May 7 – June 19, 2022
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 8 from 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Land Back: Carrie Allison, Christi Belcourt, Jeffrey Gibson, Erin Gingrich, Faye Heavyshield, Sky Hopinka, Julia Rose Sutherland, Charlene Vickers, Olivia Whetung
Curator : Michael Patten
Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA) – 6th edition
Galerie d’art Stewart Hall
Centre culturel de Pointe-Claire
176 Lakeshore Dr
Pointe-Claire, QC, H9S 4L7
Free shuttle to Pointe-Claire on May 8.
Departure from Montreal at 1:00 pm from gallery Art Mûr
RSVP BACA
Since time immemorial, indigenous peoples have protected biodiversity in the face of continued human population growth. Since contact with settlers, indigenous communities have been stripped of their ancestral lands; the Land Back movement aims to restore governance and stewardship of the land for a sustainable future.
If Land Back is a call to action, a return of equity to a stolen territory, it is also an opening to some questioning. How can we best protect our biodiversity, our land and our water? The first step would be to return the land to its traditional and legitimate protectors. Returning to indigenous knowledge goes beyond symbolic gestures of recognition or inclusion to significantly change practices and structures.
The Land Back movement is not only about land ownership, it is also about reclaiming a culture and an education that has long been repressed, suppressed and silenced. Many Indigenous skills and knowledge, usually passed down from generation to generation, have unfortunately been lost or forgotten over time. An important part of Indigenous cultures is the connection to nature and the cohabitation with the elements. This applies as much to the symbolism of the natural elements as it does to the ways in which their resources can be used, for agriculture and medicine for example.
Some of the artists presented reappropriate ancestral techniques as an act of perpetuation, homage or resistance. Carrie Alllison uses beadwork to represent medicinal flowers indigenous to northwestern Alberta. Erin Gingrich uses sculpture to represent key elements of her community’s subsistence practices such as fishing and cranberry picking. While Christi Belcourt is inspired by floral motifs and Métis beadwork renderings in her work, replacing the roundness of the beads with paint dots made with a needle head.
As a cornerstone of this exhibition, Jeffrey Gibson presents his video I Was Here (2018), a return to the land as imagined as literal – a deep rootedness in the land and the nurturing earth. Marking the ground with an anonymous scar, it is through performative gesture that Julia Rose Sutherland has invested the exterior of this gallery; a hole in the landscape as a place of opening.
This fraction of the Biennial is placed as an ode to the privileged link that unites indigenous peoples to this land and to its protection.
We would like to acknowledge that BACA is located on unceded Indigenous lands. The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters on which we gather today. Tiohtiá:ke commonly known as Montreal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations. Today, it is home to a diverse population of Indigenous and other peoples. We respect the continued connections with the past, present, and future in our ongoing relationships with Indigenous and other peoples within the Montreal community.
The Biennale d’art contemporain autochtone (BACA) thanks the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Quebec (Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Fonds d’investissement pour le rayonnement de la Métropole), Tourisme Montréal, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, Stewart Hall Art Gallery and its other presenting partners.
