Anderson centres sensations of culture in Indigenized

Art | Gregory Beatty

Judy Anderson: “As she walked down the hallway, she unintentionally…Indigenized” Photo: Heather Leier (detail)

Judy Anderson: …Indigenized
Dunlop Art Gallery
Opens April 14

As part of a broader effort to address Canada’s tragic legacy of colonialism, institutions such as universities, museums and even governments are working with Indigenous people to incorporate Indigenous values, knowledge and cultural practices into their bureaucratic structure and operation.

While it’s important work, it’s often framed — at least in media reports — in legalistic and technical terms that don’t exactly excite the imagination.

Enter nêhiyaw artist Judy Anderson. In this solo exhibition, which was curated by the Dunlop Art Gallery’s Wendy Peart, she takes that dry framework and uses it as a springboard to imagine what it would be like to inhabit a space that truly had been Indigenized.

Anderson, who comes from Gordon First Nation in east-central Saskatchewan, is an associate professor of Canadian Indigenous Studio Art at University of Calgary. Beadwork, painting and installation are some of the media she works in, and in a recent phone interview from Calgary she talked about her thoughts behind … Indigenized.

“One material that’s customary for Indigenous people to use is smoked moose hide, where it’s scraped and smoked. The hide gives off a particular smell — one that for me, and other Indigenous people who know it, we love it. But when you’re not part of our culture, and you smell it, some people don’t like it, so there can be negative responses,” says Anderson.

“If I was allowed to Indigenize a space, I would be allowed to be in it with a smell like that,” she says.

“What would Indigenization look like if we didn’t have to always think about policy or what dominant culture thinks of it?”

As described by Anderson in advance of the exhibition’s April 14 opening, … Indigenized features a series of installations where she uses various media, including a tanned moose hide beaded in a graffiti-style, furs, powwow regalia and more, to “Indigenize” the gallery.

“It’s communicated in exactly the same way that dominant culture communicates its presence in a space now, through smell, sound, taste, etc.,” says Anderson.

“If we could exist in that space, this might be what it would be like. We need to ask how come we can’t, and how come we aren’t?”

Art Mimics Life

One element of “Indigenization” that’s become common in Canada is a land acknowledgement that’s given at a play, concert, council meeting or some other public event. Before things start, someone from the host organization will greet the audience and “acknowledge” that the event is being held on traditional Indigenous territory.

“Situated on Treaty Four lands on the territories of the nêhiyawak, Anihšināpēk, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakoda, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation” is how Regina’s acknowledgement is typically phrased.

Then once that’s done, the person proceeds to go on an hour-long rant about how land acknowledgements, unless they’re backed up by action, are little more than performative gestures that reek of hypocrisy.

Oh sorry, that’s Indigenous playwright Cliff Cardinal I’m thinking of. In a show he’s currently touring, he promotes a production of Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It (where Rosalind and her cousin Celia run off to a forest to escape her tyrannical uncle). Once the audience is in their seats, Cardinal comes out to do what they assume is the proforma land acknowledgement. But then he hijacks the stage and does his rant.

Theatre-goers have probably caught on by now. But when Cardinal debuted the show, audiences were genuinely surprised — and even shocked, with a few people walking out in a huff. But most people were able to shift gears, and suddenly Cardinal had a hit on his hands.

During our interview, Anderson and I talked a bit about Cardinal’s work. There’s a similar sauciness to … Indigenized, with Anderson, in gallery publicity, embracing the artistic persona of the trickster coyote.

“Coyote continuously whispers, ‘yes, you can joke about something while simultaneously being completely serious’” she’s quoted as saying.

“I do think that Indigenization is taken to heart by a lot of people,” says Anderson. “There are many people I know who are doing really hard and good work. But there are also people who are being performative about it. And I do think that more needs to be done.”

For Anderson and her art practice, “art mimics life” is more than just a cliché. In her daily life, she regularly does micro-interventions to project her Indigenous identity into a space.

When she gives an artist talk, for instance, she’s long made a habit of wearing a t-shirt that references her Indigenous identity. The slogan/graphic may vary, but they all project a sense of resistance and resilience. And that spirit is represented in … Indigenized through the installation It Really Is a Circle,where she’s crafted a clothing rack out of copper tubing to hang some of the t-shirts.

“Another thing I’ve done at work is take the smoked moose hide out of a bag and walk around the hall to Indigenize the space with the smell,” says Anderson.

“The funny thing is, 10 minutes after I’d passed an area, people who know me would say ‘Wait, was Judy just here? Where’s Judy?’”

Sound is part of Anderson’s plan to Indigenize the Dunlop, too. That’s delivered through another installation that recounts a real-life experience that she had at the university.

“The jingle piece in the display window is inspired by a student. She’s Blackfoot and Cree, and in my Indigenous art class she made a jingle dress. It was her turn to present, and she went ‘Oh, just give me a minute.’ And she ran down the hall to change into the jingle dress,” says Anderson.

“As she walked back in the dress, it was the most beautiful sound I’d heard. And I went ‘That is Indigenization’. I created that piece inspired by her,” says Anderson.

“When you enter the gallery, your motion will set off the sound which is someone walking in the jingle dress. The entire time anyone is in the gallery, it will be on,” she says. ■

… Indigenized opens with an artist talk by Anderson on April 14 at 6 p.m. That will be followed by an intervention/performance by Anderson and local Indigenous artist Audie Murray. To complete the sensory palette of Indigenization (sight, sound, smell, touch and taste), the performance will include a serving of food.