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Land acknowledgement

A standard land acknowledgement seemed inadequate for this Earthbound project, and I searched for treaty information on places where I have lived. The chart below emerged. I have benefitted from living as a settler on the territories of many First Nations in what maps label the Dominion of Canada. Colonialism within our national borders as well as economic and military conquests by allies reverberate today. Every Child Matters, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and Truth and Reconciliation are among many initiatives to deal with oppression. The Disorienting website and Coordinates of Home mapping projects show measurement system standardization as a tool to enforce property and normality. This website is dedicated to Land and humans of different abilities, economic background, racialized identities, and 2SLGBTQ+, who are dismantling hierarchies and taking care of each other in Community. Identities and differences are not promoted for exceptional individual’s gains but to assess our group needs and honour contributions through indigenous Land-healing and economics systems reoriented through potlatch practices .

Participants

Throughout the process, Geographer Eduardo Padilla contributed to my still basic grasp of geodesy and is a consistent interlocutor. Gaye Jackson helped with grant submissions. Web Developer Mel Racho set up spread sheets to organize posts and recommended separating "Neurodivergent Notes" from "Visit Descriptions" and "Place Histories". Essays followed when curator Belinda Kwan suggested a stream of consciousness introduction. My usual punctiliousness kicked in. As texts got long, I divided up essays. Images, charts, journal snippets, and subtitles acted as editing tools. When essays became as data-heavy as the travelogues, I switched from Word outlines to spread sheets. Themes emerged as titles and patterns morphed into graphs

  • Eduardo Padilla - Researcher and Editor
  • Torrey Falconer - Web Developer
  • Gaye Jackson - Grant preparer
  • Belinda Kwan - Curator and Design Consultant
  • Philip Dyke – Driver and assistant

 

Interlocutors

This project wouldn't have happened without friends, family, art colleagues, and a neighbourhood community.

  • Family - Heather Frank, Andrea Macdonald, Kristi Frank, Jeff Irving, Bernie Hendrickson, Audrey Jean Hendrickson, Marguerite Smith, Brian Smith, Dorothy Barks, Robert Barks
  • Friends and Colleagues- Norman Zlotkin, Genevieve Leslie, David Moulton, Joanne Lyons, Krys Verrall, Bill Burns, Catherine Vamvakas Lay, John Baljkas, Elaine Whitaker, Lois Schklar, Elaine Stewart, Teresa Acenceo, Gita Hashemi, Micheal Bumby and Davenportage participants
  • Neighbours - Isabelle Cochelin, Emily Cochelin Roest, Bert Roest, Chiara Fagnola Chareun, Gwen Schauerte, Gloria Watling, Kerry McArthur
  • Other casual conversations that contribute to new insights, sometimes unrecognized at the time

Institutional Acknowledgements

This website was conceived and researched at four international artist residencies in places chosen for their proximity to Earth measuring history and home. The influence of different place and suggestions from artists is evident in website posts. I would also like to acknowledge the support from local and national arts funds that keep residencies operational.

  • Luminous Bodies, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto, Canada, 2013
  • Interdisciplinary Residency, Hospitalfield House, Arbroath, Scotland, 2018
  • Can Serrat International Art Residency, El Bruc, Spain, 2019
  • Artist in Residence, Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, Western Australia, 2022

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts