0:00

let me say

0:10

hungarious

0:13

let’s make some TV

0:16

laughing for myself eh

0:18

um okay

0:25

[Music]

0:28

um

0:40

so in my language I introduced myself

0:43

and that language is

0:45

free language and I basically told you

0:49

my name and that I’m a half breed and

0:52

that I’m originally from Northern

0:54

Alberta

0:56

Papas Chase First Nation and Miss

1:00

quachiwa skygan which is the city of

1:02

Edmonton and it translates to mean the

1:05

beaver Hills Lodge

1:07

um and I live in Saskatoon now and

1:11

really happy to be here today uh to talk

1:14

about the work that

1:16

created for the exhibition entanglements

1:19

so as you can see we’re starting out

1:22

with a lovely shot of the falls that I

1:25

can’t actually say in French so I

1:27

apologize for not being able to make

1:29

that uh sound in my mouth but I love the

1:32

anishinaabe word for the exhibit or for

1:35

the false which is

1:39

[Music]

1:39

um

1:42

and we’ll talk a little bit about

1:45

why I named the work what I named the

1:47

work as you can see it says

1:53

and um the title comes from a series of

1:56

work that I’ve been making in different

1:58

locations around the world

2:00

and um

2:02

this is very site-specific to this place

2:06

um

2:06

so nepaliwin means the act of Standing

2:09

on

2:10

[Music]

2:11

in the initial language is a pipe Bowl

2:16

and bimizi is also in the inishinaabemon

2:19

language and it’s that word for eel and

2:22

is a word in my language and it means

2:25

for with or because of so for me the

2:27

whole notion of Nepali when making a

2:30

series of work is is a way of sort of um

2:33

as a political action of standing up you

2:36

can also sit in right and you can also

2:40

stand in so there’s all these different

2:42

ways that we can frame our sort of

2:44

participation and how we’re going to be

2:46

part of the work part of maybe the

2:50

issues or the problems that the work is

2:52

trying to deal with and so that was why

2:54

I titled the work

2:56

let’s hope that in standing in the

2:59

installation in understanding even today

3:02

what the work is about you’re actually

3:04

in part you’re part of a sit-in in

3:07

protest in support right

3:10

[Music]

3:10

um

3:13

and I think I want to come back to and

3:16

hopefully I will remember to come back

3:17

to the nishnab m o n word of the of the

3:21

falls

3:22

um because I think there’s something

3:24

poetic and beautiful that I started to

3:26

realize in the making of the word

3:30

and I think it’s also important to say

3:32

that um

3:33

in my language we don’t have a word for

3:35

you

3:36

so uh it’s important that

3:39

that I use the the language of this

3:42

place to to describe

3:45

in part

3:47

um when I first was contacted by

3:50

um Selena and Ryan to to create a work

3:54

for the exhibition

3:56

um I I first talked about an older piece

4:00

that I had created in 2016 for an

4:03

exhibition in Australia called with

4:05

secrecy and despatch

4:07

and that exhibition was an international

4:11

exhibition dealing with the massacre of

4:13

the variwal people just outside of

4:16

Sydney and who were massacred and had

4:19

their population decimated actually

4:21

driven off of a cliff so that farmers

4:24

could have farm land in that area and so

4:29

for that work I used technology you can

4:33

kind of see uh in the center there

4:36

there’s a little tiny light on the

4:37

ground that’s actually a connect camera

4:39

that’s um and just see it right there a

4:44

connect camera that’s connected to a

4:46

computer and using JavaScript and

4:49

processing uh what it did was

4:51

essentially you would walk into the room

4:53

and there was like a nine foot by 12

4:56

foot projection of of a video of just a

4:59

location and as you walked in to the

5:03

space you know very much with lighting

5:05

and kind of tape so you knew where to

5:07

stand

5:08

um

5:09

the the connect camera would be taking

5:12

an image of you every every Split Second

5:15

and compiling them so that it so that it

5:18

would become opaque and uh there was

5:21

also a monitor on the ground that you’d

5:24

read what that plaque said that you

5:26

could not really read from where you

5:28

were standing but if you look down at

5:30

the monitor you could read what the

5:31

plaque said and you’d understand that oh

5:33

it’s the plaque that was to Homage to

5:37

apologize

5:39

um for the massacre and then when by

5:41

time you looked up you realize that

5:43

you’re actually standing behind the

5:45

monument and you become part of the of

5:48

the video

5:49

and um you know I really wanted to use

5:52

that technology again for this

5:54

exhibition when we were talking about

5:55

entanglements

5:57

um because most of my work really is

5:59

looking at you know indigenous issues

6:02

you know

6:03

um and has been for decades

6:06

um as an indigenous artist it’s that’s

6:08

that’s my Mo

6:11

um and so that was my first proposal to

6:15

you know to make the work and to reuse

6:17

this technology

6:19

um that’s wasn’t without its uh bugs but

6:23

uh but really worked elegantly you know

6:25

and the great thing about it too is that

6:27

as you walked away then each one of

6:29

those little snapshots would start to

6:32

be deleted and eventually would be back

6:35

to so it wasn’t permanent it was just

6:37

very temporal you were there you know

6:40

and what I was trying to say with that

6:41

work is that not a lot of people go to

6:43

that site anymore and you know let’s

6:46

let’s have you be part of participatory

6:49

part of this protest of this standing up

6:52

for the therawal people standing up to

6:54

apologize

6:56

um and what I was proposing uh

6:59

originally uh to even further This was

7:02

um my experience of being in Ottawa as

7:05

many of your colleagues and friends who

7:10

come to Ottawa might be to sit on a

7:12

Canada Council jury you know and that

7:14

might be the only time we come or it

7:16

might be to come to a conference or if

7:19

we’re in an exhibition we might travel

7:20

here

7:22

um but not living here you know my my

7:25

history my knowledge of Ottawa really is

7:28

limited to protests and so I was

7:30

speaking with Selena and Ryan initially

7:33

about the protest which was Chief tree

7:37

suspense and the hunger strike that she

7:40

did during the whole Idol no more period

7:42

about the living conditions that

7:44

arawapas got and so this is a an image

7:47

of the camp on Christian Island and that

7:50

was the location I was wanting to to

7:52

work with was on the uh on the river

7:56

there

7:57

gichi CB which is the anishinabe word

8:01

for the river

8:02

and I would use the same technology as

8:05

you can see here she’s visited by Adam

8:10

is it Adam Driver

8:12

he’s a famous Indian actor I just know

8:16

we’ll just call him Adam Beach Adam

8:18

Beach thank you very much so you know so

8:21

she’s here with Adam Beach and she’s

8:23

inside the teepee that I just showed you

8:25

she’s inside the teepee with Adam Beach

8:28

and now she’s inside the TP with with

8:31

Justin Trudeau and her helpers you can

8:35

see around her and so I would have done

8:37

the same thing it would have been

8:39

basically you know walking into a scene

8:42

where Chief Teresa Spence is sitting and

8:46

you walking into the space eventually

8:48

would be sitting with her you know and

8:50

it would be a way to say that we need to

8:52

all participate in these events we all

8:54

are implicated in these historic events

8:57

we all are implicated in these realities

9:00

of indigenous people you know it doesn’t

9:02

matter where you live

9:04

you know if you have potable water

9:06

that’s relational to a community that

9:09

doesn’t you know we need to realize that

9:12

um but the most wonderful thing happened

9:15

as I was

9:16

um continuing this conversation with

9:18

Ryan and Selena and this was when

9:22

um Ryan

9:24

um

9:25

probably because of your architectural

9:27

background started mentioning the damn

9:30

and the whole damn site and a lot of the

9:32

politics in the history of the dam being

9:35

created

9:36

and so then the idea started switching

9:40

to well is there a way that we could

9:41

implicate people in that we’re all

9:43

involved in

9:45

um the creation of this Dam whether you

9:47

protest it or not I mean the fact that

9:50

we’re using electricity today the fact

9:52

that everything is powered by

9:53

electricity means we’re all implicated

9:55

in that damn sight you know uh and I

9:58

don’t mean that damn sight that damn

10:00

site

10:01

although both work

10:04

and so that was another sort of thing

10:06

well can we get some videos so that

10:08

we’re actually realizing that we all

10:11

have the hard hats on that we actually

10:13

are all the Builders of the necessity of

10:16

this Dam and that’s still something I

10:18

think that uh you know is in my mind a

10:23

problem that I’ve yet to solve in the

10:25

work

10:27

um

10:27

so that was

10:29

um

10:30

then the next sort of preponderance

10:32

until

10:34

Ryan mentioned ear ladders and he

10:37

mentioned that in the creation of the

10:40

dam that they had built some eel ladders

10:43

and uh and there was also even a camera

10:46

that was videoing the eels and and

10:51

I’m from Northern Alberta and we have no

10:54

direct access to the ocean so we have

10:56

Ling cods we have suckers we have all

10:59

kinds of like long fish but we actually

11:02

there’s no freshwater eels in Northern

11:05

Saskatchewan or Northern Alberta

11:08

um and so this freshwater eel issue

11:11

became very it was a story I wanted to

11:14

hear

11:15

and really

11:17

that then became the story for me that I

11:20

really it’s like um a cliffhanger you

11:23

know

11:23

who are these eels

11:26

you know

11:27

how are they here and not where I live

11:29

you know how are they uh well you know

11:32

what’s this what’s their story and and

11:35

why would somebody be building them eel

11:37

ladders why do they need eel ladders and

11:40

why why are their cameras aimed at them

11:42

I mean so it just became a really

11:44

intriguing story that I wanted to know

11:46

more about

11:48

um and because a lot of my work really

11:50

is around the notion of of language

11:53

indigenous language my language

11:54

specifically I

11:57

you know I I started asking around

11:59

actually I started asking people you

12:01

know for my community and from treaty

12:04

six where I’m from I started saying how

12:05

do you say eel in our language and you

12:08

know people were starting to make up

12:09

long words because I would describe what

12:11

a freshwater eel was and so I’d get

12:13

these long descriptions and but it

12:16

wasn’t a a historic term a functional

12:18

term a usable term it was a well we’ll

12:21

describe what you’re describing increase

12:24

um so serendipitously at this time

12:29

um I was invited to

12:31

um

12:31

sing at a

12:33

interspecies communication symposium

12:37

that was organized by MJ Barrett at the

12:39

University of Saskatchewan

12:42

because I had written a song for my uh

12:45

from one of my cousins Shane Belcourt I

12:47

had written a song where I actually and

12:49

this is part of my practice as a

12:51

singer-songwriter is I actually listened

12:54

to Nature and I listen to birds I

12:56

listened to even trees hitting other

12:58

tree branches and from that I can Intuit

13:01

start to hear Melodies phrases rhythms

13:04

and I compose songs that way and so I

13:07

had composed a song where I was

13:08

listening to birds and I was also

13:10

listening to plants because I had read

13:14

Robin wall camura’s book braiding

13:16

Sweetgrass and in the book she says the

13:19

plants have their own stories and they

13:21

have their own songs

13:23

for me that was you know I was kind of

13:25

gobsmack when I when I read that

13:28

um so

13:29

singing at this um in at this uh entry

13:33

species communication Symposium was

13:36

quite an amazing moment for me

13:39

um the it was online

13:42

but there was this incredible feeling

13:45

like all the people that were attending

13:47

were all these inter-species

13:48

communicators and this it was this

13:51

amazing kind of

13:53

Attunement like if you just feel

13:56

everyone was listening to every

13:58

everything and then they were listening

14:00

to what couldn’t be heard as well you

14:02

know they were listening to everything

14:04

and uh

14:06

I have to say I was really really moved

14:09

after having been a part of that

14:12

and this was all during this time of

14:13

what are ill ladders and why do eels

14:16

have cameras on them and who are these

14:17

eels and you know and realizing that my

14:20

the story was becoming focused on these

14:22

beings

14:23

so I made contact with one of the

14:26

inter-species communicators her name is

14:28

uh at Gail Simmons and

14:32

um she agreed that she would communicate

14:35

with the eels on my behalf and uh so uh

14:39

it became a lovely process of um I asked

14:42

five questions and then she um

14:46

got from the eels what they had to say

14:47

about it and it was a wonderful document

14:49

that I won’t share here

14:51

um Gail and I are actually going to

14:52

speak about it next spring and I can

14:54

make that available to people

14:58

um

14:59

and we’re going to speak as part of this

15:01

interest species communication in as

15:03

opposium and we’ll share what the what

15:06

verbatim What the eels have to say

15:08

through her

15:10

um but one of the things was I asked the

15:12

eels I said how do you want to be

15:13

depicted

15:15

um I said I have photos of you as a

15:18

female and this is a this is a mature

15:21

female who’s now starting to make her

15:22

way down the river back out to the

15:26

sargasso Sea which is the only place on

15:29

the planet where freshwater eels

15:31

um mate in their very interesting and

15:34

peculiar way

15:36

um I said I have you as an adult female

15:39

I said I have you as a there’s different

15:42

they grade them by color so there’s

15:44

Brown eels and green eels I said when I

15:47

have baby eels and the eels uh said

15:50

through Gale they said humans love

15:53

babies

15:54

so show them our babies because maybe

15:58

there will be sort of I’m I’m

16:00

paraphrasing and adding words to what

16:03

the heels had to say but my sense was

16:04

they were saying you know maybe there

16:06

will be some Compassion maybe the eels

16:07

or maybe humans will actually take a bit

16:10

more interest in in us if uh if they see

16:13

our babies

16:15

um

16:16

let me move to the next slide I think

16:18

I’ve

16:24

so this is a glass eel and so you know

16:27

because it’s being held in someone’s

16:29

hand you get the sense of how small this

16:31

glass seal is so it’s quite an amazing

16:33

story The Eels they actually

16:36

um

16:36

um the female eels uh go to the great

16:40

sargasso sea and in the from the time

16:42

they leave where they’re living Upstream

16:44

uh and this is kind of interesting the

16:47

females actually

16:48

um their sexes is uh

16:50

there’s they they become the sex they

16:53

are by how how far Upstream they go so

16:57

the women tend to be the ones who go the

16:59

farthest up Inland and the males tend to

17:02

stay more in the lowland estuaries and

17:05

as the females start to come back

17:07

um they grow to

17:09

um their their skin

17:11

gets um

17:13

uh

17:14

like several times thicker than it is

17:17

during their normal lifetime as they’re

17:19

making their way down and then as they

17:21

make their way to the sargasso Sea as

17:23

they’re continuing to eat

17:25

um

17:26

you know

17:28

particles and things they’re Bottom

17:30

Feeders they clean our Rivers right

17:32

their eyes actually get six times bigger

17:34

than in than it would have been in their

17:36

lifetime and they need that because they

17:38

need to swim down into the great

17:40

sargasso sea where they deposit their

17:42

eggs and the male uh eels also similarly

17:46

make their journey and they deposit

17:48

their sperm and it’s kind of this

17:49

thought to be this orgiastic dance that

17:51

happens and uh and these baby eels are

17:55

created and then the eels have to make

17:57

their way back up River again and so

17:59

this is

18:00

um a video from a British

18:04

um

18:05

video maker I got it on YouTube and this

18:09

is just showing you know eels what

18:11

little glass eels look like as they’re

18:14

making their way back up waterfalls and

18:17

rock faces to make their way uh further

18:20

and further and further up stream

18:24

um and so the eels also wanted this

18:28

you know they wanted us to know that

18:30

they’re in Peril

18:32

um the scientists uh

18:34

scientifically speaking were saying that

18:36

the eel population is down by 98 percent

18:40

in many places around the world so that

18:43

means they’re on the very precipice of

18:45

of being

18:46

becoming you know this mass extinction

18:49

and if you look at this footage and you

18:51

can see how many eels there are sort of

18:54

making their way up that would be a

18:55

fraction of what there would have been

18:57

in in in times past and eels have been

19:01

discussed for

19:04

for thousands and thousands of years the

19:06

Egyptians thought that eels actually

19:09

were created in the mud of the Nile and

19:12

Pliny the Elder thought that uh the skin

19:16

as it rubbed across the Rocks is what

19:19

created new eels and Aristotle you know

19:22

would ponder about how did eels you know

19:25

know how to go back to their place of

19:27

origin knowing that you know they they

19:30

all mate in one place and they all go

19:31

back to their place of origin so it’s

19:33

it’s been something for thousands of

19:35

years that people have been sort of

19:37

wondering about these eels and I spoke

19:39

with them an indigenous a Maori woman

19:42

and she was telling me that in her uh

19:44

where she’s from when she would visit

19:47

her aunties in remote places there was

19:49

this Pond and when they had to fetch

19:52

water her aunties would tell her to take

19:55

a pail and then go to that water and

19:57

just sort of slap on the top of the

19:58

water

19:59

do that for a minute and then put the

20:02

pale in because that pond was one of the

20:05

cleanest ponds where they always knew

20:08

that the water was crystal clear and it

20:10

was because the eels lived there and the

20:12

eels would you know clean anything on

20:14

the bottom and by slapping on the Water

20:17

The Eels would move out of the way so

20:18

you could put your pail in and that way

20:20

you’d never catch a you’d never take an

20:22

eel you know you’d let them do their

20:23

work

20:24

so at any rate

20:26

um that might have been a going down a

20:28

rabbit hole

20:30

um maybe you need to edit that

20:32

um

20:32

or maybe a uh it’s important to say that

20:35

I also asked the eels how they wanted to

20:38

be

20:39

um

20:40

acknowledged and the eels I asked them I

20:44

said do you want me to say bimese which

20:46

is the initial word for eel and

20:51

very cleverly they said

20:54

um

20:55

why don’t you look and see how many

20:57

human languages have a word for us

21:00

and in even languages and within

21:03

languages and I thought that was really

21:05

interesting that they said that because

21:08

um I didn’t tell them or the line or the

21:11

entry species communicator but I’m

21:13

working on a PhD and I’m looking at

21:15

actually small Sound Shapes like

21:16

morphemes and phonemes in two languages

21:20

and in relationship to land and so I

21:22

thought it was very interesting that

21:23

they said languages within languages and

21:25

I went oh okay they’re speaking to me so

21:28

I did some initial research and not not

21:31

exhaustive by any means but I found 140

21:34

different languages that have unique

21:37

words for eel and

21:40

um and so the soundscape that’s in the

21:42

exhibition is is uh by Nick Schofield

21:46

and

21:48

um he contributed or I commissioned him

21:50

to create the sound design and it was

21:52

really wonderful when you go into the

21:53

gallery you’ll hear some of the sounds

21:55

that actually almost sound like they’re

21:56

underwater you know and some of the

21:58

sounds are are more present in the room

22:02

um and I have to say that I was really

22:03

delighted that all of the indigenous

22:05

languages that are part of the sound

22:07

design they’re actually old people

22:09

speaking as opposed to all of the other

22:11

languages that it’s AI so it’s

22:13

artificial intelligence it says produce

22:15

the sound so so there’s an interesting

22:17

interplay going on there

22:20

um

22:22

but let’s see

22:23

I worked with also

22:25

um then to help depict this for uh the

22:28

exhibition this is just a quick still

22:32

um but you’ll see it actually moving in

22:34

the exhibition I worked with a team at

22:36

the epicenter at the University of New

22:39

South Wales and they worked in unity to

22:42

create a wall there’s that full wall in

22:46

the gallery of the eels and along the

22:48

bottom kind of um

22:50

is is the words that go past

22:53

um and

22:55

what’s interesting is looking being in

22:58

the space what I’ve realized is that

23:00

it’s also um

23:02

you know because of its projection

23:04

mapping there’s almost times when you

23:05

can’t actually get close enough to the

23:07

eel so it’s almost it’s almost

23:09

intentional and intentional in ways or

23:11

maybe it’s kind of like a serendipitous

23:14

happening where it’s like that’s the

23:16

state we’re at right now

23:18

you know the the eel population is so in

23:21

such decline that we actually can’t get

23:23

that close to them anymore uh so it is

23:26

still a conundrum you know how to

23:28

how to how do we keep in touch with how

23:30

do we care for them how do we

23:34

you know ensure that they continue to

23:36

climb up the rocks that judge your Falls

23:39

shajira I tried to say it

23:42

is that it pretty close okay

23:45

or akikojuan

23:47

um and the one thing um I want to say

23:49

about just going back to that notion of

23:51

Aki gojuan is that a pipe Bowl

23:55

you know would be used for for ceremony

23:58

and one thing that from uh from my

24:02

teachings that I’ve been taught is that

24:04

when we offer when we smudge or when we

24:06

pray with tobacco or or Sage or any of

24:10

those medicines it’s actually the smoke

24:12

that rises up and actually is the food

24:15

of our ancestors and so that’s why when

24:17

we’re praying you know we’re actually

24:20

feeding our ancestors

24:21

and I thought there’s something really

24:23

beautiful in Poetic about the play the

24:26

fact that the Falls were called pipe

24:28

Bowl

24:29

and you’ve got these little glass eels

24:32

that are making their way up the cliff

24:33

faces and I thought for me that’s kind

24:36

of like poetry in motion

24:38

there’s an integral

24:41

um togetherness and

24:43

that needs to continue to happen you

24:45

know

24:47

to happen have those little eels

24:50

ascending upwards you know at this place

24:52

that would be sacred to the Irish

24:56

[Music]

24:56

um

24:58

so

24:59

um I’ve spoken for a few extra minutes

25:01

but I just wanted to acknowledge uh that

25:04

I was I received some funding for this

25:06

project that helped me to um enlist the

25:10

participation participation and

25:13

expertise of Sami arsenitalis who did

25:17

the projection mapping and video editing

25:21

Howard Adler who actually shot the

25:23

images of the falls which we’ll show you

25:25

after the next slide

25:28

um Nick Schofield who did the sound

25:30

design and then Conan Burke and Rob

25:33

lother who did the unity programming at

25:37

the University of New South Wales

25:38

epicenter

25:42

I hope I said enough that was a cogent

25:46

and interesting and I really would love

25:48

to speak with you about the eels

25:50

um before I finish and um

25:54

maybe the next slide there

25:56

um so this is one of Howard’s shots

25:59

um when I asked the eels how I could

26:01

repay them because you know I I paid for

26:05

all the people who contributed to the

26:07

work

26:07

and the El said do something do

26:11

something take a rest do something under

26:12

your scope and uh so that is the big

26:16

challenge for me now how do I

26:18

how do I continue to to speak on not on

26:22

behalf of but how do I continue to sort

26:24

of speak and let people know the story

26:26

of the eels and the sort of really

26:29

precarious critical states that they’re

26:32

at so

26:34

that means that’s all for now

No results found