considering *our* worldview
Let's talk. Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta.?Yunkaporta is an academic, art critic, poet, and researcher who belongs to the Apalech clan in Queensland, Australia who looks at global systems through an Indigenous lens and believes that much of society’s problems stem from our worldview, from how we think and relate to how we behave.
In his book, Yunkaporta discusses how western civilization has subjugated women and femininity and how Indigenous knowledge and ideas can help change the world. He explains why we need to have an agency in violence and cultivate a connection with our land.
Recently, in my role as a Secondary (IB DP) Visual Arts Teacher, I was asked to create a TOK lesson for my G11 IB DP VA class.?I decided to explore the question ‘Can new knowledge change established values and/or beliefs?’ I decided to explore with my students 3 indigenous portraits, created at different times of Canada's colonial history.
Mah-Min was created by Paul Kane through ethnographic observations of Indigenous peoples in 1848, who he was commissioned to document and archive for the Hudson's Bay Company.
The Final Works was created by Arthur Shilling, Objiway artist from Rama First Nations in 1986. The self portrait was created in Shilling's later years using a combination of Western painting techniques with traditional Anishinaabe imagery visualizing his growing insistence on speaking his own voice.
The Affair was created by Kent Monkman in 2019 as a response to?celebrated Euro-American, male artists who had endeavored to capture 'the American West' inserting his female persona known as “Miss Chief Eagle Testickle” (a play on the words “mischief” and “egotistical”) in order to turn the gaze around and critique the process of empire inherent in earlier Euro-American works.
I acquiesce that the three artists I chose to present for exploration to my students are not considered ‘new knowledge’ by many, but they were new artists to my students; and it was my hope that by exploring these three artists, it would encourage a discussion on indigenous representation through different historical viewpoints which could shed some light and understanding on current discourses. (which it did. what an amazing discussion!)
I chose these three artworks specifically to unpack the colonial perspective vs the indigenous viewpoint in the country we now call Canada, as well as to consider how the meaning, function and purpose of art has changed through time, considering if it existed but wasn't realized or acknowledged before, is it considered 'new knowledge'? And does knowing it now, change established values and beliefs?
As a discussion forum, I encouraged my students to explore each artwork with formal analysis, function and purpose, and cultural significance.?Some of my students have Canadian citizenship and were familiar with some of the themes and visuals discussed but many were not, so it created a dynamic platform to discuss how art can create a narrative and inform society. ?It was interesting to unpack alongside Yunkaporta’s explanations of our own worldview.?Yunkaporta explains that Indigenous relations are social networks, just as in nature - everyone exists in relation to everyone else.?Everything is connected.
International schools aim to foster an inclusive environment where most everyone in the classroom comes from a different area of our world and encourages open-minded discussions within global perspectives.?The IB refers to this as international mindedness. By looking at these three artist's works and exploring the artistic intention as well as cultural context, with my IB DP VA students we were able to understand the impact that art can have, beyond the intention of the artist and also reflect on how narratives of different cultures can be created and reflected through art through time and space, and then *hopefully* apply it to our own creative explorations.
The comparative study is a component of the IB DP VA curriculum. It is an independent critical and contextual investigation that explores artworks, objects, and artefacts from differing cultural contexts.?It constitutes 20% of the final IB DP VA mark.?It is basically a comparative, analytic investigation that strikes a balance between visual and written with no prescribed format.?
You can learn more about the details of the specific IB components and how to approach them as a student or a teacher at ibdpvawithmissa.com
Be attentive to the stories we make up to try to set the world straight, those out of which we are crafted and those we participate in crafting. (Loveless)
Recently, Concordia posted that 3 Concordia artists were to be featured in the Canada Council Art Bank’s expanded collection which reminded me of last spring, when I had the pleasure of working with a colleague as she taught a course preparing scholars to teach Arts courses in the University environment.?One of the students Dayna Danger, a Métis?visual artist based in Montreal, shared a way of considering our own complicity.?They shared the Indigenous practice of knowing who has lived on the land and acknowledging those who have gone before.?Danger encouraged class participants to consider how this land has been settled without permission of the original inhabitants.?How can we consider this perspective?
Danger encouraged our class to “consider where you are and who was there before - wherever you are - you were not the first person there. It is important to ground yourself with your location.”
Life just is.?It’s not really about anything. It’s a big networked reality that is experiencing itself.?You can’t be outside of it looking in; it’s not an objectionable observing reality.?You are part of a thing that is experiencing itself. (Yunkaporta)
Last year, I taught within the Art Education department at Concordia University?which is?located on unceded Indigenous lands known as Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters on which my class gathered.?At the beginning of each class, Concordia encourages the recitation of a land acknowledgment
Through my studies, questions were often raised as to the efficacy of saying the acknowledgment. Was it just stated words as implied by the Baroness Von Sketch Show?
Considering my role as a teacher of teachers, I did what I would like my teacher to do, I shared my concerns and questions with my class, I unpacked my colonial bias, and raised concerns that had been voiced in my classes;?does it open conversations? does it create an impact? is the impact the one that was intended or does it create different impacts? And then asked my students how would be a good way to approach it in our class. ?
My students, as they always do, rose to the occasion, and suggested that as art education future teachers what if we explored the land acknowledgment to help us learn more, not only the language and context, but to discuss our own understandings and to share artworks and resources that help to inform and inspire us.?
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And so, we began a learning journey exploring Indigenous artists of Turtle Island and a deep dive into the meaning and use of the land acknowledgment and how we can better honour diverse experiences. And to my great pleasure, my students volunteered to share their own perspectives and resources at the beginning of each class. I will share our discussion topics and the resources and artists that my students shared here with their permission. I encourage you to explore the artists and artworks, and perhaps use them to inspire and inform conversations you are having.
SHARINGS:
Ojibwe artist from Aamjiwnaang First Nation?and Concordia alumuni: Nico Williams
Cree artist Kent Monkman
Ojibway artist from the Rama First Nation Keesic Douglas.
Queer Metis two-spirited artist Michel Dumont
Cree, Nehiyaw artist James Jones AKA Notorious Cree
Inuk actress and influencer arika Sila
Navajo citizen Charlie Amaya Scott
Inuk throat singer Shina Nova with her mom Kayuula Nova
Ikuma Handmade Jewelry
Indigenous literature Raven Reads
More references and useful information shared by my students:
Catherine Faiello, one of my students has a wonderful podcast 'the AwkwART Podcast'?which she has given me permission to share.
Land is something sacred to all of us, whether we consciously appreciate it or not — it is the space upon which we play, live, eat, find love, and experience life. The land is ever-changing and ever-shifting, giving us — and other creatures and beings on the earth — an infinite number of gifts and lessons.
Finally, I share these teaching resources with you:
Ways of Indigenous Knowing: a fact sheet from the Learning across Indigenous and Western Knowledge Systems and Intersectionality series from CRIAW which offers a starting point to bring Indigenous and Western perspectives into conversation with one another. However, there is no single Indigenous or Western way of knowing and one must avoid reducing vast and varied traditions to simplistic and general terms.
Native Land: A site that strives to create and foster conversations about the history of colonialism, Indigenous ways of knowing, and settler-Indigenous relations, through educational resources such as the map and Territory Acknowledgement Guide
Good Minds: an Indigenous owned source for teaching and educational resources. based on the Six Nations of the Grand River (Brantford) in Southwestern Ontario.
Turtle Island Reads: an initiative that celebrates stories written by and about Indigenous Canadians. Now in its third year, the project’s objective is to connect readers with Indigenous stories.
I welcome your feedback and any other resources and conversations that you would like to share. ?