Frybread as Fok

The Aboriginal Gathering Place’s Annual Exhibition will be on view from February 1-15 in the Michael O’Brian Exhibition Commons on the second floor of ECU. This year’s exhibition, titled Frybread as Fok, has been co-curated by students Zoë Laycock, Aaron Rice, Vance Wright, Taylor Baptiste, and Rylee Taje and features work by ECU Indigenous students, staff, faculty, and alumni.

Curator’s Statement

Frybread, that coveted deep-fried comfort food, found across turtle island beckons us to gather once again. A deep-fried dough, made of water, salt, flour, and lard. It represents survival and resilience. It is resistance. It is love. It is tragic and problematic, but we love it anyway.

Honey-brown, with a light crunchy surface and a fluffy core. It can be found at powwows, potlatch, lacrosse games, the Bingo Hall, wrapped in napkins and stuffed in purses, pockets, and picnic baskets.

Dads make ‘em, aunties, and moms make ‘em, rez dogs maybe not. Frybread is best served hot and fresh. It can be topped with chili and cheese, dipped in cinnamon sugar, or slathered in home-made jam. Frybread is great with butter and wild meat stews. Frybread feeds our hungry tongues, comforts our hearts and bridges the time away from one another. We gather, we welcome one another, and we move into the future.

Frybread is everything.  

FRYBREAD AS FOK is a show that embodies the experiences of growing up unapologetically Indigenous. Over 30 artists of Indigenous heritage present their individual perspectives through painting, sculpture, film, printmaking, textile work and play. Spanning ECU students, faculty, staff, and alumni, this exhibition celebrates kin, makes space for the ancestors and for Indigenous voices. Frybread as Fok is a declaration of autonomy.

Rolande Souliere Hosts Student Workshops at Aboriginal Gathering Place

Artist Rolande Souliere holds out a caribou tuft in-progress during a workshop at the Aboriginal Gathering Place at ECU. (Photo by Perrin Grauer)

By Perrin Grauer
[Originally posted on ECU News.]

The celebrated artist aims to help Indigenous students connect more closely with their practices and one another ahead of the upcoming Indigenous art exhibition, which opens on Feb. 1 at Emily Carr.

Ahead of the upcoming Indigenous artists’ exhibition at Emily Carr University, artist Rolande Souliere is leading a series of workshops at the Aboriginal Gathering Place (AGP).

A Toronto-born member of the Michipicoten First Nation, Rolande will give students support and guidance aimed at producing artwork for the upcoming Indigenous exhibition and increasing visual analysis within their practices.

“It’s good for emerging Indigenous artists to meet each other and develop friendships and networks,” Rolande remarks from her studio in North Vancouver where she is currently an artist-in-residence at Griffin Art Projects.

“It’s important to connect and share stories. The AGP has a lot of interesting materials that are also very traditional. It’ll be good to abstract those materials with students and see what they come up with.”

Artist and ECU student Nevada Lynn displays a drum which will be completed by fellow artist and ECU student Georgina “G” McBride for inclusion in the Frybread as Fok exhibition. (Photo by Perrin Grauer)
Artist and Manager of Aboriginal Programs at ECU Kajola Morewood works on her “Inuit yoyo” ahead of the show. (Photo by Perrin Grauer)

While Rolande has earned an international reputation for her experimental, multi-disciplinary practice, she came to art later in life. Having worked as a computer programmer in Canada, she moved to Sydney, Australia in the late 1990s. As a mother to two young children, she began looking for another career path.

“My mother said, ‘Why don’t you do an art degree?’” Rolande remembers. “I had never painted anything in my life. I did traditional regalia, but very badly. My mother said, ‘You’re always talking about art. You’re looking at art. Just give it a go.’”

Rolande began painting and assembling a portfolio, earning her admission to the BFA program at the Sydney College of the Arts. With tuition and childcare assistance from her First Nation, Rolande threw herself into her practice.

She entered the art school as a painter with a particular love for abstraction. Soon after, instructor and artist Mikala Dwyer introduced Rolande to installation art.

“I’ve never looked back,” she says. Working with industrial materials led to public artworks, and eventually to what she calls ‘socially engaged’ or ‘community art’.

Rolande has since earned a Master of Visual Arts degree, a PhD and a presence in galleries in Canada, Australia and beyond. She notes her cross-continental career was built on hard work in the community as much as in the studio.

Read the full article on ECU News.

Islands of Decolonial Love: A Reception and Readings

Islands of Decolonial Love: A Reception and Readings.
January 12, 2024 at 6pm (readings at 6:30pm)
Aboriginal Gathering Place at Emily Carr University of Art + Design

In celebration of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s groundbreaking short story collection, writer & filmmaker Justin Ducharme explores key excerpts that are points of influence and research for his upcoming directorial feature film debut SEVENTEEN. Featuring live monologues by Shane Sable, Madelaine McCallum, Monday Blues and Tarene Thomas, selected and directed by Ducharme.

Presented by the Libby Leshgold Gallery + Aboriginal Gathering Place in conjunction with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s sold out Hopper Lecture Theories of Water – Using Michi Saagiig Nishnaabe Consciousness to Dismantle the Present Moment.

Reception is free and open to the public; no registration required.

Nevada Lynn Featured in Final Edition of Herschel Supply Company’s Artist in Residence Showcase

Photo courtesy of Nevada Lynn.

By Perrin Grauer
Originally posted on ECU News.

The artist and ECU student will have her work displayed for three months in the retailer’s flagship Vancouver store as part of a paid residency program in partnership with ECU.

The final iteration of a series of artist residencies at the Herschel Supply Company’s flagship Vancouver location will feature artist and ECU student Nevada Lynn.

Nevada will hang screen-prints of Douglas Fir tree rings from her series Douglas Fir/Srap7úl inside the glass-walled room within Herschel’s Gastown store. The images, which each include a land acknowledgement, can be seen through the sheer muslin on which they were printed, Nevada notes.

“By putting a land acknowledgement on each one of these pieces, I’m asking, how can we integrate these words into our everyday lives? And what do they actually mean?” Nevada says. “What’s my responsibility as a guest on traditional land? And what does that look like on a day-to-day basis?”

The Herschel Artist in Residence program was developed in partnership with both the Career Development + Work Integrated Learning office and the Advancement office at Emily Carr University with the goal of exhibiting the work of three emerging artists over the course of 2023 and 2024. The first edition was an open call for all ECU students; the second was specific to BIPOC students; the third was specific to Indigenous students. Karl Hipol was the inaugural resident, while Hannah Watkins was the second. Each recipient has their work exhibited for a period of roughly three months and receives a $4,000, no-strings-attached stipend.

Details from two works in the Douglas Fir/Srap7úl series by Nevada Lynn. (Photos courtesy Nevada Lynn)

Nevada, who is of Cree Métis and European ancestry, says Douglas Fir/Srap7úl is rooted in her experience of living on Alpha Lake, on the unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation and Lilwat7úl (Lil’wat) Nation. As part of a six-year recovery from a serious head injury, Nevada plunged into the lake’s icy waters for 365 days. As she healed and became more connected to the land, she began to wonder who its original caretakers had been.

Through her mother-in-law, she connected with a Lilwat7úl Elder residing in Mount Currie who had lived on a small island in the middle of the lake for a time as a child. During the visit, Nevada recalls asking her son what it was like when they lost their land.

“His answer was, ‘We never lost our land. It’s still our land,’” she tells me. “And then he told me the Whistler gondola runs through his uncle’s trapline. Displacement for Indigenous peoples is not ancient history. It’s still happening.”

As the final recipient of the 2023/4 Herschel residency, Nevada notes that Indigenous-specific funding can be “life-changing” for Indigenous artists.

“These artists are representing whole communities,” she says. “They don’t want to just be successful for themselves. They want to speak to issues that are really meaningful and urgent. That responsibility is driving their work. These kinds of grants are making a big difference in the lives of Indigenous artists, and Indigenous artists are affecting real change.”

Read the full article on ECU News.

New Film by Lindsay McIntyre Wins Oscar-Qualifying imagineNATIVE Award

Still from NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (The South Wind), by Lindsay McIntyre. (Image courtesy Lindsay McIntyre)

By Perrin Grauer. Originally posted on ECU News.

A new film by artist and ECU faculty member Lindsay McIntyre has won the Live Action Short Award at the 2023 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

Titled NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (The South Wind), the short drama was lauded by imagineNATIVE’s Moon Jury as an “incredibly moving story that brings you to tears” and “viscerally” connects the audience to its characters’ experiences.

“From the first frame, you are watching cinematic beauty from a filmmaker who understands the medium of cinema and knows how to conjure the spiritual element that sits within the most beautiful of our Indigenous cinematic offerings,” the jury writes. “Lindsay’s unique cinematic voice and talent is as clear and heartfelt as the South Wind it comes from.”

The Live Action Short Award is imagineNATIVE’s Oscar–qualifying category, meaning NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ will be put forward to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for award consideration. The award also comes with a $7500 cash prize.

Lindsay, who often works in experimental documentary, says “it was a total shock” to win an award for a drama.

“Drama is so, so hard, and I have much respect for the people who do it. It’s really incredible to be honoured within this sphere,” she says. “But really, I think of the award as support for the story. Because it’s a really important story that we don’t talk about or know about, and it’s something I’m really passionate about bringing to the world.”

Still from NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (The South Wind), by Lindsay McIntyre. (Image courtesy Lindsay McIntyre)

NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ is based on a true story told to Lindsay by her grandmother. It connects to a larger story that is touched upon in several of Lindsay’s other films, including her upcoming feature, The Words We Can’t Speak, currently in advanced development.

“Having left her Nunavut home in 1938 with her mother Kumaa’naaq (koo-MAT-na), young Marguerite must negotiate the unspoken pressures of being Inuk in her new life in the South,” reads the film’s synopsis. “When an extraordinary letter arrives from home, Marguerite discovers what’s really expected of her.”

The narrative reveals a type of benevolent racism that at once aims to erase Indigeneity and all its markers while purporting that it’s “for their own good”.

NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ, which translates to “South Wind,” refers to an Inuit concept which celebrates positive change but also carries a caution.

“The south wind may bring blue skies and better conditions, but there’s also a sense of warning or a need to be present, because you can’t forget that the wind will always change back,” Lindsay says. This metaphor underscores Lindsay’s broader project of foregrounding an overlooked chapter in Canadian history.

“We know about residential schools and some of the other big ugly colonial wrongs, but we don’t often think about Inuit in the same way,” she says. “We don’t think about what the world was like for Inuit when the RCMP and the traders and the whalers and the missionaries showed up. My grandmother was an interpreter and servant to the RCMP in the early days of colonial interest so her story embodies how all of these different communities came together in a colonial context. And it’s unique because it was especially rare for an Inuk woman to be included in police business.”

Read the full article on ECU News.

Indigenous Winter Market

Join us! This year we will be hosting a Winter Market where ECU’s Indigenous students can showcase and sell their work before the holidays. Refreshments will be provided.

Aboriginal Gathering Place, 2nd floor, Emily Carr University
520 E 1 Ave, Vancouver

Friday, December 1
12pm to 6pm

Saturday, December 2
10am to 4pm

New Totem Pole at Emily Carr University Embodies Community Connections

On September 28, 2023, the Aboriginal Gathering Place hosted an unveiling ceremony of the Pacific Song of the Ancestors totem pole, a breathtaking new art installation by Master Carvers Dempsey Bob, Stan Bevan, and Lyonel Grant, now part of ECU’s permanent collection.

Former Director of Aboriginal Programs and Special Advisor to the President on Indigenous Initiatives Brenda Crabtree and ECU Chancellor Carleen Thomas (not pictured) unveil the ‘Pacific Song of the Ancestors’ totem pole. (Photo by Hayf Photography)

Story by Alex Korinowsky, excerpted from ECU News.

“This whole project is about community, communication and respect for Indigenous art, education and culture,” says Brenda Crabtree, the recently retired Director of Aboriginal Programs and Special Advisor to the President on Indigenous Initiatives at Emily Carr University. “The artists will tell you this is the most sculptural pole they’ve ever created—a refined work of art. For Emily Carr University to house this masterpiece that will inspire the public and generations of students, well, it’s simply priceless.”

Led by Sir Derek Lardelli (left) and Master Carver Dempsey Bob, family and community members from northern BC and New Zealand walk toward the Reliance Theatre at Emily Carr University during the ‘Pacific Song of the Ancestors’ totem pole unveiling ceremony on Sept. 28, 2023. (Photo by Perrin Grauer).

The collaborative work by Master Carvers Dempsey Bob (Tahltan-Tlingit), Stan Bevan (Tahltan-Tlingit and Tsimshian) and Lyonel Grant (Māori and Pakeha) began nearly a decade ago and embodies the spirit of community building, Indigenous interrelationships and reverence for the diverse Indigenous cultures within B.C. and beyond.

“The AGP at Emily Carr has always focused on celebrating the diversity of our Indigenous students, faculty and staff,” says Crabtree. “We honour and respect the local Host Nations, and we acknowledge that most of our Indigenous students come from all around B.C. and other provinces. We don’t often see Tahltan-Tlingit art in Vancouver, so for me, this project is about connecting with Indigenous artists from other communities, learning about and honouring their artistic traditions, and providing an opportunity for the public to experience this diversity.”

Master Carver Dempsey Bob (centre), along with his family and community members, leads the Carver’s Dance after the unveiling of the totem pole. (Photo by Hayf Photography)
(From L): Tangimoe Clay, Bridy Lundon, Lady Rose Gould-Lardelli, Hinehimiata Lardelli, Sir Derek Lardelli, Lyonel Grant and Tamahou Temara (just out of frame) perform Māori protocols during the ‘Pacific Song of the Ancestors’ totem pole unveiling ceremony at Emily Carr University on Sept. 28, 2023. (Photo by Hayf Photography)

The 25-foot, 2,600-pound pole was primarily carved in Bevan’s studio in Terrace, B.C. with contributions from local carvers and students from the Freda Diesing School, who worked as apprentices. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Bob and Bevan intensified their focus on the pole. Crabtree surmises this newly found time to “hover” and develop the project led to the pole’s exceptional refinement and superb sculptural character.

In the summer of 2021, the pole was transported to Emily Carr University and craned up to the main floor where it lay covered at the AGP. The following summer in 2022, Bob and Bevan worked to complete the pole alongside visiting artist Lyonel Grant from New Zealand.

(From L): Master Carver Lyonel Grant, Master Carver Dempsey Bob and Master Carver Stan Bevan receive Speaker Blankets woven by Squamish Chief Janice George and her husband Buddy Joseph from Aboriginal Programs Coordinator Sydney Pickering and Aboriginal Programs Manager Kajola Morewood during the ‘Pacific Song of the Ancestors’ totem pole unveiling ceremony at Emily Carr University on Sept. 28. 2023. (Photo by Hayf Photography)

“The Māori’s culture is so similar to ours, with their weavers, carvers, dancers, singers, longhouses and canoe culture,” Dempsey Bob says in a statement about the project. “The pole, which tells the migration story of the wolves, eagles and grizzly bears, exemplifies the cultural relevance of movement, migration, exploration and our connection to our land. The movement of the figures points to this southward migration, with the eagle and wolf heads protruding downward, out of the traditional totem pole into a sculptural expression. The deeper carvings, the projected figures and the flowing hair make this work come to life.”

(From L): Master Carvers Dempsey Bob, Lyonel Grant and Stan Bevan with their ‘Pacific Song of the Ancestors’ totem pole following the unveiling ceremony at Emily Carr University on Sept. 28, 2023. (Photo by Hayf Photography)

The totem pole has been installed in the northwest corner of the ECU campus building outside the Reliance Theatre.

Daina Warren Appointed Executive Director, Indigenous Initiatives at Emily Carr University

(Photo courtesy Daina Warren)

[Originally posted on ECU News]

Warren, an accomplished arts professional who has worked across the country and internationally, began her appointment Sept. 27.

Emily Carr University is pleased to announce the appointment of curator, writer, educator and arts administrator Daina Warren (BFA 2003) as Executive Director, Indigenous Intiatives.

Warren is a member of the Akamihk Montana First Nation in Maskwacis, Alta. Her appointment, which began Sept. 27, 2023, comes after an extensive international search led by Leaders International, a firm specializing in Indigenous and diversity recruitment practices.

“I am very thankful that Daina has decided to come work at Emily Carr,” says Trish Kelly, Interim President + Vice-Chancellor at ECU. “Aside from her warmth, kindness and intelligence, she is a deeply committed and engaged practitioner. Through her work and studies over the years, she’s forged enduring connections with ECU and the broader BC community. And her longstanding emphasis on supporting Indigenous-focused cultural production and learning is extraordinary. She is a person of exceptional integrity and vision, and we’re lucky to have her.”

Warren comes to the university from Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she worked both as an independent curator and as Program Manager of the Artist-in-Residence Program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She holds a BFA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University and a Master of Arts in Art History (Critical and Curatorial Studies) from the University of British Columbia.

“I’m thrilled to be returning to Emily Carr,” Warren says. “When I was studying at ECU, I remember how exciting and fresh everything felt. It was such an important time for me. It feels incredible to be able to be a part of that again, and to work with the AGP to support Indigenous programming and creative practice for students, staff and faculty. I feel very grateful for this opportunity.”

From 2000 to 2002, between her diploma and BFA studies at Emily Carr University, Warren was a curator-in-residence at grunt gallery in Vancouver through Canada Council’s Assistance to Aboriginal Curators for Residencies in the Visual Arts program. This led to a permanent position with grunt, where she remained as Associate Curator and Administrator until 2008. During this same period, Warren served for four years as Curatorial Assistant and Arts Administrator with the LIVE Biennale of Performance Art in Vancouver.

In 2010 and 2011, she worked as the Canada Council Aboriginal Curatorial Resident at the National Gallery of Canada in Ontario. There, she curated the group exhibition Don’t Stop Me Now. Other exhibitions of note include If These Walls Could Talk and Contains Animal Byproducts!, created for the CODE Screen 2010 Vancouver Olympics project.

From 2011 to 2022 she worked as Director and Curator at Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba. During her time with Urban Shaman, she mentored a half dozen individuals in arts programming development, arts administration, grant writing, installation and preparatory work.

Warren has co-instructed courses with Dr. Jessica Jacobson-Konefall at both the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg. She has served as a grant jury assessor for organizations ranging from Emily Carr University and the City of Vancouver to the Ontario Arts Council, British Columbia Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts. She has given curatorial talks and been an invited speaker at institutions across the country as well as internationally.

In 2015, Warren was awarded the Emily Award from Emily Carr University. That same year, she was selected as one of six Indigenous women curators as part of the Canada Council for the Arts Delegation to participate in the International First Nations Curators Exchange in Australia (2015), New Zealand (2016) and Canada (2017). In 2018, she won the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellency. In 2020, she participated in the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, NIRIN, on invitation from Australia Council for the Arts’ Visiting International Curators program. In 2022, Daina received the Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction, which is awarded biannually in recognition of the highest level of artistic excellence and contribution to the development of the arts in Manitoba.

Watch ECU’s Alumni Stories video spotlight on Daina Warren, produced in 2015 on the occasion of her Emily Award recognition.

Ribbons and Radars: Stepping Into Interdimensional Decolonization

 

Zoë Laycock with Dismantled -2, in the Sacred Fires exhibition, 2023. Handmade ribbon skirt & shirt, human hair, beeswax, video projection, mirror, screen print. (Photo by Kimberly Ronning / courtesy Zoë Laycock)

By Julie McIntosh
[Originally posted on ECU News, August 29, 2023]

The paranormal, cultural transmission, Indigenous futurism, time, spectrality and existences in artist and MFA student Zoë Laycock’s work.

Every so often, her pastel hair changes between cotton-candy pink, bleach blonde, and light blue. Add that to her grounded demeanor and passion for bingo, and Zoë Laycock might not be what you expect when meeting a paranormal enthusiast.

She’s now stepping further into the unknown. Entering the second half of her Masters of Fine Arts degree, Zoë’s exploring how to connect with the spirit world through interdimensional communication. Not a straightforward task.

Connecting to the Beyond

To evoke a sense of otherworldliness, her installations turn towards the spiritual. As an Anishinaabe Red River Métis woman, her work takes inspiration from a multitude of sources; her grandparents’ clothes, homemade regalia, her flower beadwork, ceremonial spaces, and pop-cultural uses of ghost radars you’d see in movies and reality TV dramas (think Ghost Hunter). Even sounds of the Rocky Mountain lakes and shorelines near Exshaw, Alberta – one of her most treasured homes – trickles into her installations.

Zoë Laycock, Mazinaatebiigishin (s/he casts a shadow on the water, is reflected in the water), 2022. (Photo by Geoff Cheung / courtesy Zoë Laycock)

“My desire to occupy spaces to facilitate communication and sites of belief, of the beyond, fundamentally comes from my traditional knowledge and understanding that we are all connected” remarks Zoë.

“Human and non-human, physical and non-physical bodies, the spirit world, the Earth, the cosmos, and all in between.”

Zoë is a multidisciplinary artist. Her immersive, theatrical, A/V practice ultimately brings her closer to finding how we can better communicate with otherworldly beings.

Read the full article and see more of Zoë’s work on ECU News.