T'uy't'tanat-Cease Wyss, Shḵwen̓ Wéw̓shḵem Nexw7iy̓ay̓ulh (To Explore, To Travel by Canoe) (detail), 2018. Photo by Louis Lim. Image courtesy the artist.
Great Ocean Dialogues
Saturday, September 28 – Sunday, September 29, 2019
Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver
Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, 149 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
Great Ocean Dialogues is an Indigenous-led gathering that brings together local First Nations artists and knowledge keepers, alongside international and Vancouver-based guests, to discuss the future of Indigenous artistic and curatorial practices in local and global contexts. In partnership with SFU Galleries, the gathering is produced as the 2019 colloquia of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones and is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Transits and Returns at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
The Great Ocean is defined as a relational space by many Indigenous Nations. In Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim, “shḵwen̓: shéwalh tl’a swá7am-chet” means “to cross a big ocean, the roads of our Ancestors.” In hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, the ocean is referred to as “sʔəqəəc,” or “outside waters.” In te reo Māori, “Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa” is “the Great Ocean of Kiwa,” and in yakʔitʔɨnɨsmu tiłhinkʔtitʸu, “łpasini” translates to “the one ocean.”
Orienting ourselves toward the open waters, Great Ocean Dialogues begins from a generative refusal of the idea that the Pacific is a vacant space peripheral to imperialistic power and flows of capital. This event positions the Great Ocean as both a return to and a reimagining of our ancestral and current connections across cultural and geographic contexts. How can this concept contribute to shaping Indigenous contemporary art transnationally and from Indigenous perspectives? How can we create and sustain networks of support across the ocean? Where do our practices, knowledges and struggles for sovereignty align, and where do they diverge? And how do we honour our differences when seeking connection? This two-day gathering will feature conversations between local First Nations artists and knowledge keepers alongside international and Vancouver-based guests in order to explore these questions.
Great Ocean Dialogues is organized in partnership with the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones, the Vancouver Art Gallery and SFU Galleries with the support of Simon Fraser University's Community Engagement Initiative, and funded in part by the Government of Canada.
Tickets
Great Ocean Dialogues takes place over three sessions. Each session requires ticket purchase or registration.
Registration to all three sessions includes an invitation to a special reception for the opening of the Transits and Returns, an exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery that considers how forces of situatedness and mobility work in synergy and in tension with one another, shaping the multiple ways of understanding and being Indigenous today. The reception takes place on Friday, September 27 from 6 – 8pm.
A note on welcoming: local First Nations people will be granted free admission to these events. If cost is a barrier to you, please contact the Vancouver Art Gallery by phone at 604.662.4700 or by email at customerservice@vanartgallery.bc.ca
Session 1
Saturday, September 28, 10am – 4:15pm
Vancouver Art Gallery
$15 for Vancouver Art Gallery members | $30 for general admission
Session 1 tickets can be purchased here
This session includes a Host Nation panel discussion, two artist-in-dialogue conversations, and a curator's tour of Transits and Returns.
Speakers include Chief Bill Williams, Tarah Hogue, Ocean Hyland, Meagan Innes, Debra Sparrow, Salia Joseph, Edith Amituanai, Marianne Nicolson, Elisa Jane Carmichael, Natalie Ball, Lori Beavis, Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Freja Carmichael, and Lana Lopesi.
A detailed schedule of events for session 1 can be found here.
Session 2
Saturday, September 28, 7pm
Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Free, registration required
Session 2 registration here
This session features a keynote panel entitled Speaking and Relating Across the Great Ocean, which focuses on the Great Ocean and the artistic and cultural connections that exist between its edges. The session weaves together stories of exchange, collaboration and learning that bring us together across distance and difference.
Panelists include Micki Davis, Charlene George (Kwi Awt Stelmexw), Anchi Lin, Henri Tsang, and T'uy'anat-Cease Wyss. Moderated by Lana Lopesi.
A detailed schedule of events for session 2 can be found here.
Session 3
Sunday, September 29, 9am – 6:30pm
Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Free, registration required
Session 3 registration here
This session features three panel discussions: Indigenous Art and Curation: Between Culturally Specific and Transnational Contexts; Re/turning To Futures: Urgent Imaginations; and Working With and From Within Community.
Speakers include Salia Joseph, Camille Georgeson-Usher, BC Collective (Cora-Allan Wickliffe and Daniel Twiss), Michelle McGeough, Chrystal Sparrow, Freja Carmichael, Christopher Ando, Hannah Brontë, Chantal Fraser, Bracken Hanuse Corlett, Whess Harman, Dayna Danger, Taloi Havini, Sarah Hunt, Jaymyn La Vallee, Carol McGregor, Faith Sparrow, Sarah Biscarra Dilley, and Tarah Hogue.
A detailed schedule of events for session 3 can be found here.
Video
Gathering | Great Ocean Dialogues | Session 1 | Intro, Part 1 - Sovereign Practices Saturday
Vancouver Art Gallery
Documentation by Eileen Kage
Gathering | Great Ocean Dialogues | Session 1 | Part 2 - Home
Vancouver Art Gallery
Documentation by Eileen Kage
Gathering | Great Ocean Dialogues | Session 1 | Part 3 - Materials
Vancouver Art Gallery
Documentation by Eileen Kage
Gathering | Great Ocean Dialogues | Session 2 | Speaking and Relating Across the Great Ocean
Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Documentation by Eileen Kage
Gathering | Great Ocean Dialogues | Session 3 | Part 1 - Indigenous Art and Curation: Between Culturally Specific and Transnational Contexts
Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Documentation by Eileen Kage
Gathering | Great Ocean Dialogues | Session 3 | Part 2 - Re/turning To Futures: Urgent Imaginations Panelists
Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Documentation by Eileen Kage
Gathering | Great Ocean Dialogues | Session 3 | Part 3 - Working With and From Within Community
Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Documentation by Eileen Kage
