Srimoyee Mitra - Speaking My Truth

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and marginalization, home, belonging, cultural traditions, and continuitythat shape the contemporary experience of South Asian migrants and theFirst Peoples of Canada. Yet I was surprised to find very limited scopes ofinteractivity or knowledge exchange between immigrant and Indigenouscommunities and negligible government infrastructure that facilitated suchprocesses. Consequently, I found myself thinking about the possibility ofbuilding intercultural dialogues based on the impacts of colonialism anddiscrimination between both communities. Inspired by the gathering inKelowna, I wondered if it was possible to develop events to raise awarenessand build solidarity, trust, and empathy towards one another.In 2009 I had the opportunity to curate an exhibition at the Glenhyrst ArtGallery of Brant, located next to the Six Nations of the Grand River Territoryand home to a burgeoning South Asian community. Encouraged by mytaste of an alternate society, one that was conscious and engaged, basedon Indigenous cultural values and principles at the On Common Groundconference, I hoped this experience would inform my curatorial practice. Ideveloped a thematic framework for the exhibition that was relevant to thehistory, culture, and demographic of the city and explored the possibilitiesof building mutual understanding, trust, and solidarity through crossculturaldialogues between South Asian immigrants and the First Peoplesin Canada.When I started working on this exhibition I did not know much about thecomplex histories of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. I wasuncomfortable speaking about the project, and, in particular, I struggledto use appropriate language that was bereft of jargon or rhetoric. Much ofmy research and what I learned took place through informal and lengthyconversations with the artists who participated in Crossing Lines: AnIntercultural Dialogue.6 As I learned about the history of Brantford andSix Nations from different Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives,I worked through my discomfort of being an outsider and unawareto develop a deeper understanding of Canadian history. The eventualexhibition examined the issues of connection and disconnection and sitesof intersection and divergence that exist between the so-named “Indian”communities in Canada. I invited eight artists from different Indigenousand South Asian backgrounds to explore the possibility of developing crossculturaldialogues by examining ideas of loss and displacement from theirdiverse experiences. In the next section I will discuss the artworks made byeach of the artists and their strategies for building cross-cultural dialogues.280 | <strong>Srimoyee</strong> <strong>Mitra</strong>
Jeff Thomas, A Conversation with Edward S. Curtis, #7 Medicine CrowWearing a Hawk Hide Headdress (Crow Nation c. 1908) (2009).Re-imagining IndiansWhen Indian filmmaker Ali Kazimi and Iroquois photographer Jeff Thomasstarted working on Shooting Indians: A Journey with Jeff Thomas in 1997,photography was the common language between them. In the film, Kazimitakes the viewer on an intimate journey through Jeff Thomas’s art practicewhile using an autobiographical approach that reveals Kazimi’s personalhistory as a South Asian immigrant. Most enlightening is Kazimi’s candidnarration of his own misconceptions when he had started working on thefilm, as it opens up the relatively unexamined space of dialogue betweenan immigrant and First Nations artist. Their collaboration addresses thelimitations of language and stereotypical representations that frames thepresence (and absence) of the First Peoples’ and immigrants’ experiencesin the master narrative of Canadian history. After visiting the Six Nationsof the Grand River Territory with Thomas, Kazimi notes that while his priorassumptions were unsettled after going to the reserve, he found startlingeconomic disparity and disillusionment. Kazimi acknowledges that hisconversations with Thomas enabled him to develop a deeper understandingand respect of the context of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit experiences.Meanwhile, Thomas’s ongoing engagement with the work of Edward Curtis,the twentieth century photographer and filmmaker whose artistic legacyforms the premise of the film, sets a precedent of critical inquiry into thecanons of Canadian history. Kazimi and Thomas’s dialogic approach createsa framework for questioning the existing paradigms of looking and thinkingabout personal histories. Together, they develop a sensitive portrayal ofthe contradictions of “Indianness” through the personal lens of Kazimi’sdiasporic history and Thomas’s body of work.7 Shooting Indians is an award-Cultivating Canada | 281
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Srimoyee Mitra - Speaking My Truth

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