Weekly We Make: Land and Language

When you visit the MacKenzie Art Gallery, you are greeted by cahkipêhikana (Plains Cree syllabics) stretching across the Gallery’s front windows. They are cut from a shining film that lets through vibrant splashes of coloured light. The words are written across both the inside and the outside of the windows, overlapping in interesting ways.  

The title of this artwork is the same as the words stretching across the windows: ᐁᐸᐢᐹᐱᐟ ᐚᓰᓇᒫᓂᕁ ᐚᐸᐦᑕᑦ ᐁᓈᓈᐦᑌᔨᐠ (ē-paspāpit wāsīnamānihk wāpahtam ē–nānāhtēyik). In English, this means “looking out her window, she watches a moving mirage of dazzling light.” Some of the teachers who helped Joi pick this phrase and learn about its meaning are Darryl Chamekese, Soloman Ratt, and Elders Jo-Ann and Jerry Saddleback. The phrase reminds her of looking out her windows at the prairie sky as a child. It also connects to the story of how Cree people were gifted syllabics from the spirits to help their language survive. You can read Darryl Chamekese’s retelling of this story on the wall label beside the gallery shop, or on the MacKenzie Art Gallery website.  

Joi has created a clear relationship between the Cree language and the land it comes from. Not only do these words speak about the land, but you can look through them to the vibrant prairie sky beyond. As the colours dance across you and the gallery, you are reminded that you are standing on Indigenous land.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Joi T. Arcand is a nêhiyaw (Plains Cree), German Canadian and Métis artist. She grew up on the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6 territory, surrounded by family.  

Joi has been learning nêhiyawêwin (the Plains Cree language) her whole life. She grew up hearing it spoken by her kokum (grandmother) and other people living on her reserve. She also learned Cree in elementary school from Gladys Wapass-Greyeyes. Joi later studied Cree at the University nuhelotʼįne thaiyotsʼį nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills.  

The language was one of the main ways that Canadian governments were able to take away a lot of the culture and the teachings that are passed down through language. Once that was taken away, it really disrupted the transfer of knowledge. That’s why it’s important to me to make it hyper-visible in the world. It’s to say that the language wasn’t lost it was taken and we’re here to take it back.  — Joi T. Arcand, “Innovator Profile: Joi T. Arcand” indigenousinnovators.ca  

Each artwork in the Cultivate series is made up of two different photographs. Along the bottom of the artworks are photos taken when Joi was a kid. They show her and her father on the family farm. These photos repeat in a band across the bottom of each artwork. The larger photo at the top of the artwork is a new one Joi took as an adult. She and her father carefully recreated the older photos, copying the emotions, colours, and layout of the originals. 

Family, land, and memory are important themes in Joi’s art. In Cultivate, Joi shows us her relationship to her father, her family’s connection to the land through farming, and how she interacts with her family’s records of memories. Joi plays with time, showing how memories can exist both in the past and continually in our minds. 

Joi made this series in 2005, when her art was more centred around photography.