Land Acknowledgement

“The hidden secret about treaty education is that it is not just about treaties but about relationships, it’s about peoples with very different world views figuring out ways to live peacefully together, creating enduring obligations towards each other to help each other in the future.”

~ James (Jamie) Wilson, former Commissioner, Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba

Presented as part of the Art Gallery of Guelph’s Curatorial Incubator program, this exhibition is a response to Call to Action #79 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report: the integration of “Indigenous history, heritage values, and memory practices into Canada’s national heritage and history.” Emerging from a broader national discussion of ways to acknowledge First Nations or Inuit traditional territories and Mėtis homelands, this project offers a public recognition of Indigenous place, mapping the vital ties between creative practice and the land.

Curated by graduate and undergraduate students in Art History at the University of Guelph, the work selected from the Art Gallery of Guelph’s Indigenous collections speaks to the importance of place and the resilience of tradition. In each case, the students connect artwork to its geography and history. Acknowledging a location and the treaties that affect it speaks volumes about the importance and legacy of these pacts, recognizing those who were here before the nation of Canada was formed.

Image detail: Shuvinai Ashoona, Composition (Community with Six Houses), 2006, ink and pencil crayon on paper, 26 x 20 in., Macdonald Stewart Art Centre Collection at the Art Gallery of Guelph