Memory Keepers III | Nujimikwite’taqatijik III

Sébastien Aubin, Infinitely Combine #2 (2019), projected onto the garage door of NSCAD University’s Treaty Space Gallery for Memory Keepers III | Nujimikwite’taqatijik III in Halifax, NS. October 2019. Photo by Britt Shirley-Moore.

Megan Kyak-Monteith, Large Feast on a Bed of Cardboard (Maktaaq) (2019), projected onto Labrador Tent (2019) by Jason Sikoak. Installed for Memory Keepers III | Nujimikwite’taqatijik III at Treaty Space Gallery, NSCAD University, Halifax NS. October 2019. Photo by Britt Shirley-Moore.

Jerry Evans, Apaja’lujik - Bring them back (2019) projected onto the windows of NSCAD University’s Treaty Space Gallery for Memory Keepers III | Nujimikwite’taqatijik III in Halifax, NS. October 2019. Photo by Britt Shirley-Moore.

Darcie Bernhardt and Tom McLeod, Greed Story (2019), projected onto Labrador Tent (2019) by Jason Sikoak. Installed for Memory Keepers III | Nujimikwite’taqatijik III at Treaty Space Gallery, NSCAD University, Halifax NS. October 2019. Photo by Britt Shirley-Moore.

Darcie Bernhardt and Tom McLeod, Greed Story (2019), projected onto Labrador Tent (2019) by Jason Sikoak. Installed for Memory Keepers III | Nujimikwite’taqatijik III at Treaty Space Gallery, NSCAD University, Halifax NS. October 2019. Photo by Britt Shirley-Moore.

Tom McLeod featured in Caroline Monnet’s film Moniang (2019), projected onto the garage door of NSCAD University’s Treaty Space Gallery for Memory Keepers III | Nujimikwite’taqatijik III in Halifax, NS. October 2019. Photo by Britt Shirley-Moore.

Carrie Allison, To Honour (NDN Potato) (2019), projected onto Labrador Tent (2019) by Jason Sikoak. Installed for Memory Keepers III | Nujimikwite’taqatijik III at Treaty Space Gallery, NSCAD University, Halifax NS. October 2019. Photo by Britt Shirley-Moore.

Memory Keepers III | Nujimikwite’taqatijik III

October 16, 2019
NSCAD Treaty Space Gallery, Halifax NS
Curated by GLAM Collective

Each artist is their own memory keeper, where they encode, store and retrieve knowledge of the land, language, and cultural practices. Their artwork translates and transmits Indigenous knowledge for future generations. Memory keepers III | Nujimikwite’taqatijik III was a site-specific, experimental, collaborative visual art installation created by eight Indigenous artists from Halifax and across southern and northern Canada, led by GLAM Collective and presented at NSCAD’s University’s Treaty Space Gallery at the Port Campus. GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) is a collective of curator-artist-scholars who present innovative projects in public spaces by working through Indigenous, feminist, and anti-oppressive methodologies.

For this project, eight works by eight artists were produced in two one-week intensive visual arts residencies at Concordia University and NSCAD University in 2019, which culminated in the installation of Memory Keepers I | Gardiens des mémoires I at Nuit Blanche in Montreal, QC and Memory keepers II | Nujimikwite’taqatijik II at Art in the Open in Charlottetown, PEI. The artists featured in the third installation of the Memory Keepers series bring their diverse creative practices together to create experiential, interactive, digital and site-specific works. The participating artists were Carrie Allison, Sébastien Aubin, Darcie Bernhardt, Tom McLeod, Jerry Evans, Megan Kyak-Monteith, Caroline Monnet, and Jason Sikoak.

The installation was hosted by NSCAD University’s Treaty Space Gallery as part of Nocturne: Art at Night. Drawing on the fun and spontaneous spirit of Nocturne in creating this site-specific experimental art exhibition, Memory keepers III | Nujimikwite’taqatijik III took the theme of Scaffolding in both technological terms - drawing on digital and new media arts to create an exciting, interactive installation - but also to refer to the idea of Indigenous resurgence, situating Indigenous peoples within a long continuum of past, present and future on this land.