ECHOES FROM THIS LAND
About the project
"Echoes from This Land: Visioning and Revisiting the Truth & Reconciliation 94 Recommendations fostered a collaborative experience that provided artists and creators from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities of different backgrounds, ages, genders, ethnicities, abilities, incomes, nationhood, and nationality with a forum to openly discuss and better understand the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the 94 Calls to Action.
Through group discussions and interactions with guest lecturers, knowledge keepers, and Residential School and Sixties Scoop survivors, the project’s artists and creators gained intimate knowledge of the forced removals of Indigenous children from their families. They were then encouraged to share their understandings of their chosen call through their own lenses and lived experiences. Through these visual representations, the project aims to create a deeper understanding of the history of colonization that continues to impact Indigenous communities across Turtle Island to this day.
Echoes from This Land encourages viewers to connect with the visual reflections of artists and creators interpretating the 94 Calls to Action; adding visual understanding to the printed words. The project aims to inspire people in all communities to gain insight of these calls and enrich their understanding and commitment to action. The goal of this project is to include all voices in the circle wherein artists and creators developed print editions using traditional and new media forms of printmaking such as linocuts, woodcuts, stone and plate lithography, etching, photo-etching, 3D printing, collagraph, screen printing, digital media, and performance or hand/digitally altered art creation and production.
The works created in the Echoes from this Land embody the spirit and power of community coming together as a collective voice to lift, hold space, listen, and make change happen."
Artist Statement
Circle Keepers was created in response to the TRCC report’s Call to Action (CTA) #31, which calls for realistic alternatives to imprisonment for Indigenous offenders to address systemic injustices. Carved on a linoleum block and hand-printed in black ink on Kozuke washi, the image shows a circular motif made up of intertwining hands surrounding a central abalone shell.
As an artist of white European settler heritage, it was important for me to gain context to approach this project with sensitivity and awareness of my personal and cultural biases. Following an online FeedbackSession (facilitated by Carmel Whittle, with a guest lecture by Bryce Morison and active listening by Theo Paradis), I referred to online sources and corresponded with an Indigenous Elder working in corrections.
The 2022 article ‘An Action Plan for Decarceration’, published by the Canadian Bar Association, lays out chilling statistics on the disproportionate rates of incarceration ofIndigenous peoples in Canada’s prison system. With an increase of 18% in recent years (with non-Indigenous incarceration declining by more than 28%), the population of Indigenous inmates could soon reach one third of the total population in federal prisons – reaching more than half of incarcerated women. In addition to overrepresentation, Indigenous offenders experience higher: prison security levels, use of force by correctional officers, suicide attempts, self-harm, homicide, and solitary confinement.
CTA #31 calls for restorative justice practices founded on Indigenous-specific needs. Funding must be devoted to challenging our current justice system which is by nature punitive and hierarchical. Community sanctions (proposed as a realistic alternative) would allow sentences to be implemented in community settings rather than in prisons. Rooted in the various traditional Indigenous conceptualizations of punishment and justice, sanctions aim to restore balance for the victim and the community and to rehabilitate the offender.
While creating this print, I was fortunate to gain further insight through correspondence with an Indigenous Elder working in a Canadian penitentiary. While some important initiatives (notably, Healing/Sweat Lodges and Talking Circles) have been established in Canadian prisons, the capacity is far outweighed by the level of need. According to the Elder, this problem is characterized by an imbalance of talk versus action. Various sources point to bureaucratic/systemic barriers and grossly insufficient funding.
The Elder expressed that he could not imagine a representationof Traditional ways of life without depicting the Circle, and so I chose this formas the foundation for my image. Five hands reach and swirl around a central abalone shell (often used in North America as a vessel to burn indigenous ceremonial medicines such as Tobacco, Sage, Sweetgrass, Cedar and Copal), forming a community of mutual reciprocity; a circle of giving and receiving. The hands could represent a generation of Elders or Circle Keepers reaching out to cradle a younger generation, yet there is no clear distinction or division between these two groups. The circle is incomplete, revealing a gap in the collective healing chain and calling for a reform of justice which cultivates resilience, dignityand indigenous sovereignty.
Ling, Justin. “An ActionPlan for Decarceration.” www.nationalmagazine.ca, 2 Feb. 2022, www.nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articles/law/in-depth/2022/an-action-plan-for-decarceration.
Collaborators
- P.I Briana Palmer, Associate Professor, SOTA, Humanities, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON.
- Carmel Whittle, 2SQI Mi’kmaw-Irish Visual Artist, Filmmaker, Musician, and Storyteller, Director of No Borders Art Festival, Ottawa, ON.
- Patsea Griffin, Métis Artist, Poet, Beadworker, Thunderbird Sisters Collective, Ottawa, ON.
- Tara Cooper, Associate Professor, Fine Arts Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON.
- Alejandro Arauz, Assistant Professor, Fine Art (Visual Art) Program, Queens University, Kingston, ON.
- Darlene Kalynka, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Department of Communication & Visual Arts, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, B.C.
- Robert Truszkowski, Professor, Faculty of Media + Art + Performance, University of Regina, Regina, SK.
Contributors
- Théo Redsky Paradis, 2-Spirit Eagle Staff Carrier, Ottawa, ON.
- Louise Garrow, Waawaaskonekwe, Crane Clan, from Anishnaabek of Sagamok First Nation, Ottawa, ON.
- Margaret Cranford, Mi’kmaq, Knowledge Holder and Changemaker, multimedia artist whose roots are in Flat Bay, Ktaqmkuk, Newfoundland.
- Linda Jules, Kamloops Printmakers, Kamloops, BC.
- Dr. Karen Hill, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON.