Art Installation at Fort Whoop-Up Incites Conversations on Decolonization
#HopeAndHealingCanada art installation by Tracey-Mae Chambers. Photo by Tyler J Stewart.
Media Availability: Tracey-Mae Chambers and Tyler Stewart will be available for media interviews at Fort Whoop-Up later this afternoon, between 4–5 pm, as the art installation is completed.
The Galt Museum & Archives | Akaisamitohkanao’pa is proud to host the latest temporary art installation by Métis artist Tracey-Mae Chambers in her ongoing nationwide project Hope and Healing Canada.
The #HopeAndHealingCanada project consists of a series of site-specific art installations across Canada. Each is made using crochet, knit and woven red yarns. This ongoing body of work is used to illustrate connections between Indigenous, Inuit and Métis peoples with Canadians, while also addressing the decolonization of public spaces.
“Often public spaces serve to present a colonial viewpoint and primarily speak about the settlers who arrived and lived here, but not the Indigenous people that were displaced along the way,” Chambers explains. “The decolonization of such places is a ponderous task and must be shouldered collectively.”
The artwork will be installed at Fort Whoop-Up, itself an attraction that recognizes part of Canada’s colonial history as it relates to the local area. It will remain up until early October and once it is dismantled, the work is returned to the artist and will be reworked and repurposed at another site somewhere else in the country. In addition to the artwork, part of Chambers’ project involves gathering stories from each participating venue, which will culminate in a book and travelling exhibition.
“The discussion of reconciliation and decolonization is hard to start and harder to maintain,” Chambers says. “Therefore, I am hoping to use my work to help bridge the gap between settlers and Indigenous, Métis, and Inuit people by creating art that is approachable and non-confrontational, so we can start.”
Chambers is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. Her family is from—and some still reside—in the traditional Métis community in Sault Ste. Marie and Penetanguishene, Ontario. Other locations as part of Hope and Healing Canada over the past year have included residential school historical sites, cultural centres, museums, art galleries and other public spaces.
“We are very honoured to host this important project here in Sikoohkotok,” says Curator Tyler Stewart. “It is important that we don’t see people and history as static objects frozen in time, but to constantly re-examine our world through new lenses and ways of thinking—Fort Whoop-Up and its legacy are no exception.”
Chambers’ art project fits in with a larger focus this summer at Fort Whoop-Up to tell more complex stories about this piece of local colonial history. Gone is the script of facts and figures and in its place ideas and concepts aimed at having thought-provoking and critical conversations with visitors. A team of bright and knowledgeable Museum Attendants will engage in a dialogue with visitors about life at the fort during the latter part of the nineteenth century through different lenses that examine multiple perspectives on this site.
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This media release can be found at www.galtmuseum.com/news.
Media Contacts
Tyler J Stewart (he/him)
Curator
tyler.stewart@galtmuseum.com
403.320.3907