Mnaandendmowin: Time Immemorial
With Adrian Kahgee (2018)
A collaborative performance with Adrian Kahgee with quilts by Sharon Isaac and audio from Shirley John, Elder all from Saugeen First Nation; a coming together to renew the treaty. The cabin is normally functions as a monument to settlerism. We hoped to change the language from ‘settler’ to ‘visitor’ or ‘guest’, based on my Hakka heritage and approach to being on lands and cultures that do not belong to your own. We were thinking about land acknowledgements, treaties, domesticity, visitors or travellers on the land and about time immemorial. The work was funded by Purple Hills Art and Heritage and was during the Creemore Festival of the Arts. What if the travellers who came here respected the culture and treaties – what would our relationship be with each other? What would the everyday look like? The audio by Shirley John is of her speaking about the territory by describing the Water Walk. The rug is a medicine wheel painted within the map of the territory, delineating the waterways. Adrian and I would turn the loom to all 4 directions within each 6 hour durational performance in which we spoke to each other and the wampum we were making according to the teachings of the four directions. Festival visitors were invited to write a response to a prompt on a piece f birch bark or canvas and weave it into the wampum. Volunteers served healing teas: cedar and chocolate tea, and directed peple through the installation, altering their own language and movement through the space according to Anishinaabe customs. At the end of two days, 4 wampums were made, and several hundred people had come through.