Fourteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

How may artists work to achieve dialogue to stimulate conversations between individuals and communities that would not normally work together to create social change? LandMarks/Repères was a series of site-specific, community-based and collaborative art projects that took place in National Parks and Historic Sites across Canada. The 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation marked an occasion to reflect on a much older land, its present-day realities and the persistent legacies of colonialism and nationhood. LandMarks engaged the wider Canadian public to imagine possible futures through the eyes of artists, students and communities. Performances, installations, interventions and other modes of engagement, connected multiple projects addressing notions of place, identity and indigeneity within the landscape. As curators working on this national project, we curated Ursula Johnson’s project (re) al-location and The Festival of Stewards. It engaged the Mi’kmaw philosophy of Netukulimk, or self-sustainability, within a series of art activities that resulted in “The Festival of Stewards” feast and performances in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. With about 300 people in attendance, communities shared moose meat, local dishes, music and stories, from the nearby valleys and mountains, to reflect upon their relationship and responsibilities to the land and each other. Within this paper, we would like to discuss how the goals of the national project, within Ursula Johnson’s Festival of Stewards, created an example of how socially engaged art may address difficult and contentious events while bringing together communities divided from past historic events through shared participation in sustainable relationships with the land.