Port Moody Ecological Society, in partnership with Tasha Faye Evans and Vines Art Festival, presents:
In The Presence of Ancestors: xʷməθkʷəy̓əm
LEGACY OF MUSQUEAM LAND PROTECTION
June 4, 2022 | 1-3PM
Noons Creek Hatchery
340 Ioco Rd, Port Moody, BC V3H 2V7
A conversation with Audrey Siegl, Mary Point and Manuel Axuel Strain about our sacred relationship with these land and waters and the responsibility we have as current residents to join the legacy of caregivers.
sχɬemtəna:t, Audrey Siegl, an independent activist from the unceded lands of the Musqueam. She has been active on grassroots environmental and social justice-political frontline movements. Audrey has worked on raising awareness on MMIWG, the housing crisis, the Fentynal crisis, forced displacement and the connection btw extractive industry projects and violations of FN, Land & human rights.
Manuel Axel Strain is a non-binary 2-Spirit artist with Musqueam/Simpcw/Inkumupulux ancestry, based in stolen, sacred and ancestral homelands and waters of the Katzie/Kwantlen peoples. Although they have attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design they prioritize Indigenous epistemologies through the embodied knowledge of their mother, father, siblings, cousins, aunties, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, and ancestors. Creating artwork in dialogue, collaboration, and reference with their kin/relatives, their lived experience becomes a source of agency that resonates through their work with performance, space, painting, sculpture, photography, video, sound and installation. Their artworks display a strong autobiographical brace, tackling such subjects as ancestral and community ties, Indigeneity, labour, resource extraction, gender, Indigenous medicine, and land. Their work has been seen in the Capture Photography Festival, the Richmond Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, and other places across Turtle Island. Recent works confront and undermine realities and imaginaries of colonialism to offer a space that exists beyond that matrix of power.
About In The Presence of Ancestors: xʷməθkʷəy̓əm
These lands and waters, currently known as Port Moody, have been cared for by a long legacy of ancestors since time immemorial. These ancestors include the people of Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səlilwətaɬ, kʷikʷəƛ̓əm, and the S’ólh Téméxw. While each of these Nations are unique with their own songs, histories, and languages, they all share in a sacred responsibility to care for the future of these lands and waters. In partnership with the Port Moody Ecological Society, Coast Salish artist Tasha Faye Evans and Vines Art Festival have curated a series of gatherings to honour these ancestors.
Acknowledging that we are on the unceded, occupied, ancestral and traditional lands of the Kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish),Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
