Intro

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belinda is an emerging curator and first

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generation rwandan currently residing in

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edmonton but soon to be a torontonian uh

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belinda has held volunteer roles with

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the art gallery of alberta and the youth

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organization

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where she’s led the art and culture task

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force she has recently completed her

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bachelors of arts at the university of

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alberta and strives to use her combined

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research skills and creativity to engage

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communities through art without further

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ado belinda

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hello

Welcome

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thank you all for joining us today um

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thank you for coming and joining online

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to this aga monthly community tour of

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inheritance i’m very honored to be doing

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this thank you again michael for having

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me and for coordinating this with me um

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this exhibition is curated by lindsay

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sharman so i want to thank her as well

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and it features three artists

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um deanna bowen adrian simpson and

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steven nenonda with also a little bit of

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a collaboration as he mentioned by a.a

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bronson who made a book

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so i’m just going to be walking through

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this exhibition and

Steven Renonda

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yeah please feel free to ask questions

1:14

throughout

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so

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so i’m starting right here um this is

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a photograph by steven renonda

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one of the artists in the exhibition and

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so basically this is an identity card an

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identification card

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this is his grandfather and this is the

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identification card of his

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great-grandfather um for when they

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photographed and

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um

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basically created these identification

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cards for the japanese internment camps

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in bc

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and

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i’m also really interested in social

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history and a connection to art and so i

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think that this exhibition really talks

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to me in terms of understanding how we

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are not so far removed as we may think

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that we are from a lot of this history

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um

2:13

walking through this exhibition

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it can be very dawn

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very realistic and it’s

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something that we need to grapple with

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a lot of the anti-asian anti-black

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racism here in canada and our

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history with colonialism and oppression

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in this country

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and so i think it’s very important for

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us to like

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see a lot of this work being exhibited

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and a lot of these artists um including

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steven inonda

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basically created a lot of this work

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through their familial ties and research

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within their own family background and

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understanding

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the effects that it had on their own

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communities and what this tells us

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as canadians

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so another artist in this exhibition is

Diona Bowen

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diana bowen whose family is from amber

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valley which is a town founded in 1909

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which was settled by black settlers

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and

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she also did a lot of research through

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her own family history and spoke on

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the

3:17

racist

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anti-black racism that um we witness

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here in canada with the ku klux klan i

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personally have done a lot of research

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into this um because i think it’s

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very interesting how like she talks

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about the 1911 anti-creek negro petition

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as a way to

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prove that anti-black racism exists in

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canada and i think it’s very unfortunate

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that you have to go to those extremes in

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order to

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prove that racism is still an ongoing

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thing um for those of you who are here

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if you look behind you those are all of

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the petitions that were signed um so she

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does a lot of archival work as well

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which i think is very important um as a

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history buff myself like having the

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actual archives and she spoke in her

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artist talk about

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how some of the people were just so

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adamant about not having black people

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come to canada that like they couldn’t

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even scribble their names but they just

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like had x’s

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crossed um because they just knew that

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they didn’t want to have black people in

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canada but

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um

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yeah so

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next i want to talk about these three

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images here

AntiBlack Racism

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which

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um

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i was really glad when i watched her

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artist talk which i urge all of you to

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do also um it’s just posted on youtube

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if you look up deanna bowen

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it should be the first video up

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and she talks a lot about a lot of the

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work in this exhibition and she talks

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about these three images which when i

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first saw them also spoke to me because

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um you can see visibly it’s a white man

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getting beaten and i was just wondering

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what she was trying to invoke with this

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and

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what exactly this meant for the

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exhibition on anti-black racism so

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basically the story is about an

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integration

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project that

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was happening in canada at the time

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where they were trying to integrate

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schools and this white reporter tried to

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get on

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12 black students trying to get into

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that was being driven into a school and

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so once they found out about this they

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beat him and the sheriff beat him and so

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these are just like images of that and

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um

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it ties into the larger exhibit because

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the only reason that there is actual

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reported instances about this

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backlash

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is because

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this white reporter was being beaten and

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not because of the black children who um

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were not allowed to go to school

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so

Orange Hall

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um i’m also stopping at this image as

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well unfortunately i can’t speak on

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every single image in the whole exhibit

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so i’m picking and choosing things um

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so this is the orange hall in alberta

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and i chose this because before there

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was the ku klux klan there was um the

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orange hall and a lot of really

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prominent figures were actually a part

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of this like fraternity they call it

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including the first prime minister

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um johnny mcdonald and i did a lot of

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research into it and there’s a lot of

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like overlap with the ku klux klan with

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a lot of the same members who are part

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of

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um this fraternity also being a part of

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the ku klux

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and the chapter in edmonton was actually

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a lot more prominent than people realize

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with there being a large

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newspaper

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called the liberator which operated out

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of the imperial building in edmonton um

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which is like would have been located

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where like on 100 in jasper avenue right

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now

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and

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the

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leader of the group was called john

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james maloney j.j maloney and she was

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very prominent in the saskatchewan

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chapel a chapter in all of canada and

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came over here afterwards um and

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he was so prominent within the chapter

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in

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alberta that once he lost popularity it

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was kind of like the fall of the entire

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chapter so it was kind of just him

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upholding um and doing a lot of the work

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but he had a lot of supporters and a lot

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of people tuned in or like read the

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newspaper

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so

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yeah

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[Music]

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lastly i’m going to stop here

Deanna Bowen

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so

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this is um

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deanna bowen basically recreated a

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interview that was done by the cbc

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um

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and

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it was

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basically created

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in toronto by an interviewer who asked

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ku klux klan members um the grand dragon

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master which is what the call like the

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head of the kkk um in atlanta and then

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they also invited

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a reverend james bevel but it was kind

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of like an ambush because the ku klux

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klan members didn’t know that

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the reverend was being invited over

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to speak with them and so it was deanna

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bowen talks a lot about like this

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pointing fingers that canadians do to

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oppression

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and that we always kind of showcase

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ourselves as being like a safe space and

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multiculturalism and all of these things

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and like this kind of has the same

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sentiment if you’re able to watch it

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where the white reporter canadian

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reporters kind of like speaking very

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naive

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leads to the kkk members like why don’t

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you guys just shake hands why don’t you

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guys just like be understanding why

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don’t you

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um have

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like why don’t you accept black people

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into the kkk like that was one of his

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questions in the interview but kind of

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just showcasing like if you’re actually

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trying to be a fraternity that’s not

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about hate like why do you have this

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isolationist

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mentality which obviously is not the

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main issue of the kkk and that’s not

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something that

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the

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reverend and other black people had an

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issue with

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so

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basically he talks a lot about how

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the

9:42

and it was also really interesting

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another dichotomy that i found a lot of

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questions that were being asked by the

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kkk members to the reverend is okay if

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there was a fire or if there was a

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burning of your church if someone was

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shot at if someone was hurt why don’t

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you

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call the fbi or why don’t you make a

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like why don’t you involve law

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enforcement

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within these claims and i think it kind

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of speaks to like how a lot of us still

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have issues with police brutality and

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have to like

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kind of

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speak to why that is like not an option

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for a lot of people but even

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in this

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imagery and in this interview that’s

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kind of what they’re talking about like

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if you actually had an issue you should

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have just reported it even though a lot

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of the kkk members kind of took

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positions of authority in a lot of these

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towns and acted without law enforcement

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and acted as

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people who

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um basically made decisions on what is

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right and wrong and shot people who they

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believe to be right and wrong and he

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talks a lot too about like how black

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people are inferior because

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they don’t are they’re not law abiding

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and they don’t follow the rules so

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um another thing that i really

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appreciate about the fact that she

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recreated this because when i first

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walked into this exhibit i thought this

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was like the original and i was very

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confused of why it’s so hd

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but

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kind of showcases like or like brings us

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back into

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the moment because a lot of the imagery

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of the civil rights movement of martin

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luther king is always in black and white

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which kind of detaches us and makes it

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seem so far removed and so i think

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seeing this in color and seeing this

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imagery in a way that we can understand

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it kind of brings it closer to a lot of

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us in present day and kind of allows us

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to actually like

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um understand it a lot more and actually

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like

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engage with it so

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yeah

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so

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so

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i also wanted to stop right here and

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talk about um this particular exhibit

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this is also by stephen ninonda

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and basically this is a representation

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as you can see of a bunch of houses and

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so this is actually

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supposed to showcase the

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japanese internment camps um

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for me when i first walked in i was

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really taken aback by the use of black

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and the the

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reason to why he chose this and he

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actually um the material uses actually

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and so there’s a story behind it where

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the japanese were actually

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um

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forced to make their own houses and

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their own

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um

12:57

like buildings and so they were only

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given a very limited amount of time to

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create these homes

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with limited materials

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and so the lumber actually wasn’t

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actually

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as it wasn’t cured it wasn’t actually

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sufficient enough for them to hold

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through the winter and so a lot of

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cracks

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ended up

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happening between

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the houses and so a way for them to kind

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of like not have the wind literally just

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like chill through the homes is they

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like fill the gaps with tar paper and it

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became so bad that like basically um

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steven ninonda’s grandfather basically

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mentioned that the whole house would be

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engulfed in tar paper and making the

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entire home just like a dark hole in a

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sense

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um which i thought was like

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the imagery really told like talk to me

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because i feel like when i first walked

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into it as well i was like this is very

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daunting like why

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is there all of these black homes and

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then also because like they’re so small

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and you’re so far away you kind of like

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they all seem uniform in a sense as well

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like i couldn’t even tell that there was

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different sizes or different shapes

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which also kind of talks to like the

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lack of like

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identity i think and lack of

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um

14:11

personalization to your home and

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basically a lot of the japanese

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um

14:18

with their the way that they face

14:20

anti-asian racism in canada um post

14:23

pearl harbor like they were basically

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crucified for a

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incident that a lot of them had nothing

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to do with and so

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their identity was in a way taken away

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in that sense and i think that’s

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something that i kind of like gravitated

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towards when looking at this

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if you look to the far back there’s also

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a ladder

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there’s also a story attached to that

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his

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daughter always would ask him if they

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could build

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a ladder tall enough if they could reach

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the moon

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and so i thought that was quite sweet

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and that’s basically

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leading up to the moon and if you look

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really closely it like moves

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very

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very slowly

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to represent kind of like a slow passage

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of time

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which again like kind of represents the

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suffering of the japanese and the

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internment camps because of

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um

15:18

yeah like their their lack of resources

15:21

their lack of

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um

15:24

like respect to human life

15:31

also free free to ask questions if you

15:34

want to talk about anything

Adrian Simpson

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so this part of the exhibit is by adrian

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simpson

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adrian stimpson is an indigenous artist

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and

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this entire exhibit is also in part in

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collaborate not in collaboration but

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almost as to an answer to another artist

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called a.a bronson

16:24

who wrote a book

16:28

basically apologizing for his ancestors

16:32

relation to the residential schools so

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adrian stimpson went to residential

16:37

school his gran his father went to

16:38

residential school and his grandfather

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went to a residential school and i want

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to specifically talk about this dinner

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table which

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he

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created as

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a symbol of what it would basically be

16:52

like if

16:54

the grandfather of the artist who has

16:59

running residential schools and creating

17:01

them and his grandfather who went to

17:04

residential schools and suffered through

17:06

them and basically also talking about

17:08

themes of like forgiveness

17:10

um away from like a christian religious

17:14

um standpoint but

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like a blackfoot indigenous

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understanding of forgiveness and i also

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found this really interesting just

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because of like the plates

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um at first i thought it was

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representative of how a lot of the

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indigenous

17:35

um children who went to residential

17:37

schools one of the first stories that i

17:38

remember learning that really like

17:40

touched me is them not being able to eat

17:42

the food that they’re accustomed to and

17:45

so them being foreseed a lot

17:48

that their bodies couldn’t necessarily

17:50

digest

17:51

and um

17:53

i think that really speaks to like how

17:55

something so small and like they would

17:57

be brutalized for it for refusing to eat

18:00

like porridge or oatmeal or whatever um

18:03

and they weren’t able to actually eat a

18:05

lot of these things so i think like this

18:07

being on a plate

18:08

was something that like initially caught

18:10

my eye because it like brought me back

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to that story and reminded me of

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like what was taken away from these

18:18

children and

18:20

um

18:21

like the suffering that they went

18:23

through by not being able to

18:25

practice their culture eat their food or

18:28

engage

18:30

with their

18:31

with their peers in a way that’s

18:33

respectable to them and humane

18:36

so yeah so i think that’s about all the

18:39

time that i have so i just want to thank

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you all for joining us today

18:44

we will now take questions so

18:47

about anything let me know

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