson organized a 30-year retrospective of Caroline Gould's work Kloqowej (Star) at the Mary E. Black gallery before Gould’s death in 2011. Nocturne projects Johnson has produced multiple projects for multiple iterations of Nocturne: Art at Night, an annual free art festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia that takes place between 6pm and midnight: Elmiet - 2010 For the 2010, Nocturne Festival