{"id":151,"date":"2016-11-04T15:43:16","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T22:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annieguerin\/?p=151"},"modified":"2016-11-10T14:49:39","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T21:49:39","slug":"the-resilience-and-continued-practice-of-indigenous-languages-foundations-of-visual-sovereignty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annieguerin\/2016\/11\/04\/the-resilience-and-continued-practice-of-indigenous-languages-foundations-of-visual-sovereignty\/","title":{"rendered":"The Resilience and Continued Practice of Indigenous languages: Foundations of Visual Sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"

——————————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n

“Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew. Agitator, activist, artist\u2026 writer, curator, thinker. Words that describe, but never really catch the spirit of the man until we add one other, Aboriginal. His thinking, his way of being, his art making was always informed and animated by Aboriginal philosophies, and customary ways of knowing. Far from being a dogmatist though, his was an Indigeneity of thought, of intellectual and cosmological manifestation. With the rise of the inclusion of Aboriginal artists in institutional arts programming in the past twenty years, there has been increased dialogue around the nature and political\/cultural imperative of Aboriginal arts presentation and discourse. Ahasiw was on the front lines of these struggles throughout his career. Not just as a thinker and writer, but actively mobilizing ideas of Aboriginal cultural sovereignty and self determination through his tireless policy and theoretical work”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

-by Kanien\u2019keh\u00e1:ka author Steve Loft, from\u00a0http:\/\/ghostkeeper.gruntarchives.org\/essay-for-iktomi-steve-loft.html<\/a><\/p>\n

——————————————————————————————————–<\/p>\n

“Ahasiw is not uncritical of the web. Moreover, he wonders how Native people can make the web, at least part of it, truly Aboriginal<\/strong> . Is it possible to bring a spirituality, an ethicality, an aesthetic”.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-02-at-5-36-50-pm\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

-Skawenneti Tricia Fragnito speaking about\u00a0Cree\/Metis artist Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew\u2019s gallery space in her project CyberPowWow2k<\/a> , retrieved from\u00a0http:\/\/www.cyberpowwow.net\/STFwork-ami.html<\/a><\/p>\n

——————————————————————————————————–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the web<\/strong> that holds us together,\u201d Iktomi explained to me, \u201cin the past, in the present, and in the future.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-04-at-2-24-36-pm\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

– Kanien\u2019keh\u00e1:ka author Steven Loft, from\u00a0http:\/\/ghostkeeper.gruntarchives.org\/essay-for-iktomi-steve-loft.html<\/a><\/p>\n

——————————————————————————————————–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I sat down to write a blog post about my close reading of \u00a0Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew<\/a>‘s 1996 project\u00a0Isi-pikiskwewin Ayapihkesisak<\/a>, and I found myself unable to stop exploring his world, his web. \u00a0 Since I \u00a0first engaged with this piece last year I have been unable to close that \u00a0computer tab. I can’t un-do my on going experience of this piece, not do I ever want to. I \u00a0try to cross reference\u00a0Isi-pikiskwewin Ayapihkesisak<\/a>\u00a0with my Cree language dictionary coupled with the site: ‘Ghost keeper’<\/a>\u00a0which is \u00a0a “comprehensive look at the work of Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew”, and still I am no closer to a reading. And nor should I be. What Ahasiw created \u00a0is an incredibly powerful interactive, and interconnected web based portal intentionally and carefully weaving together various Indigenous multi media artists and art forms with a focus on nehiyawewin culture, language and worldview, as well as speaking to issues of urban Indigeneity in the DTES of Vancouver along with profound work relating to systemic racism and settler colonialism. \u00a0 His web extends far beyond \u00a0the ‘world wide’, drawing on\u00a0nehiyawewin<\/a>\u00a0world views, cosmology and protocls, while\u00a0fiercely challenging \u00a0the stranglehold of \u00a0 ‘new’ media that settler colonialism desperately clings to. \u00a0Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew <\/a>work leaves me speechless, every time.<\/p>\n

I would very much like to continue reading and researching \u00a0the ways in which \u00a0Ahasiw chooses to use \u00a0nehiyawewin<\/a> within \u00a0Isi-pikiskwewin Ayapihkesisak<\/a>. \u00a0But that is a larger project for a larger day. For now I will say this, I feel \u00a0Ahasiw’s choice to include nehiyawewin<\/a>\u00a0 within his piece \u00a0Isi-pikiskwewin Ayapihkesisak<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0is an incredibly powerful articulation \u00a0of visual sovereingty, as it unavoidably determines and positions an Indigenous space through language. By weaving\u00a0nehiyawewin<\/a>\u00a0 into very crucial points of the site, \u00a0Ahasiw \u00a0immediately pushes against \u00a0Canadian settler colonialism. \u00a0As well, since \u00a0nehiyawewin<\/a>\u00a0frames this site from the very beginning, with the site’s tab reading ‘tansi’ as well as \u00a0immediate sound clips playing as soon as you open the site, along with the visual presence of written\u00a0nehiyawewin<\/a>\u00a0in the site’s the title,<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-06-at-3-47-47-pm\"<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-06-at-3-45-07-pm\"<\/p>\n

Ahasiw strongly affirms this experience runs much deeper \u00a0than what would be defined by a Western construct as simply \u00a0‘art’. \u00a0As \u00a0Kanien\u2019keh\u00e1:ka author Steven Loft articulates in his essay Aboriginal Media Art and the Postmodern Conundrum: A Coyote perspective<\/em>\u00a0, “Indigenous ‘art’ is much more a function of remembering ,the creation and articulation of cultural memory” ( Loft 2005).<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-04-at-3-00-36-pm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Isi-pikiskwewin Ayapihkesisak<\/a>\u00a0was released the same time the last residential school was closing in Canada. The system of “killing the Indian in the child” attempted \u00a0to eradicate all Indigenous languages. By choosing to include\u00a0nehiyawewin<\/a>\u00a0words and ideas into the title, and menu function of the site, it \u00a0immediately and urgently affirms and positions the type of space you are entering as a visitor is not neutral. I would argue the use of \u00a0nehiyawewin<\/a>\u00a0serves as a means to negotiate\u00a0Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew<\/a>‘s space as an articulation stemming from the framework of \u00a0visual sovereingty, and that by entering you acknowledge you are a guest with responsibilities to not only respect the stories and knowledge shared but to yourself ,work to understand the history of resilience that informed the work.<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-04-at-3-08-10-pm\"<\/p>\n

—————————————————————————————————————————–<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-04-at-10-18-15-am\"some n<\/span>ehiyawewin \u00a0<\/span>glossing:<\/strong><\/p>\n

wici-one noun=of his or her own kind, verb= together with<\/p>\n

wicihito=verb, to help<\/p>\n

connects to the ‘how to’ page of the site<\/p>\n

kinina-naskom-itin=thank you, I am grateful to you, to be thankful, to speak words of thanks<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In this post I will be looking at further examples of visual sovereignty as well as issues raised of visual sovereingty specifically in the wake of Canadian rock star Gord Downie’s multi media project “The Secret Path<\/a>“. (Downie 2016).<\/p>\n

—————————————————————————————————————–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Today sovereignty is taking shape in visual thought<\/strong> as indigenous artists negotiate cultural spaces”<\/p>\n

–Jolene Rickard<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n