wiikondowin (2023)
Family photographs on organza, chairs, table, lace tablecloth, ceramic plates, seed beads, and tobacco.
Burnaby Art Gallery | Vancouver, BC.

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Artist Statement

How do we come to know and build relationships with people we have never met?
How do we carry our relatives with us? Our teachings? Our memories? Our stories?
How do we honour our relatives? Reciprocate our gratitude? Our love for all they have given us? How do we ensure that they continue to be taken care of in the spirit world?

For Anishinaabe, many of us have a practice known as wiikondiwin - a practice of honouring those in the spirit world.

My family and I know all too well the effects of canada’s colonial project and what it is like to try to rebuild, reconnect and tend to disrupted relationships. We nurture our relations through our family’s stories, through pictures and through our cultural practices. I can still remember the first time my mom and I saw a picture of Grannie Alice and my kokum Marianne. I carry those images with me everywhere I go. I know that despite not having the chance to know them in person, we still have ways of connecting with one another.

This work was activated during the opening of Ghostly Makers on July 13, 2023. The performance was a re-telling of a story that I have heard from many of my family members - of my Grannie’s cake.