michelle wilson
We do this work because we attend to this place; as we walk here, harvest clay and plants here, and attempt to enter into reciprocal relations here. Not because this place belongs to us but rather because we, the Indigenous and non-Indigenous members of the Coves Collective, are in the process of belonging to this place. p
We walked the trails made by humans and animals and picked up the small apples that still grow yearly. I heard that decades ago, the caretaker shot salt pellets at the children sneaking into the orchard to eat the fruit. There we found half a ginger cat, consumed by the resident coyotes. A child left behind tobacco and the whispered words, 'rest in peace'. As recently as the 1920s and 30s, the ponds that circle this land still flowed with water from the Deshkan Ziibi. They were so clear and clean that settlers set up ice-harvesting businesses on their banks. Now the only water that flows into them is runoff from streets and neighbourhoods. This has kicked the natural sedimentation process into overdrive. The water has become nearly opaque in places. In the spring of 1970, almost all the fish in the East Pond died. Today there are thriving populations of turtles and Common Carp. The carp, a non-native giant in these small waterways, stir up the silt, keeping sunlight from penetrating these waters and keeping aquatic vegetation from taking root. These carp are too big to be prey for the herons and egrets who have returned to nest on these banks. So, as the Coves Collective, we have tried to establish better relations with this place by harvesting carp. We honour their lives by eating their flesh (when it is safe) and tanning their hides (which will eventually be incorporated into this map).
The Coves Collective is an ad-hoc group of artists, educators, and activists that have come together to attend to our responsibilities and relationships with the Coves, an environmentally significant area recovering from years of misuse. These actions include Tracing CareFull Paths , a community- produced textile map facilitated by Michelle Wilson and Reilly Knowles, on the land teachings, including traditional medicine gathering and medicine pouch making led by cultural-justice coordinator Candace Dube, and clay harvesting and vessel making guided by Indigenous ceramicist Shawna Redskye. Michelle Wilson is an artist and mother currently residing as an uninvited guest on Treaty Six territory in London, Ontario. She earned a PhD in Art and Visual Culture from the University of Western Ontario and is currently a post-doctoral scholar with the Conservation Through Reconciliation Partnership at the University of Guelph. www.michelle-wilson.ca
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on site review 42: atlas :: being in place
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