Brenna  Maag

As a settler artist I am trying to create a deeper relationship to where I live and unlearn my colonial view of ‘nature’ as separate from me. My current work Camera Illumina is an immersive art project that creates intimacy with the land through observation and sensory experience. 

 

I live in S’olh Téméxw (Solth Tumuk) meaning Our Land, Our Home in Halq’eméylem the language spoken by the upper Stó:lō people. They have a long ancestral relationship with this place and have looked after the water, trees, plants and animals since time immemorial. I live in Mission which is on the unceeded territory of the Leq'á:mel, Semá:th, Máthxwi, Sq'éwlets and Qwó:ltl’el First Nations.

 

Mission is named for the Roman Catholic Mission residential school that was in operation for 117 years closing its doors in 1984. Years ago I was able to rent a studio space at Peqwxe:yles, the former St. Mary’s residential school for my Observation of Wonder installation. Renting this space was the first time that I learned what residential school actually meant. Children forcibly taken from their families due to government policy with the goal of assimilation. I began to understand what the impacts were on Indigenous peoples and their culture. Seeing the little sinks and imagining children in this place was very hard. I could see my privilege of not having to attend such a school, not having to leave my family and my culture, nor having any of my family have to go a residential school.

 

Aside from making art, I spend my time knitting, reading, puttering in my garden, and hassling my family to go outside. I am very grateful for the support of my ‘village’ in helping me make art.