Main and Marvin Francis Media Gallery
“Mide-wigwas: Transmediating”
Director: Angelina McLeod
Running dates: July 2 to August 7, 2021 (Appointments for visiting the gallery contact info@urbanshaman.org)
Artist Talk: TBA
Online virtual gallery can be viewed on www.urbanshaman.org
We acknowledge that we are gathered on ancestral lands, on Treaty One Territory. These lands are the heartland of the Métis people. We acknowledge that our water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.
STATEMENT
Mide-wigwas: Transmediating is an exhibit focused on the relationship of birchbark scrolls, as relatives holding both sacred and historical knowledge, to other archival media such as photographs and film. 70 years ago, the artist Angelina McLeod’s great-uncle James Redsky (re)produced a series of Midewiwin birchbark scrolls, including origin, migration, and master scrolls, telling the story of the Anishinaabeg migration from east to west. The migration has been documented in other sources, but these scrolls are the only known source that conveys this history through traditional Anishinaabeg methods of knowledge record. Redsky is from McLeod’s community of Shoal Lake 40 (SL40) First Nation, and in 1966 sold his scrolls to the Glenbow museum in Alberta where they currently reside.
Midewiwin pictograph birch-bark scrolls contain stories, songs, and sacred narratives (Aadizookaanag) that have been handed down to the Anishinaabeg from generation to generation, long before the arrival of settlers on Turtle Island. This exhibit begins to connect the intergenerational Midewiwin practice in McLeod’s family to study of and relation with birch bark scrolls historically and through embodied knowledge. The purpose of this exhibit is to honor the ancestors and culture by re-telling our stories through intergenerational history across media and through Anishinaabeg ways of knowing.
BIO
Angelina McLeod (Anishinaabekwe) is an emerging filmmaker, writer, and documentary subject from Shoal Lake First Nation. Angelina is a land and water defender who is passionate about sharing Anishinaabeg history, culture, languages and stories. Her research is focused on Midewiwin birch bark scrolls that were once held by her grand uncle James Redsky, WWI veteran and prominent member of the Midewiwin, interpreted the scrolls before they were sold to the Glenbow Museum in Calgary for preservation. Angelina is currently working on a series of short films with the National Film Board about her community Shoal Lake 40, First Nation, the source of Winnipeg’s drinking water.
Thank you to Jessica Jacobson-Konefall and Daina Warren on this project.
Special funding came from Canada Council for the Arts and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery acknowledges the support, throughout the year, of our friends, volunteers, community and all our relations, NCI FM, CAHRD, Winnipeg Foundation, Manitoba Heritage, the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. ~Miigwetch/ Hai Hai/ Ekosi / Merci/ Thank you
Images Left to Right: Shoal Lake, Angelina McLeod, 2017; Redsky Family, Archival Photograph, Angelina McLeod; James Redsky, Birch Bark Migration Scroll (103 Ft), Permission: Angelina McLeod
