Creating and Reclaiming: Demystifying Archives for the Indigenous Artist

This event took place on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022 at 1:00 pmOnline

This event will be live-streamed over the Eventive platform, participants are encouraged to ask questions through the chat feature. If in-person participation is an option, registrants will be contacted directly to signup to attend.

Creating and Reclaiming: Demystifying Archives for the Indigenous Artist
Archives are powerful things. For the Indigenous artist and researchers, working with them can be challenging. In this workshop, filmmaker and researcher Jennifer Dysart will explore the many types of archives of interest to Indigenous artists and researchers. By showing segments of her documentaries and in sharing her experiences of learning to work in archives, she will demonstrate how archive research can be part of a reclamation process of community and family material. Part discussion and part screening, this event is an exploration of different types of archives, a session delving into what to expect from archive visits, and a session about the future potential of archives for the Indigenous people.

Facilitator: Jennifer Dysart is an experimental film and found footage enthusiast who is dedicated to the return home of orphaned media and archived material to Indigenous peoples. Revisiting Keewatin Missions (upcoming 2022), Caribou in the Archive (2018/2019) and Kewekapawetan: Return After the Flood, (2014) represent a growing body of work that prioritizes ethical research and interrupts the power of colonial archives. She was selected as the artist-in-residence at Library and Archives Canada via the Archive/Counter-Archive project at York University in 2019-2021. As a commissioned filmmaker for the Home Made Visible project she created Caribou in the Archive (2018/2019) and won the Public Prize at the International Film Festival of Ottawa (2021) and Best Canadian Short Film at the Planet in Focus Film Festival (2020). For her found footage-heavy film about the flooding in northern Manitoba Kewekapawetan: Return After the Flood, Jennifer received the York University Master's Thesis Prize in 2014. She is a mixed-race artist who grew up in BC and Alberta with Cree roots on her Dad's side from northern Manitoba. Moderated by Angela Code.

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