UWinnipeg’s Gallery 1C03’s Brings to Light exhibition, created by alumna Jaimie Isaac, is generating dialogue around kin, community, and knowledge of intergenerational significance.
This mixed media exhibition is a response to the legacy of the residential school system and colonial structures that devalued Indigenous knowledge systems and restricted rich cultural languages and traditions. The exhibition also incorporates a series of public engagement events including an artist talk, a premiere film screening of Living the Good Life Food that includes a feast and conversations, and a bilingual (English/Anishinaabemowin) publication.
Jaimie does not shy away from grappling with difficult subjects.
Jennifer Gibson
The artworks in the exhibition share a personal story of intergenerational Indigenous experiences of trauma, memory, resiliency and reclamation. Isaac’s mother, grandparents and other relatives attended Fort Alexander Residential School, which was located in Sagkeeng First Nation on Treaty One Territory.
Gallery 1C03 Director/Curator Jennifer Gibson notes that this exhibition has been in the works for several years.
“I have known Jaimie for more than a decade and, throughout this entire time, she has dedicated her curatorial and artistic practice to ‘bring to light’ important stories of Indigenous artists and community members, her own family included, to wider recognition,” said Gibson. “Jaimie does not shy away from grappling with difficult subjects – she rises to speak truth from which we as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can learn and build greater understanding from and with one another.”
In conjunction with Isaac’s exhibition, Gallery 1C03 has partnered with the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to host a special public presentation via Zoom by three distinguished individuals.
Professor, lawyer, artist and changemaker Aimée Craft will speak about the importance of matriarchy in traditional Indigenous communities; residential school survivor and educator Elder Marlene Gallagher will speak about cultural abundance and learning from the land; and educator Kaila Johnston will speak about residential schools and reconciliation on Treaty One Territory.
A list of programming affiliated with the exhibition follows below and the exhibition continues till February 17, 2023.
Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 2:30 p.m.
Jaimie Isaac will be delivering a talk in the Gallery about her exhibition Brings to Light. Jaimie will provide a context for the works in the exhibition and how they fit within her creative practice. In particular, she will discuss her ongoing journey of knowledge repatriation and access to Anishinaabemowin with her family. She will also speak briefly about her curatorial work.
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at 2:30 – 3:45 p.m.
Bringing to Light IRSS, Reconciliation, Indigenous Matriarchy, and Cultural Abundance
Featuring speakers Aimée Craft, Elder Marlene Gallagher, and Kaila Johnston
Moderated by UWinnipeg’s Dr. Lorena Fontaine
Delivered via Zoom. To register please visit Bringing to Light.
Presented in partnership with the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
Exhibit and program details can be found at Brings to Light Exhibition.
Isaac is an interdisciplinary artist and curator, and an alumna of UWinnipeg. She has presented her artwork nationally and internationally, including a public art sculpture, The Eighth and Final Fire, on view at the Forks near the Oodena Circle., in Winnipeg. As a former curator at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and now the Chief Curator of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Isaac has received major recognition for this work, including outstanding achievement for the Boarder X exhibition.
Gallery 1C03 is located on the first floor of Centennial Hall beside the UWSA Info Booth and is open weekdays from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m.
