Statement

“For 10,000 years, the Innu People were educated using their own knowledge through observation, experience and listening. They knew how to survive.”

These words by Jean Pierre Ashini have strongly resonated with me since I first met him in 2021. It is simple, honest but says so much about my Indigenous counterparts. It also makes me feel privileged to have friends like Jean Pierre helping understand the Truth.

As a newcomer and settler in Canada, I remember being surprised by how little was taught about Canada’s Indigenous Peoples and their history. I remember struggling to find resources to learn more about their history and no one to answer my questions. I was now calling “home”.

While I slowly started my education on the history of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada, I often felt frustrated as I had no direction and found it hard to understand my roles and responsibilities towards the Indigenous Peoples of Canada as a new comer and settler.

In 2019, I started working in Northern Canada on environmental projects for an NGO, and collaborating exclusively with Indigenous communities. I began to document the projects, and the resilience of these communities as they fight for their Rights and try to address these environmental challenges. Luckily for me, this process of documentation has allowed me to meet and work with people like Jean Pierre Ashini. The visits to his house slowly became less about work and more about learning the truth, the effects of colonization, intergenerational trauma, and the fears and hopes for the next generation of young Indigenous Peoples. As I kept working on various projects and got to spend time on the Land with Knowledge Keepers and Youth, I realized that my role as a settler wanting to be an ally was to be a quiet observer, welcome the opportunities to learn, listen attentively to better understand the unique relationship that the Indigenous Peoples of Canada have with the Land and when appropriate share some of the things I document with others.

When Mary Lou Meiers had asked me to join Call 83, it had been 10 years since I moved to Canada. I remember telling myself that this would be an incredible artistic challenge to explore the concept of Truth and Reconciliation, but also a great way to evaluate the direction that I am currently going in as a settler but hopefully as an ally of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada.

When Marilyn George (Nahtwekakatusake, Lakota: Holy Star Woman) showed me her work, which was inspired by the discovery of the unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, it moved me. Her work illustrates the importance of understanding the Truth in order to be able to move towards Reconciliation. This started a great conversation between Marilyn and I in regards to what comes next? We instantly gravitated towards the importance of the Land and how it is the greatest medicine. My next chat with Nancy King (OgimaaKwebnes, Chief Lady Bird) also made me understand that after the uncovering of hard Truths, healing is needed and that this meant for my Indigenous counterparts to be on the Land.

“Our Land” is a series of photos that explores the relationship between the Land and Canada’s Indigenous People. It aims to highlight how the Land can provide a safe space Indigenous People to heal, learn about their history and culture and provide them time to look at how they want to move forward. They say that “a picture is worth a thousand words”, however the Truth about the history of the Indigenous People of Canada and the relationship with the Land is well worth over a thousand words. Therefore, the photos from this portfolio are also accompanied by excerpts from interviews I did with some of the subjects I photographed. Each person photographed felt that by understanding their Truth first that only then would the photos truly highlight their unique relationship to the Land.