Tuesday – Saturday, 4:30pm – 10:00pm Located outside on Broad Street side of Legacy Downtown
Image: Stillfrom This Ink Runs Deep (2019).
Documentary short by filmmaker Asia Youngman
All across Canada, Indigenous artists are reawakening both traditional and contemporary tattoo practices as a way to reclaim their cultures and identities. Asia Youngman’s documentary short This Ink Runs Deep explores the revival of cultural tattooing.
While attending a film festival in 2018, I had the honour of receiving a tā moko in New Zealand from artist Tipi Wehipeihana, which is the traditional style of tattooing for the Māori people. When I had the opportunity later that same year to direct a documentary on traditional Indigenous tattoo practices in Canada, I realized that I had minimal knowledge about this art form that our people were doing right here on Turtle Island. Throughout the production process, I was privileged to meet some of the artists who were passionately working to revive these practices that had been taken away due to colonization. – Asia Youngman
This Ink Runs Deep is about more than just tattooing. It’s a celebration of the growing pride that is happening across Turtle Island as we revive different aspects of our culture and reconnect to our ancestral teachings. While growing up, I struggled with acknowledging my own identity as a Cree-Métis woman. It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties when I started to learn more about my culture and became more grounded in my identity. I understood what it was like to have a fractured identity and feel that disconnect, especially as a youth. With that in mind, it was essential that this film also emphasized the importance of sharing these teachings with the next generation.
I’m deeply grateful to Nakkita Trimble, Dion Kaszas, Jana Angulalik, Audie Murray, Kwiaahwah Jones, and Gregory Williams for sharing your time, your teachings and your stories. Each of these artists brought something unique to this documentary, whether it was their particular style of tattooing or their personal journeys. When I reflect on the process of making this film, I am warmly reminded of how our team was welcomed into the lives and homes of these incredible artists who continue to inspire me every day. kinanâskomitin.
This Ink Runs Deep was on view in Legacy’s sidewalk gallery space along Broad Street and can also be viewed on the CBC network’s YouTube channel.
Related Programming
Asia Youngman Screening with Q&A
Feb 12, 2022 | 6 – 7:30PM UVic Legacy Art Gallery Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Join us for an evening with Cree-Métis filmmaker, Asia Youngman. We will host a screening of Asia Youngman’s film This Ink Runs Deep, a documentary short about the revival of cultural tattooing, and nx̌aʔx̌ʔitkʷ (na-haha-eet-ku), a narrative short about a teenager who must navigate peer pressure when her next door neighbour convinces her to explore a nearby island in search of a legendary lake monster.
Curated by Mel Granley (Metis), Young Canada Works Intern with lessLIE (Coast Salish artist)
2020 marked the ten-year anniversary the First Peoples House. This exhibition focused on Coast Salish title and relationship to land and how this is communicated through art.
In doing a write up for this exhibition I felt a certain level of trepidation that my voice as a Métis and settler person would be inadequate, inappropriate, or too loud, and so I am extremely thankful and humbled to have the words of artist lessLIE to take precedence over mine. If you are non-Indigenous or not Coast Salish my hope is that this exhibition will encourage you to consider your position on these lands, what brought you here, and your responsibilities to the Coast Salish peoples who have tended to this land for time immemorial. Hiy-hiy! – Melissa Granley
This continuum of Coast Salish art and artists is a visual means for acknowledging Salish territory… Such a geographical acknowledgement of traditional territories is vital in the 21st century. Most North Americans know the anxiety of protecting land from terrorism and nuclear bombs. In an era of Wet’suwet’en Solidarity and of COVID-19, the acknowledgement of land is vital to the future of humanity. – lessLIE
Featured artists include Margaret August, Butch Dick, TEMOSEN Charles Elliott, Jordanna George, Stan Greene, Edward Joe, Maynard Johnny Jr., Sarah Jim, lessLIE, Sage Paul, Andy Peterson, Susan Point, Manuel Salazar, Dylan Thomas.
This program is generously funded in part by the Salish Weave Collection.
Curated by Dion Kaszas Organized by the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art
Body Language is about the reclamation of cultural tattooing in the Pacific Northwest. This exhibition takes an intimate look at historic and contemporary cultural tattooing from the perspectives of 5 Indigenous artists. Body Language explores designs on skin and their relationship to traditional clothing, rock art, jewelry, basketry and weaving to provide healing, protection and a sense of cultural knowledge and belonging
Image credit: Aaron Leon, The Body Language artists during planning meetings at Whistler, 2017.
Related Programming
Live Tattoo Demo and Artist Talk
with Audie Murray and Nicole Neidhardt
March 12 2022 | 12-4pm UVic Legacy Art Gallery Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Join artists Nicole Neidhardt (Diné) and Audie Murray (Michif) for a live demonstration of cultural tattooing in person and online. Nicole will be demonstrating hand-poke tattooing in person at the Legacy Art Gallery Downtown while Audie demonstrates skin-stitch tattooing remotely. Opening prayer and artist talks begin at noon, with tattoo demonstrations to follow.
Artist Talk
Jan 13, 2022 | 7-8:30pm
Online via Zoom
Join us for a panel discussion among the artists Nahaan (Tlingit), Nakkita Trimble (Nisga’a) and Dion Kaszas (Nlaka’pamux) featured in Body Language: Reawakening Cultural Tattooing of the Northwest exhibition now on display at the Legacy Art Gallery.
Learn about cultural tattooing from an Indigenous perspective. Artists will cultural tattooing is connected to their respective cultures, personal identities’ and how they are reviving this practice in their communities.
In Spanish, derrumbar means to crumble away, to tumble down. Derrumbeat is a sonic collage accompanied by photos and video work created from the audio-visual traces left by falling rocks, pieces of wood, cement and ceramics collected in various abandoned sites in the capital of Cuba, Havana. Derrumbeat calls visitors to listen to the traces left by human passages and presence in an urban environment as time passes. It further encourages listeners to reflect on the rejuvenation of decay and the layers of meanings we can unearth in our own cities.
Related Programming
Sounds That Bring us Together: Panel discussion
Feb 24, 2022 UVic Legacy Art Gallery Downtown | 630 Yates St
Attending to the sounds around us can offer new perspectives on the spaces we inhabit. Sound is also a powerful tool to convey emotion and connect us with our past. Inspired by the current exhibition Derrumbeat – The Beat of Collapse, anthropologists, artists, musicians and composers will discuss how they think about and integrate sounds in their work with a focus on how sounds contribute to new forms of connection, collaboration, relation, and synthetization in the participants’ ways of thinking, reflecting and imagining.
Panelists:
Adi Laflamme, Composer, Producer, Performer, MA candidate School of Music, UVic Sue Frohlick, UBC Okanagan, Professor, Anthropology, Gender and Women’s Studies, UBC-Okanagan Paul Walde, Sound and Visual Artist, Associate Professor, Visual Arts, UVic
Moderator:
Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier, Associate Professor, Anthropology, UVic
Ungasittuq is an exploration of distance, space, acceptance and pushing boundaries. This exhibition aims to build a foundation for contemporary urban Inuit art photography within the broader popular understanding of contemporary Inuit art. Recent photographs by Barry Pottle present a counterpoint and complement to sculpture, drawings, and prints by Inuit artists to give a broader understanding of contemporary realities and experience.
Related Programming
Urban Inuit Connections to Homeland and Culture
Online discussion with Barry Pottle, Heidi Langille and Stephanie Papik
Nov 18 2021 | 3pm PST
Join Ottawa-based artist Barry Pottle and cultural worker Heidi Langille alongside Victoria-based Stephanie Papik as they discuss their creative practices, connections to homeland, and what it means to be Urban Inuit. Both Barry and Heidi see themselves as cultural ambassadors and contribute to a thriving Inuit community in Ottawa. Stephanie is the Director for Strategic Integration of Indigenous Knowledge, Cultural Safety and Humility with BC Emergency Management.
Qw’an Qw’anakwal – To Come Together is the 10th anniversary celebration of the Visiting Artist Program hosted by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Victoria. The exhibition features new works by 12 artists and their collaborators from Salish nations on Vancouver Island, who have participated in the Visiting Artist Program since 2010. The exhibition features knitting, wool and cedar weaving, carving, drawing, and painting.
Tuesday – Saturday, 4:30pm – 10:00pm Located outside on Broad Street side of Legacy Downtown
Curated by Nicole Achtymichuk (UVic BSc ’20, Young Canada Works Curatorial Intern)
What the Land Holds is a contemporary video art exhibition that examines the land as integral to Indigenous histories and futures, and as a site of ongoing colonization and alienation. The land holds layers of interpretation that establish places of inclusion and exclusion. The land holds what humans have created, blurring the lines between natural and artificial. The land holds stories and teachings, and returning to these is essential to our continued survival on the land.
This is the inaugural exhibition in Legacy’s new Sidewalk Gallery, a space designed to activate and inspire community collaborations and to make art more accessible to the public.
Image: Amanda Strong and Bracken Hanuse Corlett, Mia’ (still), 2015.
Visit the online exhibition to explore the artworks, films and event programming at lifestories.uvic.ca
Curated by Dr. Erin J. Campbell, UVic, Professor, Art History and Visual Studies (BA, MA, & PhD, University of Toronto). Co-curated by Jaiya Anka, UVic Art History and Visual Studies PhD Candidate (UVic, MA ‘17); Holly Cecil (UVic, BA ’16, MA ’19). Related Repose Installation by Elly Heise (UVic, MFA ’20).
With artists: Nina Raginsky, Frank Pimentel, IITTAASHTEXAALIASH Winona Plenty Hoops, Ulli Steltzer, Maxwell Bates and more.
Art shapes our life stories, our sense of self and our relationships, as we journey through the life stages: Beginnings, Childhood, Coming of Age, Maturity, Later Life, and Passages. Life-stages imagery and objects may inspire memories and reflection, offer comfort, joy, and healing, and foster a sense of belonging. However, such imagery can also be a source of cultural stereotypes, engender marginalization, cause pain, and create feelings of loss.
Paintings, drawings, photographs, textiles, ceramics, and furnishings from the university collections evoke a plurality of experiences across the life course. Artist Elly Heise’s installation Related Repose in The Bed Room highlights the intertwining of memory, materiality, and life passages. Interwoven with the artworks are voices of writers, artists, scholars, and curators offering diverse perspectives on significant stages informing our lives.
Image: Jack Wilkinson, Girl In Blue Flowered Nightgown. Oil on canvas, 104 x 78.5 cm, 1972-1975. U996.25.57. Gift of Dr. Myfanwy Spencer Pavelic.
Supported by a grant from: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.
University of Victoria Anthropology of Sound students found inspiration in the Life Stories exhibition for their final projects. Each student created an original soundscape or a sonic composition to accompany an object from the exhibition. The students are pleased to share their work with the Legacy Gallery visitors and they hope their sonic interpretations will spark memories, sensations and new interpretations of these works of art.
Dr. Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier, Associate Professor in Anthropology
It has been said that the task of an anthropologist is to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange. From quiet, contemplative moments to frenetic, otherworldly scenes, each student has created a memorable sonic arrangement that draws from the diverse range of human experience over the life stages. The soundscapes serve as a unique sensory companion to the Life Stories exhibition, and mark the first time that Legacy has utilized the liminal space of the sidewalk for exhibitions.
Nicole Achtymichuk, Young Canada Works Curatorial Intern
Curated by XEMŦOLTW̱ Dr. Nicholas Claxton, UVic, School of Child and Youth Care (UVic Alumni, BSc ’00, MA ’03, PhD ’15) and Katie Hughes, UVic Department of History, graduate student (UVic Alumni, BA ’06, Graduate Professional Certificate, Cultural Heritage Studies ’17).
With artists: TEMOSEN Charles Elliott, J,SIṈTEN John Elliott, Chris Paul, Dylan Thomas, Sarah Jim (UVic Alumni, BFA ’19), Temoseng, aka Chasz Elliott and Colton Hash (UVic Alumni, BSc ‘18).
To Fish as Formerly tells the story of the SX̱OLE (the Reef Net Fishery) through contemporary art, traditional knowledge and historical documentation. The exhibition shares the story of the efforts of generations of W̱SÁNEĆ people who are revitalizing the belief systems, spirituality, knowledge and practices inherent to the SX̱OLE.
To W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) people, the SX̱OLE is more than a fishing technology. Challenged with no substantial salmon bearing rivers in the territory, the W̱SÁNEĆ and other Straits Salish peoples developed a unique and sophisticated fishing technology that formed the basis for their way of life. Though the Douglas Treaty of 1852 promised that the W̱SÁNEĆ would be able to “fish as formerly”, the SX̱OLE was systematically reduced by colonial systems and finally was banned altogether in Canada in 1916. In recent years, XEMŦOLTW̱ Nicholas Claxton is undertaking community-based work that has brought new life to the restoration of the SX̱OLE that continues today. Through collaboration and reconnection with their U.S. based Xwelemi (Lummi) relatives, the W̱SÁNEĆ people fished using traditional reef net technology for the first time in more than 100 years.
This program is generously funded in part by the Salish Weave Collection.
Teacher’s Guide
Chris Paul, “Reef Net”, 2020.
The exhibition Teacher’s Guide and associated Slide Presentation are free to download and use as reference in the classroom.
What role can art play in eco-cultural revitalization?
Learn more about the artwork and artists featured in To Fish As Formerly in this interview series featuring local emerging artists Temoseng aka Chasz Elliott, Sarah Jim, and Colton Hash. Hear how art can be a research tool, connect us with community knowledge, and allow us to explore new perspectives.
Join us for a tour and curators’ discussion of the exhibition To Fish As Formerly: A Story of Straits Salish Resurgence. Gillian Booth, UVic Legacy Galleries’ Curator of Academic and Community Programs, will conduct a 25 minute online tour through To Fish As Formerly followed by a Curators’ Discussion with XEMŦOLTW̱ Dr. Nicholas Claxton, UVic, School of Child and Youth Care and Katie Hughes, MA Public History, UVic, 2020.
Whether you have already seen To Fish As Formerly or are unable to visit in person, this program offers an insightful overview of the exhibition and a unique opportunity to participate in a discussion about W̱SÁNEĆ eco-cultural resurgence with curators Nick Claxton and Katie Hughes.
To Fish as Formerly tells the story of the SX̱OLE (the Reef Net Fishery) through contemporary art, traditional knowledge and historical documentation. The exhibition shares the story of the efforts of generations of W̱SÁNEĆ people who are revitalizing the belief systems, spirituality, knowledge and practices inherent to the SX̱OLE.
This event features a pre-recorded tour followed by a live discussion and Q+A period.
Nick Claxton teaches at UVic in the Department of Child and Youth Care. His research is centered on the revitalization and resurgence of Indigenous knowledges through community-based and land-based healing. Nick’s doctoral research focused on the revitalization of his community’s traditional fishing practice. His doctoral research project focused on the revitalization and restoration of the SX̱OLE during which he worked to pull together the disappearing knowledge of the SX̱OLE, reinvigorate cross border cooperation between the W̱SÁNEĆ and their Xwelemi relatives, and coordinate the community-based creation and fishing of the first SX̱OLE on Canadian waters in 100 years. This project involved reconnecting with many elders, youth, and community members. It marked the beginning of a longer-term journey of resurgence and intergenerational resilience that continues.
Katie Hughes is a recent graduate of the Public History MA program in the UVic History Department and a museum professional. Her graduate research focussed on sharing the W̱SÁNEĆ story of the revitalization of the SXOLE with the public. Collaborating with Claxton, Katie’s research involved working with a broad range of Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members, elders, and artists to develop content and artworks for the exhibition. Drawing from Indigenous cultural and oral histories and colonial historical sources, Katie focused on capturing the history of the Reef Net and it’s resurgence in the exhibition text, artworks and objects. Katie is currently on maternity leave from her position as Community Engagement Coordinator at UVic Legacy Galleries.
Gillian Booth is the Curator of Academic and Community Programs at UVic Legacy Galleries. Gillian brings 15 years experience working as an art gallery educator. Her work entails developing challenging and engaging public and academic programs that expand on exhibition themes. She collaborates with Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff to develop and deliver K-12 and post-secondary Gallery tours related to Indigenous education using First Peoples Principles of Learning and BC’s new curriculum. Gillian is interested in how museums can support societal change through meaningful public engagement that challenges societal norms and institutional power structures.
‘Tuktuuyaqtuuq’ is the Inuvialuktun name of Maureen Gruben’s (UVic Alumni, BFA ‘12) home on the Arctic coast (known in English as ‘Tuktoyaktuk’). It means, ‘Looks Like a Caribou.’ The tuktu/caribou are integral to Inuvialuit life, providing food, clothes, tools, stories.
In TUKTUUYAQTUUQ, Gruben works with multiple facets of the animal: the translucent heart sac, the intricate patterning of bone seams on skulls that are reminiscent of waterways curving through the land. In her careful attention to life-sustaining physical elements, Gruben also traces the caribou’s vast immaterial presence in her culture.
