Room 2

Films

Five videos are screening in sequence.
The first film, In Defiance of All That, presents the history of the research project by Rosemary Georgeson and Jessica Hallenbeck that is the foundation for this exhibition, including reconnection with Rosemary’s cousin Fay Blaney and her family.

The second film, Introduction, shares the first moments of connection and dialogue as siyēye nii 'u tthu sut'ku'luts | siyēye tun’i ‘utl sqwun’u, an advisory circle of Indigenous matriarchs with family connections to each other, gathered on Galiano Island with extended family, friends, and witnesses to re-presence connections to fish, water, and family around the Salish Sea.

The third film, Rooted, shares the next gathering of siyēye nii 'u tthu sut'ku'luts | siyēye tun’i ‘utl sqwun’u and the re-presencing that took place. This included documentation of personal stories of reconnection at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School, and a re-presencing action that the group created - the wrapping of a grandmother tree at Bluff Park with those family photos, archival images, wool, and cedar bark.

The fourth film, Witnessing the Flow, features family, friends, and Galiano residents reflecting upon what they felt, heard and observed while witnessing the second gathering of siyēye nii 'u tthu sut'ku'luts | siyēye tun’i ‘utl sqwun’u (November of 2021). This film was produced by the Access to Media Education Society.

The fifth film, Searching for the One Last Indian, created in 2002 at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School by then-emerging artists and filmmakers Peter Morin, Helen Haig-Brown, Warren Wyss and Justine Wallace, documents Indigenous presence, narratives of absence, and charts a road forward toward recognition and justice.

Installation
A Wall of Inaccuracies and Some Truths

BC Provincial Archive Call Slips, Genealogical Maps from Rosemary Georgeson's archive, Net Twine, Net Needles, Clothespins. 2022.

In 2014, Rosemary Georgeson and Jessica Hallenbeck spent three days in the British Columbia Provincial Archives looking for information about Rosemary's grandmothers Sophie, and Tlahaholt. The frustration of the misinformation in the archives and lack of information about the grandmothers was overwhelming. Recalling this experience, Rosemary said: "This is when I understood about the erasure of my grandmothers".

When we were gathering materials for this exhibition, we located the Call Slips used during this time in the archive. We also found a number of genealogical charts that represent the ongoing search for family connections. These charts are incomplete and factually inaccurate. The gatherings featured in this exhibition show the active re-presencing of family, water, and fish. Through coming together we learn more.