Basket, Bead and Quill

"The exhibition catelogue for Basket, Bead and Quill is a 48-page softcover book with full colour photos and artist biographies, accompanied by an introduction from curator Janet Clark and essay by guest writer Deborah Doxtator. Basket, Bead and Quill, which debuted in 1995, would become the curatorial inspiration for Lisa Myers' 2018 Beads, they're sewn so tight exhibition at the Textile Museum of Canada. Beads, they're sewn so tight presents the work of artists Bev Koski, Katie Longboat, Jean Marshall and Olivia Whetung, who employ distinct techniques in their approach to using beads and thread. From bead weaving to loom work and bead embroidery, their artwork threads through formal concerns of colour and design attending to critical issues such as language retention, stereotypes and social/environmental injustices for Indigenous people." -- The textile Museum's website

Unsettling Canadian heritage: Decolonial aesthetics in Canadian video and performance art

Issues of settler colonialism in Canada are prominent in public discourse in the wake of the 2015 findings by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. These histories, rooted in legacies of cultural genocide and trauma, disrupt national mythologies of the Canadian state as benevolent and inclusive. Grappling with this moment of reconciliation-and the resistance and resentment entangled in this process-we suggest contemporary artists are leading the way in critically examining these dynamics. In this article we investigate decolonialism as an aesthetic strategy. Focusing on how decolonial aesthetics engages with the discourse of Canadian heritage, we examine the work of contemporary artists Leah Decter, Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyen, and Caroline Monnet. These artists, all working with archives, communities, and histories located geographically or conceptually at the peripheries of Canada, employ diverse media to engage with heritage objects, concepts, and events, to question settler colonialism in the public realm. Through our analysis of their work, we argue for the ways in which their projects unsettle dominant national histories. We contend that Decter's, Hoàng Nguyen's, and Monnet's decolonial aesthetics mobilize heritage to unpack the complexities of the Canadian state