close your eyes, we'll see each other again
Áápstsaakit Aakattsinootsiiyo'p
reference photo of Blackfoot Crossing taken by Brian Peters
i was fortunate enough to spend new years in Aotearoa (colonially known as New Zealand). While there I visited the capital museum in Wellington, the Te Papa. Just weeks before my arrival the display — Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Ngā tohu kotahitanga Treaty of Waitangi: Signs of a Nation — was “vandalized”, spray-painted and defaced by protesters . Aotearoa Liberation League and Te Waka Hourua claimed responsibility for the demonstration.
In a statement, Te Waka Hourua said the English display was not accurate, and calls to take it down began back in 2021. The group said they believed the English text was displayed in a way that misled visitors.
"While the English document holds a distinct place in our nation's history, it is not a translation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and holds no legal standing.
The groups wanted an "an accurate translation for all New Zealanders to be able to read and understand."
while we have only known the English version of Treaty 7, the government would have us believe it is a document open to interpretation, or historically irrelevant ignoring it almost completely.
i have spent the last decade working hard at my own decolonization. it is not something I do passively, but intentionally, each day. knowing the promises made on both sides of the blanket, and the subsequent agreements signed on our behalf is our responsibility, especially as they were broken as soon as the ink was dry. the systems constructed to uphold hierarchies of oppression are not broken, they are working perfectly by design. there was never any intention to honour the treaties.
we know better, and because of that, we must do better. we must honour the lands, and the relationships to all that call this place home.
we will not get to reconciliation without full acknowledgment of the truth.
my name is andrea dillingham-lacoursiere. i am a mother, a sister, an auntie, a friend, a community member, a mobilizer, an advocate, and a painter.
i have been painting abstract landscapes for 7 years now, since “Canada 150”. weaving together different elements, different ecologies, people see what they want in my works. sinew and muscle tissue, labia, ocean waves, or sound or heat or electricity, dna helixes, sweet grass braids, energy. it’s all and none of that. it’s more. my works and style continue to evolve as i unlearn my settler privileges. my own decolonization process is foundationally anticapitalistic. capitalism thrives on competition, ensuring we are never too comfortable, striving for the best, the happiest, the newest when perhaps contentedness should be the goal. each day, my reconciliation begins with these lands. as Canadians, whatever shape that takes, however that identity is formed or revealed, we need to look to the people that were here first, and with respect and gratitude, appreciate the teachings, the ways, the life that existed for millennia prior to conflict.prior to us.
this is why I now paint landscapes. for as much learning as we still have to do, we are all connected to and by these lands, and because of that, the stewardship falls to all of us.