Mide-wigwas: Transmediating

Niigaaniid: Director: Angelina McLeod

Ge-izhisegin:Running dates: July 2 akoo August 7, 2021 / July 2 to August 7, 2021

Main and Marvin Francis Media Gallery

This exhibition is over, but it can be explored in Urban Shaman's Virtual Gallery.

Ojibwe and English to follow

Ningikendaamin okwiinowang omaa gigeteminaanig odakiiwaang Agwi'idiwin Bezhig aki. Wiisaakodewininiwag owe odakiiwaan. Ningikendaamin ondinamaang nibi imaa onji Shoal Lake 40 First Nation Anishinaabeg.

We acknowledge that we are gathered on ancestral lands, on Treaty One Territory. These lands are the heartland of the Métis people. We acknowledge that our water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.

IKIDOWIN

Mide-wigwas: Transmediating waabanda’iwem aaniin enwaadegin wiigwaasi-apakwaanan, wiikaanakin gikendaasongin odaanaang onji, zhigwa bakaan gegoon genawenjigaadegin daabishkoo mazinaakiziganan, mazinaatebijiganan gaye. 70 dasowaki apan, omishoomeyan Angelina McLeod James Redsky-wan, ogii-mookinaanan Midewiwin Wiigwaasan aaniin gaa-bi-izhiwebiziwaagobanen Anishinaabeg waabanong onji ningaabiiwanong izhi-maajaawaad. Bebakaan ningoji wiindamaagem owe, ono dash wiigwaasan eta gaa-wiindamaagemagakin owe gete Anishinaabeg gikendaasowin. Imaa Shoal Lake onjiiwan enawemaad Redskay, mii imaa Shoal Lake 40 (SL40) First Nation, apii 1966 gaa-akiiwang gii-adaawaage ini izhi Glenbow museum imaa Alberta megwaa imaa gaa-daawaad.

Gaa-mazinisingin gegoon imaa wiigwaasonan, dibaajimowinan, nagamonan, aadizookewinan gaye Anishinaabeg gaa-gii-bi-aanikejimowaad. Jibwaa awiyag gii-bi-dagoshinowaad omaa akiing. Owe ge-waabanda’iweng, ji-aanike-gikenjigaadeg gaa-gii-bi-midewing. Enawendiwaad McLeod wii-ganawaabandaanaawaan ini wiigwaasan ji-aanike-gikenjigaadeg. Owe ge-waabanda’iweng ji-nanaakomindwaa gigete-anishinaabebaniinag, owe dibaadodegin ono dibaajimowinan aaniin Anishinaabeg gaa-inaajimowaad.

AAWIWIN

Awe Anisinaabekwe Angelina McLeod enind, mazinaatebijige, ozhibii’ige zhigwa ganawaabamaa Shoal Lake First Nation onjiid. Giigidootamaage aki zhigwa nibi onji, gitendang wiindamaaged Obi-izhiwebiziwin Anishinaabe, odinwewin, odizhtwaawin gaye. Onandooshkaanan Midewi-wiigwaasan gaa-gii-ganawendaminid omishoomeyan James Redsky-wan. Gii-miigaazod imaa WW1 gaa-ijigaadeg, gii-midewid, ogii-aanikanootaanan ini wiigwaasan izhi imaa Glenbow Museum imaa Calgary ji-ganawenjigaadegin. Megwaa odazhiikaanan Angelina mazinaatebijganan onji ini National Film Board ji-dadibaadodang Shoal Lake 40, First Nation, aandi wendinamowaad nibi Winnipeg eyaawaad.

Miigwech inaa’ Jessica Jacobson-Konefall zhigwa Daina Warren owe izhichigewin onji.

Aanind gii-diba’igaade onji Canada Council for the Arts and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada gaa-inindwaa.

Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery onanaakomaawaa’ gii-wiiji’igowaad, ningowaki aazha, gaa-wiijiiwaaganiyaang, ezhi-daayaang, enawemangwaa gaye,, NCI FM, CAHRD, Winnipeg Foundation, Manitoba Heritage, the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts zhigwa University of Manitoba School of Art. ~Miigwetch/ Hai Hai/ Ekosi / Merci/ Thank you

STATEMENT

Mide-wigwas: Transmediating is an exhibit focused on the relationship of birchbark scrolls, as relatives holding both sacred and historical knowledge, to other archival media such as photographs and film. 70 years ago, the artist Angelina McLeod’s great-uncle James Redsky (re)produced a series of Midewiwin birchbark scrolls, including origin, migration, and master scrolls, telling the story of the Anishinaabeg migration from east to west. The migration has been documented in other sources, but these scrolls are the only known source that conveys this history through traditional Anishinaabeg methods of knowledge record. Redsky is from McLeod’s community of Shoal Lake 40 (SL40) First Nation, and in 1966 sold his scrolls to the Glenbow museum in Alberta where they currently reside.

Midewiwin pictograph birch-bark scrolls contain stories, songs, and sacred narratives (Aadizookaanag) that have been handed down to the Anishinaabeg from generation to generation, long before the arrival of settlers on Turtle Island. This exhibit begins to connect the intergenerational Midewiwin practice in McLeod’s family to study of and relation with birch bark scrolls historically and through embodied knowledge. The purpose of this exhibit is to honor the ancestors and culture by re-telling our stories through intergenerational history across media and through Anishinaabeg ways of knowing.

Watch the exhibition in Urban Shaman's Virtual Gallery

BIO

Angelina McLeod (Anishinaabekwe) is an emerging filmmaker, writer, and documentary subject from Shoal Lake First Nation. Angelina is a land and water defender who is passionate about sharing Anishinaabeg history, culture, languages and stories. Her research is focused on Midewiwin birch bark scrolls that were once held by her grand uncle James Redsky, WWI veteran and prominent member of the Midewiwin, interpreted the scrolls before they were sold to the Glenbow Museum in Calgary for preservation. Angelina directed a series of short films with the National Film Board of Canada about her community Shoal Lake 40, First Nation, the source of Winnipeg's drinking water.

Thank you to Jessica Jacobson-Konefall and Daina Warren on this project.

Special funding came from Archive/Counter-Archive and the Canada Council for the Arts and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery acknowledges the support, throughout the year, of our friends, volunteers, community and all our relations, NCI FM, CAHRD, Winnipeg Foundation, Manitoba Heritage, the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and University of Manitoba School of Art. ~Miigwetch/ Hai Hai/ Ekosi / Merci/ Thank you

Watch Angelina McLeod's performance here: 

Artist talk: Mide-wigwas: Birchbark Scrolls

This panel was held as part of Worldings: A Virtual Conference, an event organized by Griffin Arts Project

Moderated by Daina Warren of Urban Shaman | Speakers: Jessica Jacobson-Konefall and Angelina McLeod 

Statement

For our panel we, Jessica Jacobson-Konefall (settler), Daina Warren (Cree) and Angelina McLeod (Anishinaabe) propose to discuss a contemporary art and archival project, Mide-wigwas: Transmediating. This multimedia art exhibit by McKeod explores how Anishinaabe peoples are reclaiming history, cultural protocols, knowledge, practices, language and ceremony. This process includes intergenerational midewewin practice, ceremonial practice through which knowledge of history, culture and language is generated and shared. Our panel explores the artworks produced, while considering histories of birchbark scrolls, artists and cultural workers as knowledge keepers, within this period of colonial suppression, maintaining their traditions with care and resilience. 70 years ago, McLeod’s great-uncle James Redsky produced a series of midewewin birchbark scrolls, including origin, migration, and master scrolls that tell the story of the Anishinaabe migration from east to west. The migration has been documented in other sources, but these scrolls are the only known source that conveys this history through traditional Anishinaabe methods of knowledge record. Currently in possession of the Glenbow Museum, the scrolls are a source of knowledge about past, present and future, and our panel discusses their aesthetic mediation of contemporary and historical relationship through current practices of Indigenous/settler collaboration in arts and scholarship in the exhibit Mide-wigwas: Transmediating.

We acknowledge that we are gathered on ancestral lands, on Treaty One Territory. These lands are the heartland of the Métis people. We acknowledge that our water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.