Lake Nipissing Beading Project
Carrie Allison
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Treaty Space Gallery, 1107 Marginal Rd.
Community collaborative project
Opening Reception: Sept 29th, 4:30 – 6PM
lakenipissingbeadingproject.com
Organized by Carrie Allison and Nipissing University Departments of Geography & History, in partnership with Nipissing First Nation and Dokis First Nation
Lake Nipissing Beading Project is a 5 meter beaded replica of Lake Nipissing along with tributaries and joined waterways. This community collaborative project is meant to bring folks from Nipissing and Dokis communities together through a shared project, as well as other Turtle Island individuals and communities to bead a portion of the lake and its surrounding waterways. We bead to show respect and acknowledge the importance of this waterway to those across this continent, we are all connected and the water shows us this.
To map out the lake and surrounding waterways we have re-imagined using satellite and aerial photographic imagery. The image was gridded into sections that formed the ‘pattern’ for the art installation. By using remote sensing imagery we are inherently ‘taking back’ the imagery produced by the colonial state as a practice of decolonizing a tool that has historically been used to colonize, take land, and push Indigenous communities to less desirable areas. This project is in support of Indigenous sovereignty, reclamation, and decolonizing practices.
