New art at SFU’s Surrey campus to showcase Indigenous ways and build community

By Emma Keeler-Dugas

SFU’s Artist-in-Residence—Laiwan, a Vancouver interdisciplinary artist and SFU alumnus—is creating a new process-based and site-specific work of art to be housed amidst the busy engineering labs, lecture theatres and classrooms of the university’s new building at the Surrey campus.

The permanent art piece will speak to sustainability—the theme of the new School of Sustainable Energy Engineering that opened in the new building last fall.

Laiwan, who earned a master of fine arts from SFU’s School for Contemporary Arts two decades ago, is working with collaborators Roxanne Charles, of the Semiahmoo First Nation, and Daniel Negatu, a filmmaker from Ethiopia. They’re collecting stories from local Indigenous elders, artists, and knowledge-keepers to showcase experiences of stewardship and knowledge used to care for local communities, waters and land.

They’ll use the interviews to develop a concept for a permanent art piece reflecting this rich narrative.

“As a visitor on these unceded lands, and in respect to the peoples of the Semiahmoo, Katzie and Kwantlen First Nations, my approach to engagement for this project will be guided by decolonial methodologies, with the aim for Indigenous approaches to technologies and cosmologies to become increasingly visible,” says Laiwan.

"It’s exciting to converse with people who have a special relationship with the land, who have been here for millennia and whose guidance often has been ignored.”

She says the piece will help establish a new social space that draws local community members to the new Surrey campus building, helping to build community relationships.

Says Negatu, “By the end of the project, it is my hope there will be a better understanding and appreciation of Indigenous technologies, paving the way for more discourse surrounding sustainability and stewardship of our planet.”

According to Charles, “Projects like this are extremely important to recognize local history and knowledge keepers in our educational institutions. They have been ignored and misrepresented for far too long.”

She adds, “I hope we create a strong network and sense of place for the local community to gain a greater understanding of Indigenous history and culture and the land the Surrey building is situated on.”

A reception will be held at SFU's Surrey campus in late February.