Handmade Store: Joseph Sagaj

Joseph is Anishnaabe of the Sturgeon Clan from the remote community of Neskantaga, 433 km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario. He graduated in Fine Arts at the Ontario College of Art & Design in 1985.

In 1992, The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) selected Joseph's logo as a winning design. Since then, Joseph has had numerous private and public commissions. He's designed logos, painted murals, and completed commissions which include INAC's 2005/06 Time Planner about the "Thirteen Moons" calendar and features stories, legends and “a way of life” in the past and present for the Aboriginal people.

Other commissions include a series of paintings of “Seven Teachings and Seven Stages of Life” completed in 2017 for the Ministry of the Attorney General, Aboriginal Justice Division in Toronto. These paintings reflect a glimpse of the Anishnaabe People's culture and values.

In 2018, Joseph completed a commissioned project of a 30 foot diameter floor installation for Centre for Innovation, Technology & Entrepreneurship at Seneca College in Toronto. By way of Teachings, Ceremonies, Elders, and Community Resources, this design integrates culture, heritage, spirituality, a system of governance, and symbolisms of the Inuit, Metis, and First Nations from the Great Lakes Region.

Joseph lives and works in Toronto.