About the Grant:
In 2018 Kawartha Art Gallery received an Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant initiative for a project called Te(a)ch. Te(a)ch is a partnership project between Curve Lake First Nation, The Pinnguaq Association and Kawartha Art Gallery. A three-year project, Te(a)ch will:
Develop an arts-based, digital literacy program for Anishnaabe youth in the Curve Lake community
Equip Curve Lake First Nation youth with the digital skills they need for the jobs of the future
Provide Curve Lake First nation youth with the opportunity to create new media artworks that reinterprets their heritage in new and dynamic ways
Connect all youth to First Nations cultural knowledge and oral histories through digital educational exhibit programming that creates intercultural conversation on Indigenous cultural representation, resurgence, and reconciliation
About the Digital Artwork:
Pinnguaq Association held a two-week camp held at Curve Lake in August 2019 for interested youth. Jack Hoggarth, the Cultural Archivist at the Curve Lake Cultural Centre, coordinated the programming for the youth with a focus on the state of the bodies of water that surround Curve Lake First Nation.
Over the course of the camp, youth from the Curve Lake community were involved in several computer- related programs that relate to STEAM education. While the theme of the digital artwork created by the youth at the two-week camp was predominantly linked to the degradation of the water systems throughout Curve Lake territory, other stories also emerged from the youth.
About the Exhibit:
All fourteen digital images created by the youth were printed and framed and displayed at Kawartha Art Gallery in October 2019. An evening reception was held for the youth and their family and friends.
The images created by the youth, some with accompanying stories, are now going to be presented virtually through daily website and social media posts for the next two weeks.
About the Future:
Curve Lake First Nation, Pinnguaq Association and Kawartha Art Gallery are currently in the process of developing a makerspace that will utilize the components of STEAM education to educate the youth of the Curve Lake community in the knowledge of these subjects.
The opportunities created by this OTF grant will give the youth of the Curve Lake community the tools and resources that will allow them to combat future cultural and environmental issues, as they are the leaders of tomorrow.
Gikinno’amaagowin O’shkiigmong by Jack Hoggarth
Traditionally recognized as Wabaskamag or O’shkiigmong, Curve Lake First Nation is a Michi Saagiig Anishnaabeg community in southeastern Ontario. The community prides itself on preserving its unique dialect of Anishnaabemowin (i.e., the Ojibwe language), along with its diverse traditions and ceremonial practices.
Over the past 100 years, Curve Lake has faced many challenges, including, but not limited to, transmitting its language and ceremonies to the younger generations, maintaining its cultural identity—and, of utmost importance, protecting its territorial lands and waters in perpetuity for future generations to enjoy as those before them have. Unfortunately, through various legislation and government-sanctioned projects, our lands and waters have drastically deteriorated.
One hundred years ago, our lakes were so pristine that our Elders remember drinking from their waters. With the increase of tourism in the region, the water quality started to deteriorate. During hot summers, we cannot even swim in the lakes, due to various pathogens and algae blooms. Curve Lake First Nation has been under a boil-water advisory alert for the past 50 years: we have to outsource clean drinking water, even though the municipalities that surround us have access to it.
Throughout the images that were created by Curve Lake youth, the socio-political aspects of the state of the water within our territorial lands will become apparent. As Michi Saagiig Anishnaabeg, we have been tasked with acting as the natural stewards of this land.
But ask yourself this question: How can we all come together and work collaboratively and in unison to ensure future generations can enjoy this water as we have done in the past? After all, without water, all life as we know it would perish.
It is extremely unfortunate that today’s youth must face this issue, but this is the harsh reality we are leaving our future generations to deal with if we do not do something about it now.
~ Ni Kina Ganaa – To All My Relations ~
