The Indigenous Eye

The Indigenous Eye
 

Daina Warren (DW): How do you think you came to be invited into VUCAVU’s #EyesOnVU curatorial project?

IsKwé (IK): I think maybe it was because I work in multimedia as well as being a performing artist. I’m also a pretty strong advocate in and for our Indigenous communities specifically with our women. I think that maybe it’s just a blend of all of the above. I grew up in the arts and I don’t think that they need to be so separated all the time. I think there are many ways that artists can have crossovers in mediums and I think that visual and audible and oral and all of these different ways of telling our stories are important.

Also, the thing about film is that it’s not strictly something that you’re just watching, right? You’re participating in whatever you’re seeing. You’ll notice in my selections, that I have some that are documentary, some are animated, some are poetic, some are more experimental. I did that on purpose. I selected films that were across that spectrum and across experiences as well.

DW: The other thing I noticed in the selections was that first, the body is very prevalent in each video but also the Indigenous woman’s body.  I was wondering if maybe that was important in your choices? How do you, yourself, view women’s roles in your own community - contemporary Indigenous or popular society?

IK: The one thing that’s been on the forefront of my observations lately is the position of Indigenous women’s voices. In terms of the body, I think it is almost secondary to our voices. To me that was the common theme: that our bodies have been commodified, our bodies have been “taken” from us in a sense - sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively. I think the part that has allowed that to happen is that our voices have been silent. Not because we made the choice to be silent but because we’ve been silenced.

The selections I made were pieces where the strength in the story is being told from the lens of the woman; from song, to tradition, to culture, to current experience. The reason I selected the theme, "The Indigenous Eye", is because I feel like we are no longer in a time or place where we allow silence, right? I think the atmosphere has changed. In prior times, it was maybe more difficult for our women’s voices to be heard and taken seriously or viewed in a way that was respectable. Again, not because we weren’t loud and because we weren’t vocal or intelligent or passionate - but because our platform wasn’t available in the same way, on a broad spectrum. Now that is shifting. We have strong voices that are resurfacing and coming up. We’re cycling through our tradition of women being at the forefront, and supporting our communities and being the strength that people are pulling from.

DW: Do you mind explaining a bit more about those platforms? What do those platforms look like?

IK: As an example, our women are on the forefront of fighting for our water and our land. We have a lot of concerns and issues in our current climate regarding, for instance, pipelines and protecting our water and protecting our territories. Not just in Indigenous territories but I’m talking about Turtle Island and the land that is North America, and making sure that it’s sustainable for future generations.

I’m from Winnipeg and I was just there and it was raining in the middle of January which has never happened in my entire lifetime. It’s very clear and obvious to me that there are massive shifts and changes happening. We are coming forward and speaking up and speaking out.

We are also talking about our communities and reconciliation - which is a big conversation. I think it’s important for the voices of our women to be heard in order for reconciliation to really take place. During the prime of colonialism there was this thought that a nation can’t be conquered until the hearts of the women are on the ground. I don’t view us as being a conquered nation but I think this mentality of silencing women is a really strong act of warfare. I feel like we are countering this and coming back - we are using our voices in conversations of reconciliation, acknowledging and shining a light on our missing and murdered women. All of these are platforms that we are using to reclaim that strength in our voice.

DW: How would you view each piece in your #EyesOnVU selection as relating to your own experience? I’m thinking of the short film Heart and its relationship to Winnipeg. Knowing that you are from there, maybe you want to explain a bit?

IK: I chose Heart (Sam Karney) because I felt like it was an homage to Winnipeg and specifically the North End. I didn’t grow up in the North End, I grew up in the downtown core, but I think that a lot of the sentiment is carried through where you have this really vibrant community that people on the outside have feared. They look at this neighbourhood, or these neighbourhoods, and they see Indigenous faces - and if they are not from there, or they are not a member or part of that culture or community, there is this sense of fear.

I think Heart did a wonderful thing in showcasing the sense of community and of home that is the North End, and that is Winnipeg really. It is about a specific section of the city, but I didn’t feel like it was not inclusive of anybody who is not from the North End. If you are from this city, you’ll have these experiences. I thought the poem was lovely and the cinematography was great. I felt connected to where I come from.

DW: What would you say for some of the others? Your art is based in music and performance, and I saw there is a lot of music in your choices. Maybe these are other ways that you are coming into your relation to each piece?

IK: I selected Signing Our Stories (Annie Frazier Henry) because it was looking at how traditional songs and the voices of women have been so connected. How important those voices are for music and for carrying on our traditions and our culture. I loved the way the film looked at different cultures from different parts of Canada and the US because it was a way to show how unique each of our nations are in language, in music, in style of dance, and in style of signing. Showing that, in all of these different areas, one of the common denominators was the attempt to silence these songs. To look at how grandmothers continued to hold on to them and find a way to pass them down. I think that is a really beautiful and important thing.

It really resonated with me because, you’re right, I’m a vocalist and an entertainer and a performer, but my craft is through voice. I try to bring thought and message and content into what I’m singing about. I like to leave it open to interpretation so that people can have their own experience but if I’m ever asked about a specific song I share my rationale and there is always a link to our culture in there.

DW: Yes, and then there is also Indigo (Amanda Strong), A Common Experience (Shane Belcourt), and IKWÉ (Caroline Monnet). 

IK: In IKWÉ , one of the things that stuck out to me was the visuals. I really felt the sentiment and the emotions that were running through it, especially in the use of lighting, movement. Having language be a big part of the story, as somebody who grew up in Winnipeg speaking English and having Cree around me, also felt really nice. I love that language is being reintegrated into our everyday. It’s so important to maintain and to pass down in any way that you can. I think that for someone like me, who has bits and pieces, being able to have it be a part of my art or art that I’m observing is really valuable.

I also loved how the story in IKWÉ is connecting woman to grandmother Moon. Again, it is that theme of voice and of body, it’s connecting the two and connecting them to the greater powers out there. It’s a nice movement through cycles, through womanhood and through a portion or a branch of womanhood.

For Indigo, I thought this piece was brilliant. I know Amanda Strong and her artistry is so phenomenal and her stories are always fascinating. I love that her character in this piece has a best bud and it’s her spider. This weird little crinkly spider around her all the time, and it keeps her company, helps her and is kind of her guide. The gravitational pull of this character towards this spider: towards the unknown and towards safety and different realms. In the write-up for Indigo, Strong talks about how it’s the fantastic imagination of her inner childhood who yearns to be free. I felt that connection to wanting to find something different and wanting to feel freedom, but having these constraints and having your guide there to point things out.

DW: A Common Experience, I think was the hardest to watch. Do you have a residential school experience prevalent in your family?

IK: Well, we are a couple of generations in Winnipeg. So not directly, not my mom, but I have grand-parents who were - to the extent though that, until the day they passed, they called it The Academy.

DW: Oh, wow…

IK: In my family, there was a big disconnect from what was “residential school”, but the after-effects were definitely passed down. Like the intergenerational effects of alcoholism and abuse and those sorts of things. My family did not escape that. I think that because the effects carry forward for so many generations, it’s something where my heart really feels for not only my family members, but for my community members in general. I think these experiences are very real for anybody who is Indigenous in North America. I don’t think any of us escaped either the direct experience or the spin-off effect.

It was really hard to watch A Common Experience. I find that any kind of conversations around sexual assault, or - bringing it back to the body, for instance - not having control of our bodies and not having ownership; or people feeling entitled to our bodies, because we’re “objects” - we’ve been classified in that way, as an object. It’s like there is a disassociation between our spirits and our core.

When I watch pieces like this, they make me feel down into my bones. As much as I don’t want to watch, I want to be like: No! That’s not a thing. It didn’t happen... but I know it did and I know it does. It’s been a part of my family and it’s been a part of everyone’s family, and it’s important to give space to those stories, for that to be part of our conversations. That’s the whole conversation around reconciliation and being able to be “uncomfortable”. You can’t heal unless you hurt.

DW: We can revisit that word “reconciliation” again because it’s such a buzz word right now. It definitely seems to be instigating a lot of programming and thought. Would you view these films as some sort of reconciliation process? 

IK: I absolutely do. It’s like: the jig is up. We know what our stories are. We understand what happened. Sharing these stories is therapy; it’s important to not hold things in anymore. At the same time, for reconciliation to actually be happening, we need to have people listen and participate in these stories, not just us sharing them.

My selections here, I absolutely think are a part of reconciliation - provided that, on the other end, there is an active listener. That is to me the very first step, folks putting their sensitivity aside to listen. Even I had that reaction watching A Common Experience, where it’s like: “Oh gosh, this is so horrifying, and uncomfortable and devastating and...” all of these terrible things. My reactions are because of people I know that this has happened to. Because I am having this reaction doesn’t mean that I should be turning it off and not listening. I have to listen. We all need to listen. That, to me, is the biggest part.

You know, creating art is step one. People who are uncomfortable listening, is step two.

DW: As a curator, I usually work with more physical objects. When you go into a physical space there is a particular order that you view the artwork in. When you are online, you can’t really negotiate that experience for the audience. Would there be an ideal viewing order that you would suggest? 

IK: Absolutely. I would go: IKWÉ, Indigo, Heart, A Common Experience, and Singing Our Stories.

The reason I would choose that order is that I feel IKWÉ, gives a beautiful look at almost like a “ceremony”: the connection to grandmother Moon and the power of woman. Then Indigo, because it has this mystical feeling to it. These two works connect on a sense of being about beyond the known or beyond what we can understand by walking on Earth. Then I would watch Heart, because it is a good example of connection to community and being a part of where you are from. A Common Experience is a good one to have next because it shows the history of why we are where we are. It gives reflection into the violence and the experience of residential schools, which results in the way people experience the world today. I would finish with Singing Our Stories, because it’s a beautiful piece that highlights tradition, strength, beauty, language, song and voice. All of those things that residential schools tried to take away but were able to be maintained and passed down.

It’s important to have conversations about difficult things, all of the violence and the hurt that has happened. I also think that it’s important to end on a positive. All of those things happened and through all that, we have prevailed and we have survived and we are strong. We are still present and we aren’t going anywhere.

DW: Is there anything in particular you want the public to take away from your program?

IK: I would ask people to come into this with open ears, open eyes and an open heart. They should come ready for the fact that not all of our stories are going to be heavy and not all of our stories are going to be light. We have these beautiful elements of tradition, culture, language, voice and song and we have a history that needs to be looked at and talked about. Come to this with openness and enjoy the different ways that people have tapped into their creativity to tell and to share our stories.