Truth and Reconciliation Portfolio
The scientific confirmation of 215 unacknowledged burials on the former Indian Residential School grounds in Kamloops BC was announced May 2021. I felt compelled to create a tiny basket to honour each of these souls – the missing – Le Estcwicwey, as I processed this. My family includes children with First Nations and Metis heritage. This could have been us mourning them. Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops purchased 215 for its permanent collection. The proceeds went directly to the Residential School Survivors fund.
I came to the knowledge of coiling pine needles via a fifth-generation North Carolinan author of settler descent over twenty five years ago. I can recommend a Neskonlith Elder to those who may wish to learn how to coil a pine needle basket. The traditional art forms of basketry deserves more far more accolades than they currently receive.
215
Ponderosa pine needles, artificial waxed sinew each less than 1x1x1″
215
Ponderosa pine needles, artificial waxed sinew each less than 1x1x1″
InStead with 215
InStead guarding and mourning her missing children
InStead was created for the October 2021 REDress MMIWG2S exhibition at TRU. I felt it important to stand in solidarity with my Indigenous sisters. Mukwa Masayett (Dr. Shelly Johnson) is now her guardian. She is to help in the efforts to combat racism and to promote awareness of the continuing Missing and Murdered Women, Girls and two Spirit peoples crisis in Canada.
dress in progress Sept15 2022
this lampshade made the perfect storage form as I worked on InStead
installing InStead & 215 at the REDress MMIWG2S exhibit
InStead with 215
InStead guarding and mourning her missing children
other dresses in the REDress exhibit
me with InStead at her 2nd exhibition at TRU
Mother, Little Sister & InStead
detail of Mother’s bodice
Mother as exhibited at TRU
Instead with little Sister & Mother
maquette in progress
During Covid’s isolation, I experimented with acrylic paint pours, thinking to use this technique as backgrounds and features in some of my more abstracted compositions. These pieces are reflective of an arial view of the Thompson Rivers in the unceded and traditional lands of the Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc nation. I wanted to provide a sense of place for 215 and InStead. Pouring paint in these larger formats was challenging. The aggressive motion in the large red one helped birth the name of the series. I am grateful to be living in central BC, but deeply conflicted when I consider that the ‘settling’ of this land came at great cost and consequence to the First peoples.
me with the ALA series as exhibited at TRU
Aggressive Land Acquisition I
mixed media on canvas 50x16x1.5″ $1600
Aggressive Land Acquisition II
mixed media on cradleboard 60x36x1.5″ $5000
Aggressive Land Acquisition III mixed media on cradleboard 60x36x1.5″ $5000
Aggressive Land Acquisition IV
mixed media on canvas 36x18x1.5 $1300
a different arrangement of the Aggressive Land Acquisition series
Elliot Page’s 2019 documentary about the water quality in Nova Scotia motivated me to consider the related issue of environmental racism, specifically the inequality of access to clean water in Canada. There’s Something In The Water – YouTube
