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uh so there’s a few seats up here if you like to come I’m looking at

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certain people okay [Music] we’re lonely at here

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it’s more safe so welcome everyone

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um thank you for joining us today I’m Jamie Isaac Chief curator of a gallery of

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Greater Victoria uh we want to first off um uh by acknowledging the land we are

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the art gallery of Greater Victoria is located on the traditional territories of bologn peoples today known as a squad

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mountains Nations we extend our deep appreciation for the opportunity to live

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work and thrive on these lands and today really be

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um welcoming these amazing artists um that are the recipients of the 2021

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governor general awards for the visual and media arts we are in partnership with this

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exhibition of course with Canada Council who is delivering and

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delivering the general governor general awards for the last last 22 years is it pretty amazing

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opportunity to host this exhibition so I will be passing the mic down and because

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there is such an amazing panel of amazing Minds um we could be here all day listening to

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their amazing practices and lifetime achievements however we have an hour so we wanted to

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do a bit of a time frame and framework where it’s a bit like

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everyone’s going to be speaking for about eight minutes showing their slides and then we will have about 20 to 30

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minutes following that to have a discussion and ask questions so if we can hold our questions until after

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everyone speaks that would be really great and if you have a burning question

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write it down so you don’t forget it and and then we can have a great discussion so without further Ado I will start off

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with Luke Christian presenting here we try to be Hardware agnostic when we

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work like that because technology changes every minute you know every every month every year so the work

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you did using a particular operating system three years ago will not play

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necessarily in three years so you have to upgrade adapt repair change libraries

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so but hopefully the idea the concept is a stronger more interesting than the

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technology you use to implement it so but at the same time it’s much cheaper

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to restore a digital artwork than to restore an oil painting on on 15th

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century wood panels so but institutions museums and galleries I’ve never come to

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get that yet but I think there’s an opportunity when you hire technicians or

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curators or registers to make sure that the um that the they are not close to

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technology that they understand a little bit how it works so that if something happens they can you know they will not

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freak out they would just look at it coldly and if they can and do things to

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make it work better than do it or otherwise like there are a lot of resources around especially among the

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young people who are more familiar with technology than we are uh so the work that is presented here is

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a is a is a space actually one of my other thing I realized that uh in my uh

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artistic uh career so far is that um the artist toolbox my real project is to

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build a toolbox and with this tool I try to formalize the ideas I have like

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Dempsey for example had his toolbox has you know probably Hammers and knives and all kinds of things and his materials

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would mine has you know cameras like that my phone is the best camera I had I

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have a spherical camera in my pocket I have a little book here with the pencil I can write ideas uh sometimes I have

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fancy equipment but I run them or find somebody who owns them and can operate them but the the the the equipment I use

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is a I’m trying to harvest from the world around me images and sounds and then to

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try to put them together in a space that can be explored

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so one of the things that I discovered in with this through these years is that

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my toolbox using tools like computers and cameras

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and microphones is basically tools to create space computer is creating a

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space so how do I want to build a space in which I invite people and I was

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always I love paintings I love museums you know but for me I I did not feel I

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would not feel a competent to prove to make a painting I see when I see a frame I want to enter I want the frame to

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become a door so I say what if I can contribute to the development of art and

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culture and ideas for me the frame becomes a door and I want to enter and I if I enter that painting you know I can

5:47

imagine it in 3D I can imagine like going some fields are transparent I go

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beyond them I look at it from behind so this is what I’m trying to do my material are photograph their videos

5:59

they’re like the things you do with these simple tools but I try to arrange them to create a sort of Garden of sound

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and images and transparencies and a place where it’s not a game you know I’m using game engines to put this together

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and let you navigate through it but it’s not a game the game it would just be too hang around look at something that grabs

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your attention why I don’t know maybe something that speaks to you at one point uh you stop you spend some time

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with it and then you move on that’s one thing the other thing is

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um what in my in my former life I was an

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exhibition designer that was my my job and I made exhibitions in museum with

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curators in general or or if it was a museum of for example

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archeology you are missing out of civilization you make thematic

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exhibitions so you have a you have a story to tell you have objects you know

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artifacts to position in space and the pleasure was to work with the architecture to tell a story as people

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wander through more or less you know a predefined path so I can do exactly the

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same today with my head mounted display except the space is unlimited the object

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of need to be secure yeah I just put an object there and nobody is going to steal it or scratch it or destroy it I

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can have I have 1000 at least 1 000 assets in this world and then once I

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position them I can change the way they they are positioned so I change the architecture so if you go in there you

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will see look at through the instruction carefully you have a button where you can select four different architectures

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for these assets so one is sequential so every object is positioned based on on

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its timestamp so if an object was created in 1972 it will be there on the

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timeline some or more recent will be closer to us so there’s a very linear very

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simplistic conception of time there where the past you know is in this way

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in the future is there and I’m moving along you know this timeline another organization is by category so all the

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objects have little handles which say okay I am a photograph or I am a 3D object or I am a portrait of somebody or

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I have this color so when you pick uh the word is a radio everything is

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already organized by category and suddenly you see all the objects the Thousand object move around you and

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settle in that mode and then you can still explore you know go around they’re a bit jamb together but that’s it’s

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interesting to see how suddenly uh uh the the you can make with the same uh

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Corpus of asset you can say something different and it goes along with today’s uh necessity to to to understand that

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our points of views are relative you know we’re subjective the way I look at the world is different from

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because of my culture of my age of my language maybe so that’s a way to express that so I’m just at the

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beginning of finding different ways to express things the third thing is random it’s just the computer is given very

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simple principles like okay every object will be in in this relationship with one another

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like 90 degree angle some will be bigger some will be smaller so very simple rules and then uh this mode will create

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every time something different but it creates very interesting accidents that’s my favorite actually because you

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know suddenly this video it’s next to this word or this picture and you say oh that’s interesting you it creates

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relationships and it makes you think so this is the fun I have as a Creator and

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I hope that it’s also interesting for people like you experiencing it I’m not

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sure yet you know uh the work I’m showing here it was never shown before it’s actually the way it’s shown here

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and next time it will still be a bit different so I’m learning from each exhibition on how to play with that but

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for me the the medium is who is very very uh so challenging and and fun to

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work with my name is Amy gogurdy and along with Rayne Mackay the director of The Craft

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Council of BC I had the very great honor of nominating lulin for the 2021 Sadie

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brassman Governor General’s award I would like to begin by telling you a little bit about Lou born in Edmonton

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Alberta Lou Lynn studied at a number of Institutions including the University of Alberta the Oregon College of Art and

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Craft the Honolulu Academy of Arts and recognizing her affinity for glass

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between 1985 and 2009 she undertook studies at the Pilchuck glass School in

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Stanwood Washington later returning as a teacher and mentor the work for which she is best known

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sculptures based on household tools constructed from bronze and glass has

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been exhibited across Canada and in China Korea Taiwan Japan Denmark and the

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USA she has participated in 20 solo exhibitions and nearly 100 group

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exhibitions she has received numerous BC arts and Canada Council grants scholarships Awards of excellence and

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reviews her work can be found in private public and corporate collections including the Canadian Clan Glass

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Gallery the Glass Museum in Denmark and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts she has

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been featured in over 40 Journal articles in radio interviews videos over 15 catalogs and in three books

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in 2006 she received the Gerson award for excellence Innovation and Leadership

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from the craft Council of BC and in 2010 she was inducted into the Royal Canadian

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Academy of Art lulin lives in winlaw BC a very tiny

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lovely rural town outside Nelson BC where she has facilities for working and

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glass as well as all manner of metalworking with the exception of bronze casting she has developed skills

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in glass fusing film casting sand casting blowing sandblasting lamp

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working and integrating industrial plate glass and found glass objects into her

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work as her work grew in technical complexity she added skills relating to Casting

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aluminum and later bronze the trajectory of her career events is a

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continual development and refinement of her technical skill and artistic Vision throughout she has focused on the iconic

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forms of tools and other functional objects these attract her for the

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relationship to craft and human culture emphasizing what craft historian Howard Rosati has described as the relationship

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between tools and the human hand which is the very basis of craft

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in many ways Lynn thinks of her work in terms of the archeology of everyday life she collects antique tools admiring them

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for the beauty of their forms and for their archaeological interests the tools

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she makes however are impossible they will never be used combining the

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strength of bronze with the fragility of glass her abstract forms exaggerate and

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expand the notion of the tool yet they speak to the mind and the imagination rather than to any pressing task

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many of lulin’s tools appear to be fragments of larger machines although obscure as to their original

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purpose these works are characterized by Precision attention to detail and finish

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for her series utensils 2011-2012 Lynn turned her collection of

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antique kitchen tools for inspiration this series is based on hand tools that

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have largely been replaced by Electric Gadgets in modern kitchens the large

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sculptural Works combine bronze and glass to commemorate skills essential to the survival of the human race and

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interestingly to tasks most often performed by women

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reflecting Lynn’s interest in formal and functional qualities of antique industrial and utilitarian trade tools

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the series implements an object’s 2004 to the present consists of individual

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objects of bronze and glass these objects reflect the artist’s interests in work performed by a variety

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of Trades people including Carpenters shipwrights shoemakers and gardeners

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objects such as the berry scoop are large in scale although their function might not be apparent they convey

14:52

gravitas and they encourage us to rethink our Collective history the intricately curved textured and Polished

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bronze components emphasize the beauty of the material and contrast with the

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Luminous glass works that never fail to attract attention are her shovels Each of which

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has a unique shape the exact function of which is obscure

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pairing the tough sculpted bronze blade and handle with the sparkling glass

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shaft creates a tool that appears at once practical magical and impossible

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for nearly 40 years lulin has pursued excellence in craftsmanship Mastery of relevant Technologies and materials

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attention to all aspects of production and presentation and a lifelong interest

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in the tools and implements associated with the history of handcraft and making her long career gives evidence of a

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unique personal artistic vision and sophisticated aesthetic language coordinating the virtues of hand mind

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and body she has created beautiful objects that enrich our world I cannot

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conclude without mentioning that in addition to being an outstanding artist lulin has contributed immensely to the

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development of fine craft through her dedication as an educator mentor and

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advocate for craft she has co-authored two books on glass lectured widely and

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taught in Canada the U.S Scotland and China for over 20 years she taught

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professional practices at the Kootenai School of the Arts in Nelson BC informing Young Artists about skills

16:31

required to succeed in their chosen field recognizing the importance of marketing

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to Career Success she has lectured widely about this often overlooked field of endeavor conducting workshops

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especially designed for First Nations artists and coordinating conferences addressing craft marketing she has

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curated exhibitions for public galleries served on juries and sat on numerous boards and advisory committees lulin is

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an exemplary model of the citizen artist committed to her artistic practice and

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to the betterment of her community it is entirely fitting in my opinion that she has been awarded the 2021 CD bronfman

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governor general award in visual media arts I’ve never been to Victoria before

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I’ve only seen the Pacific Ocean once before [Music] I come from the Great Lakes

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my people are the anishinaabe um of Lake Huron

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I live in Toronto on Lake Ontario my work has been

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hugely informed by the place that I come from and particularly

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By the Waters that surround my home

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the work that I’m showing upstairs in the gallery is a piece that I made in

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2013. it’s called treaty robe for Tecumseh

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I wanted to talk about treaty about the way that Canada was formed by

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agreements between indigenous peoples and Colonial peoples

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that had to do with sharing and access to land and to resources

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and I wanted to talk about the degradation of those treaties over time

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particularly During the period between 1763

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and 1813. pivotal pivotal era

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in our country’s history pivotal era in the history of the

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indigenous people because it was during that period that the land went from being shared

18:55

Among Us as equals as beneficiaries of the great Bounty of

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this place to being completely lost

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and I’m a sculptor I’m an installation artist

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and I have these stories inside and what I try to do with my work is

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find a way to tell a very complex story in a object

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unlike Luke I don’t take a library of images that

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you can travel through and construct a narrative The Narrative is clear already we know

19:43

the history we should know the history what I find out of course is

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we don’t know the history the history has been hidden it has been withdrawn from our

19:58

grasp and we are the poorer because we don’t have a hold of our history

20:05

and so gradually over the years my life and my work has come to be about trying

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to grab that history back because I believe that only when we have

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knowledge of what occurred can we begin the work of repairing

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what what was what was wrong about that what I like to do is take materials of

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different kinds and use their complexity and also their

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Simplicity to help me to construct that narrative

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so in this piece I took a a Union Jack

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this Union Jack was flown on a battleship in the Second World War

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and I found it in a consignment store it was hanging in the window

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it’s from 1943 so this Union Jack has seen battle

21:10

on the ocean and this was really important for me

21:16

because the story is about Tecumseh and Tecumseh was a warrior too

21:24

and he saw battle all around the Great Lakes

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he was fighting for a Homeland just as in 1943 that Battleship was writing

21:38

and I felt that somehow that just like your your images they would tell a story

21:43

that flag has a story to tell of its own it’s completely separate from what I

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want to tell but together with the objects that I bring as well

21:55

we can create something that maybe

22:01

approximates truth

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I used beads as well so I used nickel

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beads nickel because it is the substance of the Canadian Shield where I grew up

22:22

I used brass to make those belts

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brass beads when if you lift them up you’ll find how heavy they are we lifted them yesterday to to install that work

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these are heavy why are the treaties heavy

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because they are meaningful to us because they carry that trust between us

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and they carry the Heart Of Us

22:58

that went into that trust and it is important for us at least in my view

23:06

that we acknowledge those treaties and that we recognize

23:11

that Canada was founded on those treaties without them

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the land certainly the land that I come from um would be constructed very very

23:24

differently so they’re heavy

23:30

they’re laborious they’re stitched everyone every bead

23:35

quietly and patiently together to describe the gradual erosion of that

23:41

trust between us and the gradual Erasure of those indigenous lands and Waters

23:50

I I could go on and describe for you in more detail but I think there’s a there’s a panel there that that talks

23:57

about um how these three treaties that are um that that comes as Dr is dragging behind

24:05

him document the um elimination

24:11

of all indigenous land around the Great Lakes my friend Lillian made a short video

24:18

it’s an overview of my work um so

24:23

um I’m working on a play that right now um but I I should say that I’ve been

24:30

involved in two communities all my life the Japanese Canadian community and the

24:37

artist community and my activities and projects in these

24:42

two communities have run through my life in parallel pretty well

24:47

and sometimes they get to cross over and blend and it’s um particularly

24:53

gratifying when that happens all the while I’ve made art

25:00

and I wrote this description of what I do years ago but I think it still holds

25:07

true I said in my personal work um and it kind of explains the

25:12

eclecticism of my work in my personal work I like it when I can combine two or

25:19

more of the following Japanese canadian-ness abstract expressionism

25:25

Hamilton the City by where I live literature and a sense of communality

25:32

I want them to be gracefully awkward combinations

25:38

and surprising encounters

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I would like to acknowledge the artists that came before me and the ones that

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will come after me I’m a high-tech Storyteller

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and that’s a term my mentor the late James Luna coined back in the day

28:28

um I guess the work oh it’s so tiny

28:34

I want to talk about is this work um the work that’s in the show is for

28:41

videos of performances from 1998 until 2007.

28:48

um but this new work I did I did a residency at one Escape one which is a

28:53

Heritage Park in Saskatchewan where I’m from I’m from treaty four

28:58

my mother was my late mother was cream soda my father is metis hence Blondo and

29:06

[Music] one is Schemin is a place outside of Saskatoon that’s become a Heritage Park

29:13

it’s waiting for its incessible this world designation which will be

29:19

excited when he gets it but it’s for the cree people um

29:25

would gather and there’s five bison jumps and so I was invited to do a residency

29:31

in the summer and two years ago they reintroduced the Bison back to this

29:38

land where they had lived for millennial

29:44

and the Bison that they reintroduced were from two different herds because in

29:51

Saskatchewan we have in grasslands National Park and Prince

29:57

Albert National Park they are some of the 100 DNA bison

30:04

Yellowstone also has another herd that’s 100 because you know not all bison’s

30:11

full DNA I guess they mix them with cows or something at some point

30:17

anyway so they introduced the Bison back to

30:23

this park in January I’m going to say 20 not

30:29

Austria time is so weird with codeine so not last January but the January before

30:36

that

30:41

and they introduced 30. some of them were from Yellowstone and some of them

30:47

are from grasslands and in the spring of 2020

30:56

because bison you know they like to get down and rub and bathe in that dirt

31:02

and they exposed four rocks four petroglyphs

31:08

I know and I knew this before they told you

31:14

know the public about it and I had to I couldn’t tell anybody I was just like it’s kind of like getting this GG award

31:20

you can tell anybody for four months and

31:26

um they were called rib Stones so it was like um The Hunters when they would

31:33

you know kill the Bison it was markings for every bison that was killed

31:39

and then I just found out on International indigenous day on

31:44

September 30th there was a baby bison born there was one born on Mother’s Day

31:51

one born on June 21st and now one born on September

31:58

um so this residency I just wanted to honor the Bison and I was thinking about how our our

32:06

people are contemporary indigenous people we use ribbon and we use it for ownership celebration like ribbon skirts

32:13

ribbon shirts and I have I so for me this is honoring the Bison

32:21

being returned to their Homeland after being gone for

32:27

I don’t know almost 200 years and

32:33

it was just magical to be there this is the South Saskatchewan River

32:42

um the other work I have um the big photos are of

32:47

I call it a square on um Lake Winnipeg and that I was commissioned to do that

32:54

work for an opera for tapestry Opera and it was for a play that was written about schwanna did it the last they say the

33:03

last of the boat time people but I don’t think she was I think they still exist

33:09

um and then the videos are just old

33:15

I was thinking about what I’m gonna say that these guys said it all

33:21

um I started working in 69 and I

33:28

I started working with freedom leasing from in princetonburg

33:34

and you know like when I started I didn’t say I was going to be an artist and

33:41

my friend Tommy Reese bought me to Gold carving with him but I drew all my life since it was

33:49

a kid and we used to make our own toys because we had no money

33:56

and um with a look at the sentence here’s wishbook catalog

34:01

seeing God in their drive from Karma who made slingshots and bow and arrows

34:08

and anyways my good friend Bob Jackson one day we were sitting down by the who made

34:15

these canoes and playing in this puddle with the canoes

34:21

he asked me what I was going to be right I said I think I’m going to be a

34:27

carpenter because my dad was a carpenter and I used to watch him working with a wooden

34:32

and I used to watch him when he was carving the kindling like you know they used to make these with a knife these

34:39

round shapes to start the fire in the morning really

34:45

really fast and uh anyway so later on like I

34:52

mean Bob Johnson we we had this pack we we had this agreement we said we’re

34:59

gonna do something we didn’t know what it was but we’re gonna do it

35:05

and he said what we agreed on was we’re going to do something with our

35:11

lives we’re going to do something the Only Rule it’s got to be good

35:18

at one time he quit carving and I said remember what we agreed on and he said

35:25

yeah and I said well are you going to do it and he said wow

35:32

I told God gave you this gift and he didn’t give it to everybody so we started carving again

35:40

but he was one of the best Carvers said I was lucky like I I met Freda and I was

35:45

ready to learn and because he can you can’t just go there you have to be

35:53

committed and what I found is like you know like with art and teaching and

35:59

you can’t just have talent you gotta have the commitment the dedication that’s what’s costly

36:08

like there’s a lot of talent in the world but it’s all wasted wow but most

36:13

of this but you know I was lucky that I met really good teachers and and I was ready

36:20

to learn and willing to do whatever it takes and I didn’t go to art school but I

36:26

studied it myself like people asked me and I said I went to art school at the prince super Public Library

36:33

but I know a lot and I I wanted to know what good art was and um

36:39

I was always willing to learn and I found too that like could be a true artist you have to continuously learn

36:46

and use it because you don’t even use 10 of what you know in your whole life

36:52

and what I’m trying to do now is put what I know in into my pieces into my

36:58

sculpture and that’s what I’m doing now with my new pieces and I’m I’m working on a show

37:04

now about the cameras because I realize we’re the last First Nations can

37:10

regeneration that live their work their fish there you know like and uh

37:17

there’s no more cameras and the calories have been running you know in northern BC for over 100 years our people were

37:24

always involved First Nations so what I want to do I want to make statement about that and also I want to

37:31

make statement about we’re losing our salmon like the Buffalo you know like

37:37

that’s our buffalo you know because you know like all the animals that depend on it and um

37:44

so that’s that’s what I’m working on now I’m working on a show about the Camry days I’m going to call the Cannery days

37:49

The Glory Days because everyone I talked to they said it was the best time of

37:56

their lives working in the country because everybody had a job we’d have lots of money but we had a job

38:02

and you know like when I was growing up my mother worked there my grandfather worked there remember my dad worked

38:08

there my sisters my cousins my aunties everybody everybody worked there

38:15

and we work you know like with Japanese people Chinese people and everybody worked there

38:22

and I want to make a statement about that too and that’s that’s the project I’m

38:27

working on now because I’m thinking about like like say like with northwest coast you know they always try to put us

38:32

in categories but we don’t fit because northwest coast

38:38

is the only one of the only true great art forms that’s from Canada it’s not

38:45

from somewhere else it didn’t come from across the ocean it’s from here

38:50

and it’s ours and it’s one of the our ancestors did

38:55

some of the greatest sculptures of every any time in any place

39:04

and that’s what I feel about our my ancestors

39:09

and that’s what I realized studying it I’ve studied the art

39:15

now for 50 years and I taught and and worked at it

39:22

and that’s where I’ve been working on right now over 50 years

39:30

and I think about it now like like where would it have gone if they didn’t stop

39:36

us and like say like our generation when I grew up we were when I was born

39:44

my people weren’t allowed to carve our our oh

39:50

our culture was outlined till 1951.

39:56

so my generation it was a rebellion about what they did to our people

40:03

so I think culture is so important and art because when you understand art you

40:09

understand culture culture is what makes us human cultures makes us civilized that’s why

40:17

art is important and part is like you know like like

40:23

culture is like the glue of societies it’s a spiritual group of societies

40:29

and once that breaks down the whole nation breaks down

40:35

and you know like you’ve got to know your history though you got to know your

40:41

history and you got to try to deal with it and and that’s what

40:46

I’ve been thinking about the art how how it affected my life how it affects other

40:51

people but people think that the Euro art is just paintings and drawings and stuff

40:58

it’s whatever you do that’s your culture whatever you live that’s your culture

41:04

and what I’ve been trying to do is show that you know northwest coast our cult our our art

41:11

it’s great art it’s great art and I’ve been pushing that my whole life

41:17

because my grandmother said

41:25

you got to do it well because when we show our face which means our designs are cleanse

41:33

our society is natural you know my mother’s wolf I’m wolf my grandfathers

41:40

are Ravens we don’t marry the same Clan but we take it from our mother’s side and

41:47

I was lucky because I was born in the right family my my grandmother’s father

41:52

was a Carver from Huna Alaska his name was Justin Ward and then I

41:58

found out that my great-grandmother was a basket weeper so I was lucky the art was in my family way back and also my

42:06

grandfathers they were singers and song composers and storytellers and

42:14

Healers so the art was in my family and I was lucky when I was young I listened I

42:21

listened to my grandfather and but when you’re young you think you know it all too you know and I I should have

42:27

listened more I used to tell my grandpa you know you know I know that I know that he says

42:34

well you’re gonna find out he said you learn it now or you’re gonna find out the hard way

42:42

but I’m very thankful you know for my for my teachers and uh

42:47

and I’m honored to get this award you know because it’s

42:53

it’s for our ancestors it’s for my mother

43:00

my grandmother my grandfather

43:05

and they were the only ones that believed in me when I started

43:12

it’s for my people just want to thank everybody too and um

43:21

I thought about my mom when I got this

43:28

and when they fooled me up you know they said he said to me but when I won this award she said to me

43:35

I won this award and um I said oh thank you I said oh it took me

43:41

50 years [Music] I started to laugh but that’s how long

43:48

it took and one of one of our students said to me one day that in two years ago we

43:54

Dempsey palm and I thought about it it took me 50.

44:00

and I’m still trying to be dead [Music]

44:05

but you know what I feel too is like you know like for the two artists you got to keep

44:12

learning you stop learning you finish you don’t get any better you know any worse but you actually finished

44:19

but you gotta use what you know you have to use what you know

44:25

and that’s what I’m trying to do with my work now I’m thinking about my ancestors now where would they have gone if they

44:32

didn’t stop if they didn’t stop carving and we got to go there there’s nowhere

44:38

else to go because like I’ve talked about like people always talk about well is that

44:44

traditional or is it contemporary when you think about art everything was one time contemporary

44:51

it’s the acceptance the use of the people that make it traditional

44:59

as the great pieces that have a chance of becoming traditional

45:04

and I talk about like like like right now I talked with my friends the

45:09

boundaries I’ve been working with them and like because like like when we go back in our time bike South okay

45:17

I’m gonna hit the wall and that’s the Great Wall the wall of my

45:23

ancestors great heart now how the hell am I going to get over it or around it or under it or beside it

45:31

you can’t you cannot get it get there what we decided was

45:38

all we could do is do our very very best use what we know use everything we know

45:45

and everything we could borrow or steal and we have to do it for our own time

45:54

and that’s all we can do because that’s what they did in their times that was

45:59

their art for their time and that’s what we’re dealing with now and that’s what

46:05

I’m dealing with now and so what I’ve been trying to do is like with my work I did the walled sculptures like and um

46:15

I thought about like like like I want to put the sculptures on the wall

46:22

and that’s what they call them their ball sculptures because it’s not a totem pole it’s not a

46:27

mask it’s about sculpture and I’ve done pieces you know and people

46:33

said well I did this little frog guy I had this little froggy guy no wonder used to carry him around like my little

46:39

baby you know anyways this lady says to me she says that’s not northwest coast

46:46

and I said what do you mean I said I did them and she says well it’s not a total Paul

46:52

I said well it’s not about the sculpture you know he thinks we already control them

46:59

anyways so I done a lot of different things and I was lucky too like I

47:05

I had good teachers and I listened and I I worked hard too

47:10

I’m I work hard and I realized you know you got to use what you know too you can’t just learn

47:18

it and I actually done my homework like because what happens is like I’ve done

47:23

my homework in art by teaching I taught in Alaska continent taught in the jails

47:30

I I went everywhere and and and I like I didn’t want to when

47:37

I started I just wanted to carve and free to do that you know so what she did to me she she sent me to Alaska to teach

47:44

the art our clunking people my relatives up there drawing traditional avoid u-shapes and

47:53

and then when I went up there after I I realized after ten thousand

48:00

old boys I knew how to draw that’s why she sent me

48:07

but I realized too like because I was trying to get better but I kept hitting

48:12

the wall and it was my own wall because I didn’t know how to draw and the pieces

48:18

couldn’t get better and what I find now like we we need school after her and

48:23

terrorists and we call it free this in school of northwest coast art

48:28

because I feel she never got her full recognition because she was female and when she started like females they

48:36

didn’t carve in our society in our in our culture but they didn’t even come around the Commerce but Freedom was the

48:43

first one to do it and she was a great teacher and she we

48:50

were hanging on by a thread and Frida was our threat to our culture [Music]

48:56

and people don’t know that freedom

49:03

I still miss Russia [Music]

49:11

but um you know she sent us to Alaska to teach

49:17

and one day Phil jensy phoned me up he was a great juror Phil gen Z and he says you know what we thought for

49:24

nothing when we went to Alaska I said well we got paid you know they paid us but you know what they did to us they

49:31

made us give us give them carvings to teach like at the totem Heritage Center I had to give them a mask we had to give

49:37

them both spoons designs boxes

49:43

anyways Phil says you know now that we’re known artists

49:49

those pieces are worth more than we ever got paid so we we did it for nothing then he said

49:58

at the end he said but we did it because Frida told us to do it so we did it and

50:04

then he says at the end he says we did it for the love of freedom and we’re still doing it that’s why we

50:11

named school after because I felt that she didn’t get her full recognition as

50:16

an artist because while Freda was humble too and Freda was a good teacher and a good person that’s

50:24

that’s why we named school lockers so she won’t be forgotten

50:29

but what I would like to say is that

50:34

before my mother uh foreign

50:43

[Music] look after a blind lady

50:51

and she told my um uh

50:57

mother to name after her so they were

51:02

helping each other quite a bit because there was nobody else

51:08

have done yeah the old lady whose name was a medallion

51:16

like my last name she she told my mother

51:23

to name a girl her [Music]

51:28

and until my mother that I would have a pair of eyes

51:35

except that I don’t have very good eyes I have to work

51:41

prescription glasses so

51:46

and over the years I think I started to think that

51:53

it might have the inner side is what I have for the artwork

52:02

now I look at it that way and uh

52:09

because the baby had to be was the first favorite first time store up north

52:20

enough for this and build yourself

52:28

papers just food and tools hunting tools

52:37

so they didn’t sell any papers so when I was about maybe six or seven

52:48

[Music] my father would try to

52:55

go to the store wacky he had to travel

53:01

and that because I lived up from my outside of it Glory

53:07

we lived in a camp and uh he used to buy him

53:16

little box of fire rickly sparing guns

53:23

and that’s what I used to do my artwork

53:30

uh you know take the glue off and you have a white

53:38

one [Music] I’m sorry one

53:44

and uh and I haven’t uh

53:49

stop good papers oh one thing I have to uh

54:02

just open I’m not good too think about my eight

54:11

minutes

54:16

I have found a little bit of training I want fan arts

54:23

for hours three years and then I got

54:29

bored [Music] and these are the and then I got into

54:37

printing for a year one time so I do

54:42

different things over the years and this is how one of them

54:50

print and uh I’m pretty well only do

54:57

lectures I don’t know anything else because I

55:03

think it has something to do with my father

55:09

uh what do we

55:14

were in bed we used to ask him to tell us uh Legends

55:21

yeah and I think I might

55:27

come back idea in my family theories

55:36

it took me many years to get back to um

55:43

uh my roots because I want to wear

55:48

residential school it got something to do with that

55:54

so it took me many years to get back to my rooms where you know

56:04

where I was born and uh and I’ve been that’s what I do is

56:12

mostly uh

56:17

lectures and I also do well animations [Music]

56:24

about uh elections and Men and that’s one of them I think

56:32

it’s a little animation it’s probably

56:40

upstairs I think yeah

56:45

about seven Legends uh put together

56:51

and that was added that for enemy mushroom film Lord

56:59

so that’s where I am now on I’m you know slowing down

57:06

a little bit but I probably will keep going

57:11

until right to the end you know what else can I do you know

57:21

um so I’ve been doing artwork all my love

57:28

I’ve never done anything else it’s an art

57:35

and down you never do anything right away I don’t

57:45

when I finish my artwork that day I could look at it again the

57:52

next morning and I don’t like it anymore it should have been done better

57:59

it’s always a problem with this uh

58:04

doing better all those years

58:10

so you just keep going repeating things

58:17

trying to make it perfect so I don’t think there’s such a nice uh

58:24

perfection with my artwork I’m sure I’m not the only one

58:33

uh who thinks like that

58:38

foreign

59:06

um I want to thank the people whose place this is for being here and I feel very emotional

59:14

about that and I think that’s a good thing I think I was told by somebody in

59:19

the Bonnie in your territory that unless we really feel the the emotion you know things and

59:27

we’re taking it for granted you know and and I don’t want to take this for granted this is a just a paradise so hi

59:34

how you get in the house [Music] so my mom you know my my big teachers

59:39

were my mom um and my relatives and my dad a little bit so my mom taught me to care and to

59:47

be useful and my dad taught me to be inventive and

59:53

my relatives taught me to share my opportunities and to share my gifts so really grateful to them that they that

1:00:00

was the thing we almost told me you know what to do and in my early work boy am I ever

1:00:07

nervous my hand’s just shaking um in my early work I did mostly performance art and it’s not depicted

1:00:12

here at all but um I think it was because of the time I didn’t have my language I’m learning it

1:00:18

now as an older person and the only things we had when we were kids our mother would tell us to shut up and that

1:00:25

we were liars and you know stuff like that and so those were the hurt the words we heard when we were kids but um

1:00:33

so I realized that the early performance work was me trying to find a sort of a personal lexicon with my body and

1:00:39

materials you know and I was trying to say something I was trying to express myself and when I started learning my language

1:00:47

my desire to sort of be performing and to be making the work I was making sort

1:00:52

of started to fade away because I realized the language the language knew me you know my language knew me and and

1:01:00

I didn’t have to do all the kind of gestures I was doing for so long

1:01:05

and then my relatives you know that teaching from my relatives teaching me to share my

1:01:11

opportunities started to really dawn on me you know as I as I grew up and I got

1:01:17

older I was like ah okay I know what they meant and um so I started moving

1:01:23

from making work that was about me performing to work that was about other people

1:01:29

getting to participate but other people being the focus of the work and um and

1:01:36

that made me really happy you know because it meant that more people were seeing themselves expressed in the work

1:01:42

and joining in and the thing about sharing uh so the other piece that the first hide piece

1:01:49

I’ll talk a little bit about that work it’s I’ve been um since 2008 going into

1:01:56

provincial correction provincial correctional centers federal prisons and

1:02:01

Municipal detention centers and that was the other thing when I learned how to write songs when I started learning how

1:02:08

to write a song I was like okay that’s the gift I need to share and so that

1:02:13

this piece is one of the works is is based on one of the songs uh the piece

1:02:20

is called winter come but the work is uh the song is called can’t break us and

1:02:26

um there’s nine or ten songs that have been written in various different correctional facilities

1:02:32

because I think speaking of when Bob Dempsey Bob was talking about culture

1:02:39

um and sort of being gifted and how much of it’s wasted like that’s what I found is that our prisons are full uh mostly

1:02:46

predominantly indigenous people who are so gifted and so talented and and so

1:02:53

it’s been a gift for me to be able to go in and share my ability to write a song

1:03:00

um with a group of individuals and

1:03:05

um yeah I call them freedom songs but not because they’re part of that sort of uh Civil Rights Movement but in Cree

1:03:13

language um the beam song the beamus one it means um to be self-governing to own yourself

1:03:19

to Be Your Own Boss and it it also refers to sort of being in a state of balance you know so you know it’s it’s

1:03:26

those um women and men and youth you know getting to express themselves and

1:03:31

them getting to be the boss of their words and their song um so it’s you know it’s them expressing

1:03:38

themselves and um I know I can I come from a family that knows how to make a short story long so yeah somebody’s gonna have to

1:03:45

give me the the 10 the eight minute Mark but um when I go in the first thing I

1:03:50

say to to everyone I’m working with is I say you know what happens when you play a Country Song Backwards does anyone

1:03:57

know that joke when you play a Country Song Backwards you get back your house and your dog and

1:04:03

your wife so it’s kind of like we could sing We could write a song like that but why don’t we just write a song that sort

1:04:09

of Assurance who we are and what we’re gonna do you know so at any rate okay

1:04:15

you’re gonna give me the eight minutes all right um so uh the other piece which isn’t

1:04:20

this one either the the Buffalo pieces um I started realizing that uh in in my

1:04:26

life when I went to visiting and then my language used to take is like knowledge transfer you know you

1:04:34

go to someone’s house and in that process of having that visit you know some knowledge has been transferred you

1:04:39

know there’s an interchange and I started realizing that there was like stories that would be like oh that’s an

1:04:45

amazing story you know and it had a transformational effect on me and so this piece is a piece about

1:04:52

transformation and it’s based on a story from our our Elder sibling so in Cree

1:04:58

language it’s not Elder sibling it doesn’t say or he or she which is interesting it’s kind of our Elder

1:05:03

sibling is a they in a very interesting way that sort of bridges the physical world in the spiritual world so there’s

1:05:10

another dimension of Venus right and so on Sunday tomorrow I’ll tell that story

1:05:16

of of that piece as families come and join in on getting

1:05:23

to roll on the piece so that’s the thing you need to know is that take your shoes and your glasses off and and think of

1:05:28

something you want to change in your life and have a role you know and that’s what that piece is about

1:05:35

um and so finally if you can switch to that final slide I’ll just say um I’m working on something new

1:05:43

um and knew in many ways for me uh in this notion of the way I was taught to share

1:05:50

my my gifts and to share my opportunities and to and to be caring

1:05:56

um um I got invited by some curators to make some work um a new work which is more um more in

1:06:03

the work of like Luke Cushing the kind of technological work so it’s you know it’s image mapping and sensors and

1:06:10

there’s all kinds of you know algorithms that have created the images and I could go on about that but

1:06:16

um it’s based on the fact that the curators were telling me um about the the falls at Ottawa and uh in

1:06:25

in Bonnie in your language what I’ve learned it’s called akijochuan and it means the um pipe pipe Bowl so it’s a

1:06:33

sacred place it’s a pipe of the bowl of a pipe you know it’s a sacred sacred place and um but as they were speaking to me

1:06:40

these two curators they mentioned something about eel ladders and I was like eel ladders you’ve never heard of

1:06:47

an eelater what’s that a lot I mean I come from a land from a land block place

1:06:52

there’s no access to to to the oceans from Northern Alberta

1:06:58

where I’m from right so eels that you know we didn’t have eels and so I had to

1:07:04

do a lot of research uh because there’s the thing about the story the story kind

1:07:09

of what made me go wait a sec I need to hear more about the story what what about these eels what about this

1:07:15

what is this about and um serendipitously as as I was starting to kind of be really intrigued

1:07:22

by these eels um I got to I got invited to sing at a

1:07:29

online Symposium that was interspecies communicators and um I don’t know if any of you guys

1:07:36

watch YouTube videos but there’s some amazing videos of of Interest species communicators who talk with other beings

1:07:42

and uh and I it’s sort of one of those evening pastimes I was like oh that’s why

1:07:47

that’s quite interesting an interesting documentary and so I was really intrigued because some of the people that I’ve been watching for years on

1:07:54

YouTube were like in this big Zoom room I was like oh my God this is amazing and

1:07:59

it it dawned on me that Not only was I you know intrigued by the story of what

1:08:06

what are these eel ladders and what is this place Happy JoJo on what is this pipe Bowl

1:08:12

but I I realized that I needed to talk to the eels and so the project is

1:08:18

um based on communication uh working with one of the interest species communicators talking with the eels

1:08:26

um on about the project and so it’s it’s a collaboration with the eels the work

1:08:31

that will be in the gallery and the one thing that the eels um wanted me to to well they’re so

1:08:41

they’re so darn clever I said to the eels I said so how do you want me to to

1:08:46

address you in the peace you know like how can I sound you because in my language there’s no word for eel we have

1:08:54

no word and uh and the eel is so clever they said

1:08:59

why don’t you check out how many human languages have a word for us and there’s like over 200 I’ve found

1:09:07

languages from all over the world that have a word for eel for these freshwater eels not the lampreys not those invasive

1:09:15

species but the freshwater eels and uh so that’s going to be part of the pieces all of these different languages

1:09:21

from around the world and many indigenous languages you know like bimese is the word in in your language

1:09:28

bonding event and maybe I’m saying it a bit wrong but um but I just want to finish with saying

1:09:35

um one thing that eels mentioned to me um because the population in that river is down by 98 percent

1:09:42

the yield population and I don’t have to tell anyone here what’s going on looking

1:09:48

at the news and this and what’s happening with the salmon is here and the the creeks and rivers drying up

1:09:54

but the eels um they’re Bottom Feeders so they keep they keep the fresh water clean and so if their population is down

1:10:01

by 98 it’s it’s giving us a sense of what’s happening to our Waters and I’ll

1:10:08

just finish by saying that the eels told me that if we go you go

1:10:13

so that’s awesome it’s really hard to think about how to recap everything that

1:10:20

you said because it’s all been so amazing going back to your work in the exhibition your practice is over your

1:10:27

lifetime work and thinking through your lifetime

1:10:33

achievements is really understanding your lifelong learning and your your

1:10:38

everyday practices and so many threads of what you have said uh are incredibly

1:10:48

humbling in thinking of the transmission of culture through intergenerations thinking about our ancestors

1:10:56

transmission of culture through the things that we care about and Excavating

1:11:01

histories that need to be known and I just really appreciate all of your work

1:11:07

and spending time with us today and sharing I’m going to open the floor for

1:11:14

questions but um I’m sorry I sure know just wanted to know what Neil water was because

1:11:20

you’re talking about them in some fascinating the EU letters um they were

1:11:26

part of sort of a king’s Conservancy or conservation an idea that um because

1:11:31

they put dams wherever there’s Falls and that’s to generate hydroelectric power

1:11:37

and should your fault or I could judge a while it’s the second biggest uh Fault

1:11:44

in all of North America apparently uh and so it’s an important source of

1:11:49

course energy but what happens is the yields this is a little research on eels the eels actually

1:11:56

um reverse spawn so whereas salmon spawn Upstream uh eels actually spawn in one

1:12:03

place in the world so all freshwater meals from all over the world spawn in

1:12:08

the ancient seabed called the sargasso sea off of North Carolina and so it

1:12:13

doesn’t matter if they’re in they go back to Maori land or aotearoa it

1:12:19

doesn’t matter if they go back up to Russia to Venezuela to anywhere on these lands they all spawn there and so these

1:12:28

tiny tiny little babies make their way back to the river where they came from where they’re where their ancestors have

1:12:33

always been and so that’s their job as they grow they they bottom feed and

1:12:39

clean the waters and they head upstream and so of course when they get to the falls they actually climb rocks and

1:12:47

there’s some gorgeous videos of tiny they’re called glacials if you check them out on the internet and they

1:12:53

actually climb up Rock faces to make their way to continue to go outstream

1:12:58

and the interesting thing is it’s um their gender is is based on where they end up and so it’s mostly the women who

1:13:05

end up the furthest I’ve scream and the men stayed closer down into the estuaries

1:13:11

but when when the female becomes mature her job then is to make her way back

1:13:17

Downstream so she can go and um spawn and in the great sarcasto sea

1:13:23

so the e-ladders are there because um because those babies wouldn’t they

1:13:30

would be blocked by the dam and buy all of those combines and everything so that’s a human intervention attempt to

1:13:37

try and allow the few that are still with us to make their way up whether

1:13:43

they know that I don’t think they’re signposts that let the deals so you know

1:13:48

unfortunately I think you know we’re part of the problem of the eels not making their way up but but the aladders

1:13:54

are being used and they have eel portals for the females but that’s what this the

1:14:01

eels also communicated to me was that they they don’t like those you know portals as well because they haven’t

1:14:06

tried to find the meal portal to make their way back down put that answers years

1:14:21

[Music]

1:14:27

the what is the longest time is is

1:14:39

and that uh we all do that you know when we were before I used to become photons

1:14:46

in the comments eventually if you have those space cases that can explore so it’s

1:14:52

been a lifetime approach yes but the thing that changes over the years

1:15:00

when I have with scrapbooks so describe what’s happening all and

1:15:06

that’s incredible so it’s crap spaces and you know I have really a history

1:15:13

that has to see how everybody acknowledging wherever they are

1:15:47

digital images is so risky risky risky

1:15:59

you use

1:16:10

worth it and things like that I’m curious like

1:16:15

how many I’ll become afraid all the time every time you turn around you know take

1:16:21

that into consideration it is it’s just fascinating with this you know

1:16:28

exception

1:16:42

[Music]

1:16:51

[Music]

1:16:57

you have to have a sense of where you come from you have to recognize your ancestors or professors where you are

1:17:05

who you are really it’s very important but

1:17:10

I think it’s just something for you to be in the presence yeah

1:17:20

a

1:17:28

and uh

1:17:44

but in the space which is more abstract here we have to influencers about how to

1:17:54

speak about coming back to a few welcome

1:18:01

so it’s not uh you will not survive

1:18:14

[Music] the biases and abuse

1:18:20

um

1:18:32

thank you [Music] so I have current Technologies

1:18:46

um so one question actually a little bit of a follow-up it has to do with um so

1:18:52

when I look across the table I see a beautiful older faces

1:19:01

so what question has to do with your personal feelings and experience about

1:19:06

impermanence and also on the other hand Legacy and do

1:19:14

you think about it how do you think about this

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that’s my question went towards

1:19:27

um would you talk about the life right like like how much time you got to do it

1:19:35

right you know like I yeah

1:19:41

it hit me last summer I didn’t experienced that I was in the hospital for a while and really makes you think

1:19:48

because you always think you got a lot of time and I realized like with my word

1:19:54

I’ve got sketchbooks full of drawings I’ve been saving you know and I was

1:19:59

stingy for them but then I realized now what the hell are you gonna do it

1:20:06

you know I mean if time’s going by I grew up now and then what I realized too

1:20:12

my vision and what I could do and my skill my ideas and we have that

1:20:20

and you gotta use it and do it the best you can as much as

1:20:26

you can and I’m thinking about my carving I’ve still got a lot of carvings I want to do

1:20:33

and I I realized my ideas too if I don’t do it nobody else is going to do it

1:20:38

because nobody else sees it like I do or knows what I know you know like I I’ve been studying art

1:20:45

for 50 years and I’m drawing and thinking about it you know and I’ve got

1:20:52

all these ideas and I think about it now it’s really important

1:20:58

it’s important because people can learn from what I do and what I know

1:21:05

because I was I was really fortunate I I grew up with my grandparents and I

1:21:10

listened to their stories and I listen to them you know and they taught me a lot of things you know because like

1:21:17

artists not just what artists but life his whole life you got no life too and

1:21:23

you’ve got to use it though you’ve got to be able to use your your skill

1:21:30

your your intelligence because like when people look at artists work okay you’re

1:21:35

looking at the intelligence you’re looking at their knowledge you’re

1:21:40

looking at their experience you’re looking at their life you’re looking at

1:21:48

where they’re at you’re also it’s um

1:21:56

you know like I just had to wear perspective and then I I realized when I looked at my pizzas I haven’t seen for

1:22:03

some 40 years I spent years by myself

1:22:09

years and just working thinking because I had to figure out everything

1:22:15

every cut every shape every line I drew the line I carved the line I painted the

1:22:22

line I I thought about it I rented house and I realized that that’s all the time

1:22:29

and you only get so much time and like

1:22:36

artists usually do their mature work at the end and I’ve been thinking about that when

1:22:44

I’m I’m trying to use what I know [Music] and do it the best I can

1:22:51

with what I know that’s what I’ve been doing with my work and I want to see where it goes

1:22:59

because you know like eventually as as an artist you know you could learn so much you could do so much

1:23:07

but eventually Like It’s A Hard Road it’s a road

1:23:15

but eventually you got to go your own way because it’s already been done

1:23:20

everything’s been done because when you try to go your own way

1:23:28

that’s where your style is that’s where your truth is as an artist

1:23:33

as human being and that’s what artists want

1:23:38

and she was talking about getting better I was trying to get better too

1:23:44

and what I do is I don’t show my stuff in my house because the faces will come

1:23:50

back to me and they’ll come open something else and so I hide them or get rid of them or

1:23:56

they’re gone and try to forget about them because I got to do new things I can do

1:24:02

better things and that’s how I that’s how I work you know but that’s what I’ve been thinking

1:24:08

about too is now what what what I’ve got to do it now that’s what I’ve

1:24:14

been doing it’s working

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