Image used with permission from Rae Hutton, Design by Lauren Bosc THINKING THROUGH THE MUSEUM: DIFFICULT KNOWLEDGE IN PUBLIC Annual Report SSHRC Partnership Development Grant March 25, 2015 – April 30, 2016 Prepared by Lauren Bosc (Project Coordinator) This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 2015-2016 THINKING THROUGH THE MUSEUM page 2 RESEARCH TEAM & ASSISTANTS: The Research Team includes: • Dr. Angela Failler (Project Director, University of Winnipeg) • Dr. Heather Igloliorte (Concordia University) • Dr. Erica Lehrer (Concordia University) • Dr. Monica Patterson (Carleton University) • Lauren Bosc (Project Coordinator, University of Figure 1: Research Team members (L to R): Erica Lehrer, Angela Failler, Winnipeg) Heather Igloliorte, and Monica Patterson. (photo credit: Lauren Bosc) The Research Assistants on this project for the reporting period include: • Michelle K. Barron (MA student, Carleton University) • Sylvia Dreaver (Dueck) (BA Hons. student, University of Winnipeg) • Anna Huard (MA student, University of Winnipeg) • Alexandra Nahwegahbow (PhD student, Carleton University) • Amy Prouty (MA student, Carleton University) • Jordana Starkman (BA student, Concordia University) • Travis Wysote (PhD student, Concordia University) 2015-2016 THINKING THROUGH THE MUSEUM page 3 PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES: Research Meetings/Workshops Inaugural Team Meeting (Winnipeg, August 8-10, 2015) From August 9-12, 2015, the PDG team met in Winnipeg, Manitoba to launch “Thinking Through the Museum: Difficult Knowledge in Public.” The four-day meeting involved collaborators and research assistants, and included a field trip to Shoal Lake 40 First Nation’s Museum of Canadian Human Rights Violations, a visit with curators and researchers at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and a visioning session for the project. Figure 2: Visitors to Shoal Lake 40 First Nation take in the temporary bridge built by the community toward "Freedom Road." (photo credit: Lauren Bosc) Collecting and Displaying Inuit Art Workshop (Winnipeg, February 12, 2016) Thinking through the Museum team members Angela Failler, Heather Igloliorte, Sylvia Dreaver (Dueck), and Lauren Bosc participated in a workshop with UWinnipeg faculty members, MA students, and staff from the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG). The workshop, which featured a lecture by Dr. Igloliorte, a tour of the WAG Inuit art vaults with Curator Darlene Wight, a discussion facilitated by Dr. Failler, and a presentation by WAG Director and CEO Dr. Stephen Borys, functioned as a productive space to think about how to Figure 3: Research team members view new Inuit Art acquisitions in “think through” Inuit art and curatorial the WAG's art vault (photo credit: Lauren Bosc) practices. 2015-2016 THINKING THROUGH THE MUSEUM page 4 A large part of the discussion also involved “thinking through” the WAG’s vision for an Inuit Art Centre. This Centre, which would house and display the WAG’s 13,000 Inuit art pieces, will include programming for people of all ages to celebrate and learn about Inuit art through exhibitions, research, education, and art making. Decolonizing Curatorial Pedagogies Workshop (Ottawa, April 15-16, 2016) This workshop focused on the challenges and possibilities of curating as pedagogy, by examining various pedagogical tools, methodologies, partnerships, and projects that seek to decolonize curatorial practices and engender ethical engagement with the painful histories we inherit. The workshop included tours of the Canadian Museum of History, “Temporal Re-Imaginings” at the Canada Council for the Arts, and “Indigenous Walks” with Jaime Koebel. It also featured a “live” interview of Carleton Research Assistant and curator Alex Nahwegahbow by UWinnipeg Research Assistant and Art History student Sylvia Dreaver (Dueck). This interview was both a response to Alex’s exhibit “Temporal Re-Imaginings” and an opportunity for students involved with the project to discuss their connections to the workshop theme. The workshop also included engaging presentations from members of the Canadian Museum of History’s staff, roundtables focusing on decolonizing curatorial pedagogies in the classroom, museums, and galleries, as well as a keynote address from Dr. Amy Lonetree, which was attended by more than 150 people. Skype Meetings During this reporting period, research team members engaged in three PDG specific skype videoconference meetings (October 29, 2015; January 25, 2016; May 4, 2016). The purpose of these meetings was to discuss the ongoing partnership activities and projects, as well as plan for upcoming research meetings and workshops. 2015-2016 THINKING THROUGH THE MUSEUM page 5 Museum/Gallery Visits and Ethnography Prompt Sheets We Were So Far Away: The Inuit Experience of Residential Schools Members of our research team visited the travelling exhibit “We Were So Far Away” on November 27, 2015 while it was displayed in the atrium of the United Way of Winnipeg (580 Main Street, Winnipeg MB). This exhibit, which features stories and photographs from eight Inuit residential school Survivors, was on display in Winnipeg from November 18-30. After the visit, some team members shared “SnapThoughts” about their experiences: The exhibition title expresses so much with so little: We Were So Far Away – Inuit residential school students were so far away from family, so far away from their culture, so far away from hope. While Survivors’ voices are heard through the display of archival photographs alongside highlighted memories, I found it difficult to connect to the material in the chosen space (the United Way centre lobby on Main Street in Winnipeg). Ultimately, it was the accompanying exhibition book that allowed me to engage on a deeper level with the difficult and powerful stories shared in the exhibit. – Sylvia Dreaver (Dueck) One of the things that struck me about the archival photographs of residential schools included in We Were So Far Away is that while the names of Monseigneurs, teachers and even some of the photographers appear Figure 4: Members of the research team at the exhibit, Nov. with the original documentation, the 27, 1015. (photo credit: Lauren Bosc) students were often left nameless. Namelessness is itself evidence of how the students were treated as objects of regulation rather than subjects of their own experiences at the schools. The exhibit’s juxtaposition of these photos with current day profiles of survivors works to recover their agency in the face of such violent erasure. –Angela Failler 2015-2016 THINKING THROUGH THE MUSEUM page 6 As I read the short descriptions of photographs shared by each Survivor, I was struck by one in particular that accompanied an image of a group of residential school children. Lillian Elias noted that although she thought she was one of the children in the photo, she did not recognize herself in any of the faces. For me, this comment resonated through the rest of the exhibit as the Survivors attempted to recognize themselves in the trauma of the IRS system. – Lauren Bosc Forgotten: The Métis Residential School Experience Members of our research team visited the exhibit, “Forgotten: The Metis Residential School Experience” Exhibit presented by Aboriginal Student Support & Community Relations at Red River College, on December 4, 2015. This travelling exhibit features images, poems, found objects, and curated content, all of which engage with the subject of the Métis people of Canada a their experiences with the Residential School system. The Witness Blanket Members of our research team visited the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to view “The Witness Blanket” exhibit and hear the artist talk on January 20, 2016. Carey Newman (Ha-yalth-kingeme), a master wood carver of British, Kwagiulth, and Salish ancestry from Vancouver Island, is touring his work across Canada over the next 7 years. The piece includes objects collected from Indian Residential Schools, survivors, and family members in Canada from coast-to-coast-to-coast. After the visit, some team members shared “SnapThoughts” about their experiences: Figure 5: Witness Blanket excerpt. (photo credit: Angela Failler) Listening to the artist speak to the layers of story and memory in his piece brought The Witness Blanket to life. His description of the emotional labour that went into working with and through the objects was as powerful and moving as the piece itself. Learning from difficult knowledge requires more than collecting information about the past. – Lauren Bosc The Witness Blanket IOS Mobile App is one of the most effective digital extensions of an exhibit I have encountered. It brings home the depth of the collection, making its objects accessible beyond the museum itself. It also raises the question of how difficult knowledge might be mediated through exhibition design. – Angela Failler 2015-2016 THINKING THROUGH THE MUSEUM page 7 To me, the braids of hair near the center of the blanket represent the notion of losing connection to culture. This detail illustrates the robbed childhood of a (First) Nation and a legacy of abuse many Canadians have yet to come to terms with. – Anna Huard Canadian Museum of History: Grand Hall, First Peoples Hall The research team visited the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa on April 15, 2016. Before hearing presentations about the proposed Canadian History Hall, opening July 1, 2017, the team toured the Grand Hall and the First Peoples Hall. Temporal Re-Imaginings On April 15, 2016, The research team