Palestinian Land Day

March 30 coincides with Palestinian Land Day, which commemorates the day in 1976 when Israeli security forces shot and killed six young Palestinian citizens of Israel . These youth were among the thousands of Palestinians protesting Israel ’s expropriation of Palestinian land to build new Jewish-only colonies and expand existing Jewish-only cities. Today, Land Day commemorates Palestinian resistance to Israel ’s ongoing policies of illegal land expropriation, colonization, occupation and apartheid.

Since it is hard not to make links between colonization everywhere, land seizure and the works, I thought it would be appropriate in discussing land here in Canada and the identities and realities manifested through it, to pay homage to Palestinian Land Day.

so I printed pieces of the Goldstone report onto ribbon. a small act. meaningless really, but cathartic and interesting. would like to do the whole report, anyone want to fund it?

healing history

A question which arose while watching a dance piece called 'Fragments' last night at Montreal's Mai Arts and Cultural Centre was the idea of healing histories.

Is it possible to ever truly heal history, to ever truly remove the pain, to undo what's been done? In a relationship if distrust occurs, the pain may never leave, in families, pain from childhood is a lingering phantom. White people feel guilt for histories of oppression, every German potentially takes on the burden of being born into the same country as Hitler.

How do we heal?
through sharing our histories? Through art, through conceptual boxes, through forgetting or remembering?

just a thought. your thoughts?

conversations with dad

Part of the intentions which initiated my project is to start looking at perceptions held by people in my life surrounding work with and on Native land. My father is / was an oil man, and reserve negotiations were his main area of focus for many years.

As a kid, he once brought back a pair of moccasins and some pemakin. This has stuck out a lot in my mind and am interested in exploring the relationships these gifts were born of. Below are excerpts from some emails with my father about this community. They are pretty brief.

-------------------------------------------------

Dad:

The Grand Chief of the Moberly in NE BC was John Dokey, and his wife Catherine. In my experience, Chiefs are not puppets of the government and really have nothing to with them except on a low level bureaucratic way to collect the money coming into reserves. Chiefs are very often figureheads for their families, as the Chief position tends to rotate through the most important and powerful families, so they could be held in suspicion by many of the community and act only as puppets for their family.

In terms of development, things have not changed much. Well meaning companies pour money into native employment and a lot of that money gets siphoned into big native contractors (often backed by white contractors) and does not reach the grass roots very often.

xxoo Dad

---

From: Miss Nesbitt [mailto:miss.nesbitt@live.com]
Sent: March 18, 2010 4:53 PM
To: John Nesbitt
Subject: oil, land

hey pa

wondering if you have any images you could send me of oil rigs on the prairies?
also, could you send me the name of the chief you worked with, the one who's wife gave me the moccasins. You mentioned their names but I forgot them and am lazy to go through the tape recording right now.

Also, you know how its often the case that the chief is simply a figure head, even a puppet for the government, or has been in the past at least.. in certain communities. did you find this, or were they genuinely connected and respected/ respectful of the community?

also, have you been in touch with what has happened there with development, what the long term effects were?

ahhh! end of year is falling in.. its kind of intense!
love u.. xo

big river.. a place i once belonged

A lot of my memories as a child are deeply embedded in the richness of the boreal forested lands of northern saskatchewan where I spent my summers.. a little memory minning:





my uncles teepee!

Buffy

having a rough day today... listening to this beautiful song by buffy st. marie imagining being wrapped in a blanket in a Saskatchewan wheat field...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVH-x4szOEI

Saskatchewan
Hey,
wrap me in your blanket
dance me around
take me back
to where my heart belongs
Qu'Appelle valley,
Saskatchewan.

Hey!
you can travel all alone
or you can come along with me
walk the old way
walk the old way Saskatchewan

Qu'Appelle valley, Saskatchewan

propaganda for la baie

So I thought it would be interesting to look through the FARR's collection of the publication entitled Canadian Art. Thought it would be good to look throughout the years at what the art was that defined 'Canada'.
I pick out my very first magazine, and this is the inside cover. hmmm....
guardian angel of the north, eh? I be beggin' to differ... so would others. There is even a film that holds an very alternate perspective to what their role was in the north...

The Other Side of the Ledger: An Indian View of the Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company's 300th anniversary celebration was no occasion for joy among the people whose lives were tied to the trading stores. This film, narrated by George Manuel, president of the National Indian Brotherhood, presents the view of spokesmen for Canadian Indian and Métis groups. There is a sharp contrast between the official celebrations, with Queen Elizabeth II among the guests, and what Indians have to say about their lot in the Company's operations.

and another, fiction this time:

Mistress Madeleine

Part of the Daughters of the Country series, this film, set in the 1850s, unfolds against the backdrop of the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly of the fur trade. In protest, some Métis engage in trade with the Americans. Madeleine, the Métis common-law wife of a Hudson's Bay Company clerk, is torn between loyalty to her husband and loyalty to her brother, a freetrader. Even more shattering, a change in company policy destroys Madeleine's happy and secure life, forcing her to re-evaluate her identity.

letter to support First Nations University

The only First Nations University in 'Canada', located in Saskatchewan is about to be shut down. The Harper Government is hitting Aboriginal Programs hard, the Native Women's Shelter of Montréal is also being thrown a slap in the face - their funding is being cut 2 years earlier than expected. Goes to show that the apology for residential schools and their legacies was more of a piece of necessary politic than a concrete step towards reconciliation.

Finding out about this threat of closure due to lack of federal funding really made me wonder about the role of University education, something I do from time to time ever since I read an essay by E. O. Wilson entitled 'What is Education For?' discussing, among other things, how it was the most highly educated who were promoting the cutting of our forests and the polluting of our rivers.

What is and is not valued in academia reflects to an extent what the social structure of 'Canada' really hopes for its Indigenous people. Not higher education and empowerment. Not good health, as most toxic waste facilities are allocated to (or to very nearby) Reserve land, and we all witnessed Parliament send up body bags when First Nations communities asked for help with H1N1 last spring. Not to confer with First Nations on policy issues as would be expected were the government to sign on to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Not a re-opening of land claims, to return some land back that was stolen... the only conclusion I can come to when I add it all up, is an ongoing attempt by Canada towards continued conquest and takeover, aka a continuation of the colonization project.

When I spoke with some people who knew more about First Nations University, they told me that it was a case of poor management and improper use of funds. One woman told me that the board of directors was run by band council politicians who are simply incompetent at running the finances of an organization. She could understand why the govt. was getting fed up - but still ceded that it was a true shame. She was also a proponent of autonomy in funding - in her organization they put a portion of whatever funding they receive into endowment.

Anyway, mismanagement aside, the First Nations University is a necessary pillar of education. IF it were to close, all those who had received their diplomas from this University would no longer be credited for their educations. The validation of native knowledge that this University provided would be relegated to outside of the Institutional University framework, except in small corners like Concordia's Interdisciplinary Studies program, where one can study Native Studies only as part and parcel of a larger curriculum. education or incarceration?

a thesis to look at

Bordering on feminism: Home and transnational sites in recent visual culture and Native women's art

by Kalbfleisch, Elizabeth Claire, Ph.D., University of Rochester, 2009 , 461 pages; AAT 3381719

Abstract (Summary)

This dissertation explores the home both as a theme in contemporary art by Native North American women artists and as a means to engage Native women's art and visual culture in a critical, intercultural feminist discourse. The home is a rich and complicated site in feminist theory and women's history; it holds additional meaning in Native cultures, where it has ties to specific cultural traditions, to homeland, and to the history of colonization. Artists working in performance, video, film, photography, and installation explore aspects of the home; of particular interest here are those works which relate to intercultural encounters between Native and non-native women.

Transnationalism is introduced as a conceptual framework for analyzing home, gender, and identity in Native women's art and visual culture. Relying heavily on feminist interpretations of transnationalism, borders, migration, diaspora, cosmopolitanism and hybridity, this dissertation addresses the multiple contexts for Native women's identities and homes. It explores how artists present an experience of homeland and collective identity that reflects their position as global citizens whose own experiences and identities may find points of commonality with the experiences and identities of artists from other cultural, ethnic, and national positions.

Contemporary artists discussed include Sama Alshaibi, Rebecca Belmore, Hannah Claus, Bonnie Devine, Rosalie Favell, Danis Goulet, Maria Hupfield, Marianne Nicolson, Shelley Niro, Alanis Obomsawin, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, and Anna Tsouhlarakis. In order to consider representation and encounter between Native and non-native women more broadly, a close reading of the photographs Gladys Knight Harris took of Iñupiat women in Kotzebue, Alaska in 1949 is also presented.

for those linked into concordia, you can find it at http://bit.ly/bldgA0

Jessica Yee

Jessica Yee has been introduced to me via her voice on radio and online, a voice that does not shy from discussing difficult issues. She is a really inspiring influence for me, in her unwavering commitment to reproductive autonomy and sexual health, speaking up for sex workers rights and dignity, insistence on respect for her people, and a refusal to be silent with her rage. She does not shy away from confronting anything, as far as I can tell, and I really admire what I see as a refusal to turn away. She is someone who reminds me of all that is left to be done, especially within what I see as a two-tier social structure of Canada's reserve system. I did not grow up in Canada, and find myself confused at best about the level of stereotypes people hold on to about First Nations individuals, and the rampant racism still found in this 21st century, and no, not that subtle hard to pin down kind. But the really upfront outright acknowledgment of hatred and embracing of stereotypes. Thats the kind of stuff thats really common in the USA, its just that in Canada y'all pretend to be so politically correct and polite... but you're not, really.

Anyway, in this article which I HIGHLY recommend looking at, Jessica Yee doesn't shy away from assuming a stereotype someone might launch her way. Cause rage is the only thing that makes sense, sometimes.

http://www.rabble.ca/columnists/2010/03/why-im-owning-native-stereotype

first steps!

Faye Heavy Sheild, Body of Land, 2002

an exciting google search result for terms such as 'land, oil, drilling, alberta...'

Beautiful Albertan Blackfoot Artist..

"my environment includes family, language/narrative, the land and the configuration of objects on the gallery walls is my attempt to convey the scope of this personal landscape. Each portrait is a body. Of knowledge, histories and stories both real and imagined."
~ Faye HeavyShield

http://galleryconnexion.ca/programming/exhibitions/archives/2004-2005/faye-heavyshield/
http://www.kelownaartgallery.com/2002/faye_heavyshield.htm

Permissssssions!!

are a bit of a bugger at concordia it seems, not impossible, but definitely not without some definite hoop jumping type activities. Not to mention some connections - connections are important in any institution. Thank (insert your own version of God) for Tricia Middleton!

Amazing what you can and cannot do in a space, and also how to do performance in the context of needing permissions.. always interesting. it's like saying - be subversive, but get permission! :)

but hey, i think the impact is better in the end if you can get clearance, then chances are whatever does go up will stay up much longer, hurah!

Well, I suppose that's all. It is hard to make time to do all the many little and big things demanded at this time of year, so I thought I should put something up about these initial stages of our residency, which seem like a lot of sifting through mud to find the clean water, both in our mind and in what is possible institutionally.

!!!!
and, back to women's studies paper writing, hurah!

Amulet

Tiohtia:ke

You may think you live in Montréal,
but you are actually inhabiting Tiohtia:ke,
the Kanienke'ha:ka place name for this land.

what (history) are we referencing?!

An inaugural quote to get things rolling... i really want to re learn canada's history..

“.. Native cultures and peoples exist across a long continuum – one that has great depth and a great past, one that antedates the arrival of Europeans in this hemisphere by thousands of years, and one that encompasses the emergence of significant and complex societies and civilizations. And we absolutely need to realize this because it means that Native peoples, as the originating elements of civilization and cultures, are the original source of the national cultural heritage of every citizen of the western hemisphere, whether Native or non-Native”

W.Richard West Jr.
Southern Chyenne and member of the Chyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. Founding Director, national museum of the American Indian

INTRODUCTION

Sarah Nesbitt and Katie Earle will be collaborating to develop the debut edition of the FARR Residency project. You can follow what we do on this blog, and in the Reading room itself…

Collaborating is not always easy, but we thank the FARR staff for pairing us together. We have had numerous conversations, which have been hugely inspiring. We complement one another well, and play off each others ideas and motivations. Being both very interested in questioning what ideas are considered important in a space designated as a library for fine arts students, we ask:

What knowledge is valued, revered and available?

What knowledge is absent?

Sarah grew up in Alberta and Northern Saskatchewan, and has had many varied interactions and relationships with First nations communities and individuals. Katie grew up in rural New England in a town with a largely invisible Native population beyond an annual pow-wow. We both have the misfortune to acknowledge our astounding ignorance towards the histories, traditions and contemporary culture of the First Peoples on the land we call our home.

Our project is interested in investigating this gap in our knowledge, and to ask why is there so much we, as white non-Native Canadians, do not know about the land, history, politics and present day lifestyles of a people whose land we walk upon daily.

This will develop in myriad ways. Here are some of our ideas:

- research and self-education
- mapping projects
- small gestures
- looking at, and asking others to look at, official government policy
- expanding the FARR’s collection of books on and by First Nations artists
- visits to reserves and other communities in Quebec to speak with people and with artists. These conversations will then develop into a new wing of the collection at the Reading room where Native art is given the space and acknowledgment it deserves as an historical and contemporary art form. And where students can learn as much from the artistic heritage of this continent as they learn from the European Canon.
- exploring personal histories and narratives, mining personal memories
- Developing a workshop series to take place in the fall of First Nations artists that will be open to the public, particularly collaborating with the youth at the Native Friendship Center here in Montreal…

We welcome all response, as this is an open-ended project and in the weight of the subject matter being taken on by two non-Native white Canadians, we are surely not going to do everything perfectly.

Yet our willingness to make mistakes comes out of a strong belief in the necessity of artists to engage with the world around them, and to use the venue of art to overcome societal obstacles. The future depends upon it. We need one another, and our lives demand that we all do the often imperfect work of decolonization even if it is scary, difficult and challenging. Even when it brings up the monsters of all that we have internalized from what we have been taught and all that has kept us oblivious. For it simultaneously offers us the beauty of all that we have yet to learn, and the connections and wisdom we have to gain from engaging with one another and unlearning the violence we have been handed by history.

As Lilla Watson, a Murri visual artist, educator and activist from Central Queensland, Australia so eloquently stated, 'your liberation is bound up with mine'.**

It is with this in mind that we pursue this project.

** this is taken from a larger quote of hers: “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”