Rooted and Ascending

×

Expand

Robyn McLeod, “Futuristic Hide Tanner,” 2020

digital collage, 14″ x 18″ (photo by Bill Braden)

It took a while to figure out I could fly. At first, I spun in circles and bumped into walls. My avatar was attempting to navigate a virtual gallery built by AbTeC – Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace, a tech-savvy network that creates Indigenous spaces in online environments like video games and virtual worlds. 

In this digital exhibition, holographic beadwork hovers in the air as giant braids of sweetgrass pulse with neon light. How fitting that my randomly assigned avatar is a dizzy white woman in a floppy sun-hat – a clueless tourist in futuristic Indigenous cyberspace. 

The show, Indigenous Futures: Rooted and Ascending, is housed in the virtual role-playing world of Second Life. Back in the early days, when the AbTeC community was searching for a safe online home, they bought an island in Second Life, joking on their website that “real Indians had to use real money and buy ourselves some virtual land.”

But here’s the twist – the show exists in real life too, at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife. It brings together artists from the North who use humour, tradition, fashion, cosmology and sci-fi to ponder what the future would look like if colonial oppression did not exist.

To make things even more interesting, AbTeC artists recreate or “virtualize” digital versions of several works from the real-life show, which was curated by Melaw Nakehk’o for Western Arctic Moving Pictures, a northern film and digital media organization.

Nakehk’o reflected on the show’s remarkable energy at the opening. “It is important to challenge our imaginations when we’re talking about being self-determined as Indigenous people in our communities,” she said. “Who do we want to become?”

×

Expand

AbTeC Virtual Gallery featuring Robyn McLeod, 2021 (with Sarah Swan’s avatar in the foreground; screenshot by Sarah Swan)

For artist and fashion designer Robyn McLeod, from the Deh Gáh Got'îê First Nation in Fort Providence, N.W.T, the future circles back to the past. Her real-life collages layer sci-fi imagery with archival photographs of traditional Dene activities. The cosmic context is stunning – women scrape hides on other planets under skies filled with spacecraft. 

It’s also fascinating to observe how AbTeC pushes her work further into futuristic realms. Inside the virtual world, her imagery stretches from floor to ceiling, wrapping around the avatar audience. 

×

1 of 2

Expand

AbTeC Virtual Gallery featuring Cody Fennell, 2021 (screenshot by Sarah Swan)

×

2 of 2

Expand

Cody Fennell, “Untitled,” 2018

illustration, 20″ x 25″ (photo by Bill Braden)

Prev

Next

Cody Fennell’s illustrations are well known in Yellowknife, his hometown. Originally commissioned as posters for the Dead North Film Festival, his works embody the humour and spirit of the amateur horror and sci-fi fest. In one untitled illustration, a dying alien spurts green blood onto the snow, its neck slashed by an ulu-wielding Inuit hunter. 

But in the virtual gallery, Fennell’s wolf tips its head back and howls. Polar bears bob up and down, suspended in the light beams of spinning spaceships. This cyberspace version is the futuristic equivalent of a kitschy diorama – bad taxidermy, jerky animatronics and polyacrylate snow. It’s brilliant. 

×

1 of 2

Expand

Robyn McLeod, “Beaded Visor,” from the “Dene Futurism Fashion Collection,” 2020 (photo by Bill Braden)

×

2 of 2

Expand

Siku Allooloo, “Sapajuli (Protector),” 2021

melton, batik, sealskin, bias tape, seed beads, freshwater pearls, bugle beads, abalone and caribou hide, installation view (photo by Bill Braden)

Prev

Next

Not all the virtual artworks augment the real-life counterpart, however. Casey Koyczan’s glowing 3D animation, Future Sweetgrass, is equally mesmerizing in both places. And while virtual versions have a built-in cool factor, the real tactile materiality of Dene and Inuit craft is powerful on its own. For instance, McLeod’s golden-beaded visor, from her Dene Futurism fashion collection, is beautiful and badass. One day, it may be the de rigueur accessory for hovercraft skidoos. Then there’s Siku Allooloo’s sealskin and batik armour, Sapajuji (Protector). Worn to deflect colonial violence, it’s a perfect fusion of softness and strength.

×

Expand

Casey Koyczan, Tania Larsson, Melaw Nakehk’o and Davis Heslep, “Moose Hide Dome,” 2021

moose hide, wooden frames, hardware, aircraft cable and 360 video footage, installation view (photo by Sarah Swan)

Moose hide, a material Dene people have used for thousands of years, is transformed magically in the exhibition’s capstone piece, Moose Hide Dome. Built from hide stretched over 40 triangular wooden frames, it’s lit with projected video footage of a hide-tanning camp in the community of Lutselk'e, N.W.T. Lying underneath, it felt like I was in a personal planetarium. Sadly, it’s no longer viewable in Yellowknife as it’s packed up to travel to various Dene communities. ■  

Indigenous Futures: Rooted and Ascending at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife and the AbTeC Virtual Gallery from August to November 2021. The virtual component is viewable on your phone or laptop by signing up with Second Life and going to the AbTeC virtual gallery here.

Featured artists are Kablusiak, Casey Koyczan, Robyn McLeod, Margaret Nazon, Siku Allooloo, Riel Stevenson-Burke and Cody Fennell. Moose Hide Dome was created by Melaw Nakehk’o, Casey Koyczan, Tania Larsson and Davis Heslep in collaboration with Western Arctic Moving Pictures and Dene Nahjo. 

The project was part of a symposium hosted by the Initiative for Indigenous Futures, a partnership of Canadian universities and community groups that explores how Indigenous people can imagine potential futures through art and technology.

PS: Worried you missed something? See previous Galleries West stories here or sign up for our free biweekly newsletter.