The Water
This image is a colour photograph. The bottom side of the image shows flat dark blue water reflecting a blue sky. It moves up the left side of the image, the blue becomes a lighter shade and shows minimal rise and fall of the water. The shores of Kjipuktuk (including Halifax and Dartmouth, which would be visible from where this image was taken), were the location of summer camps for the Mi’kmaw people. They would come to this water after a long journey from the forested interior winter camps. The Shubenacadie River was used for the transport route, bringing them to the location of this water. To the right of the water stands a tall wooden dock, which is reflected into the water. Flat, rectangular pieces of wood are attached vertically to the dock, and they are holding a ladder ¾ of the way over to the right of the image. The bottom of the wood is darker, being stained from often being under water, and from the seaweed and other plants that have become attached. In this image you are unable to see the top of the dock.
Content/Trigger Warning: Residential Schools, child abuse, colonization, violence and genocide
This image is a colour photograph. In the image there are three sections with different shades of blue. It focuses on the interior section of a public art piece, made by Donna Heibert in 1988. Many people interact with her piece and she is happy that it draws a physical response. Many children play with her work. From the 1930’s to 1967 the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School was given to, forced on, the Indigenous children in the area. It was created to destroy Indigenous cultures and identities and suppress histories. It was first managed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax and later the Missionary Oblates of Marie Immaculate. The students were subjected to harsh discipline; malnutrition and starvation; poor healthcare; physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; medical experimentation; neglect; the deliberate suppression of their cultures and languages; and loss of life. This school is no longer standing, but the location is a place of remembrance. With the ocean toy of a wave being in the space of arrival for the Europeans, this sight is also a space of remembrance. In the image of the playful wave, the top left corner is a triangle spanning to the bottom left and the top right there it’s a rough light blue, in the texture of concrete, with a shiny coating. Underneath the line going from the top (close to) right, to the bottom (slightly over from the left), there is a rounded thick line coming close to the bottom right. It is shadowed and darker blue. It has a lighter shine from the left side, and becomes darker and more muted as it moves towards the right. In the bottom right, there is a small triangle of the lightest, flattest blue. It is brighter than the rest of the image and has less of a texture.
Content/Trigger Warning: Colonization, violence and genocide
This image is a colour photograph. It is an image looking down onto only water. The water is flat, with the texture of small movements. This water holds onto the history of the arrival and settlement of the English. It is part the space where they came and built their settlement on the sacred land of the Mi’kmaq people. The Mi’kmaq held onto their rights for their true land and spoke out. When their land was not returned, they attacked and destroyed over 100 English ships, and after suffering many losses Capetian John Doucett wanted to ‘make peace’ so finally a Peace and Friendship treaty was signed in 1726. Though Edward Cornwallis did not want to accept the Mi’Kmaq sovereignty so he began to attack and kill the Mi’kmaq people, and they put out a bounty. The fighting lasted for three years. Eventually peace was made, but compensation for the land was only spoken of. At least there is a Treaty that recognizes the lands are controlled by the Mi’kmaq. But who really maintains control? Not enough has happened to make up for the actions of the English, and it likely never will. The water that holds onto this history is clear and smooth, it has seen many conflicts and has different colours that are reflecting it in this image. The left top corner down is a light blue-green that flows around the colours it comes in contact with. In the top right corner there is a darker blue-green, it flows to the left with oval stripes. Encircling the dark blue-green, and around all other sections there is a darker line of the same colour. Small ovals of bright blue appear in the top left blue-green, and there are more that can be seen below it, where the colour gets lighter. At the bottom of the image, layers of rounded light greys, whites, and blue-greens make up a pattern similar to oil on water. These colours become lighter to the left under the darker blue-green water.
Content/Trigger Warning: Epidemic/plague, mass death, colonization
This image is a colour photograph. It is an image of small agitations in the dark night time ocean water, with night lamps in reflection. The left side of the image is almost fully black, with small lighter sparkles of light reflecting off the water. In the middle of the image the reflections start. They are a dark yellow-orange colour, shining brightest and smallest from the top down. The light goes down close to the bottom of the image, becoming darker and more orange-brown on the way down, and edging to the left. You are able to see the movement in the water within the colour. To the right of the yellow-orange light is a light blue-purple colour, it extends down highlighting the water and mixing with the lights on either side. To the far right is the brightest light. It is a light yellow-orange becoming lighter and close to white as it flows towards the bottom of the image, it highlights the waves. The colours of this image can reflect the loss of life caused by the European diseases coming across on infected crewmen. Survey, typhus, and typhoid arrived on these boats. The Mi’kmaq and Kjipuktuk expected ammunition and supplies but received death and destruction. From oral accounts well over 1000 Mi’kmaq people died. It ended up killing over one-third of their population. This water has been dangerous in many ways.
Content/Trigger Warning: Transatlantic Slavery
This image is a colour photograph. The main subject of the image is clear blue-green water, with no texture. There are small light circles in the top left of the image where the water is reflecting the sun, and streaks of lighter blue-green coming down through the image revealing sunshine. In the bottom right and left of the image there are wooden poles that descend into the water. The wooden poles make up a dock on the Halifax Seaport, a space where in the past slaves were sold at auction. On the polls of the dock you would find newspaper advertisements for the return of runaway slaves. In 1750 there were almost 3000 inhabitants of Halifax, this included close to 400 enslaved and 17 free black people. At this time, the docks in from the same land and the same water are covered in seaweed and ocean algae. In the image the wood is only visible in the bottom right above the high algae.
The history of the East Coast, and Mi'kmaw people is a living history, and while the artist made attempts to provide historical details as accurately as possible, errors may be present, they can provide learning opportunities to the artist and the audience
by Hana Kujawa
