Experience Exhibitions Paul Seesequasis—Turning the Lens: Indigenous Archive Project

Paul Seesequasis—Turning the Lens: Indigenous Archive Project

23 March 2023 – 27 August 2023

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Paul Seesequasis—Turning the Lens: Indigenous Archive Project

About the Exhibition

Curated By

Arin Fay with Felicia Gay

Organized & Circulated By

Nelson Museum, Archives & Gallery

Galleries

Sim Gallery

Turning the Lens: Indigenous Archive Project is many things at once. It’s a photography/history exhibition, a naming project, and a social media campaign. This exhibition allows visitors to think about the many ways we record shared histories as public memory. Why are certain stories valued by different people, groups or organizations?

This exhibition features images of Indigenous peoples from the 1950s-1960s taken by photojournalist Rosemary Gilliat Eaton. At each location that this exhibition is shown, Paul adds local images and stories to the project.

Turning the Lens celebrates the everyday life and ongoing resilience in Canadian Indigenous communities.

About the Artist

Paul Seesequasis is a Plains Cree writer, journalist and cultural activist based in Saskatoon. He collects archival images of everyday life among First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities from the 1920s through the 1970s. By sharing these images on social media and collecting information from Indigenous communities, Paul identifies the people, places, events and stories connected to each image. These details have often been left out of gallery, museum, and archive records.

Works in the Exhibition

Photo: Young girl and boy standing on grass, between a teepee and a dirt road, Ghost River, Alberta, ca. 1962 © Library and Archives Canada. Reproduced with the permission of Library and Archives Canada.

Photo: Two girls standing outside, Southend, Saskatchewan [Rose Anne Hardotte (née Jobb) on the left and Jane McCallum (right) from the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation], March 1955. © Library and Archives Canada. Reproduced with the permission of Library and Archives Canada.

Photo: Theresa Billette, age 15, and her sister, Delia, aged five, stitching beads on moosehide moccasins. [They are from the Buffalo River Dene First Nation at Dillon, Saskatchewan.], March 19, 1955. © Library and Archives Canada. Reproduced with the permission of Library and Archives Canada.

Photo: Aboriginal students from northern Alberta seated at a table. Edmonton, 1954. © Library and Archives Canada. Reproduced with the permission of Library and Archives Canada.

Photo: Walking Buffalo (George MacLean), a ninety-two year old Stoney from Morley, Alberta, September, 1962. © Library and Archives Canada. Reproduced with the permission of Library and Archives Canada.

Photo: Alma Houston and Kingwatsiak, Cape Dorset, Nunavut, between June-September, 1960. © Library and Archives Canada. Reproduced with the permission of Library and Archives Canada.

Photo: Portrait of Inuit artist [Napachie Pootoogook], Cape Dorset, Nunavut, between August 24-October 3, 1960. © Library and Archives Canada. Reproduced with the permission of Library and Archives Canada.