Celeste V. Pedri-Spade |
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In Anishinabemowin, Nametoo means "there is evidence that he or she is present."
In late summer 2013, I travelled with my parents, husband, children, and two great aunts to places located in our traditional territory in northwestern Ontario. We travelled to the township of Kashabowie, Ontario to visit eight specific places that my aunties and husband identified as being meaningful to them as children and young adults. I asked them to take these trips with me because I wanted to use photography to explore the intimate relationship my family has to specific places in our traditional territory. Specifically, I set out to visualize how relationships to these places intertwines with our ability and responsibility to remember, experience, and communicate significant teachings related to our Anishinabek way of life and history. As an Anishinabekwe/artist/researcher I wanted to use this opportunity to develop my relationship to my family members who are most influential to my growth and development and also to build relationships between the outsiders/viewers of this artwork and social, political, and cultural issues that are relevant to Anishinabek people— specifically our history of displacement, colonial interference, and struggle to maintain connected to the land amidst corporate and private development. This work directly confronts our history of erasure or disappearance evidenced in colonial artistic and anthropological work and contributes to creative and artistic ways of revitalizing our relationships with the land.