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Workshops

This four-part workshop series led by renowned syilx artist Mariel Belanger encourages newcomers to delve into the concepts of "home" and belonging through the lens of Indigenous worldviews

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Visitor Protocols

Sept 21 - 1 PM to 4 PM
Vernon Public Art Gallery

Shared discussions and activities facilitate an understanding of how to interact with and appreciate Indigenous ways of being in relation to the land.

Land Acknowledgement & Allyship

Sept 28 - 1 PM to 4 PM
Vernon Public Art Gallery

Hands-on activities provide knowledge on how to care for the land, highlighting the significance of land acknowledgments in supporting Indigenous communities.

Tule Mat Making & The Importance of Marshlands

Oct 5 - 1 PM to 4 PM
OKIB Land

Insights into the importance of marshlands are shared, along with the cultural and environmental significance of tule mats through hands-on mat-making activities.

Appreciation of Culture & Building Relationships Through Art

Oct 12 - 1 PM to 4 PM
Vernon Public Art Gallery

Explores the difference between cultural appreciation and appropriation, followed by art creation that tells personal stories and builds meaningful relationships with Indigenous people. The art will be displayed in an exhibit at the Vernon Public Art Gallery.

Childcare is available for workshop participants.

Home on Syilx Territory

Finding connection to the land through art as a newcomer

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“Finding your story on the land”

Studio sisp̓l̓k̓ Gallery Inc. is a safe, sacred work and viewing space to preserve and share First Nations contemporary and traditional arts. Inspired by a love of land-based performance art, contemporary and traditional art practices, wild horses, culture, language and storytelling activities through digital art, walking tours, land-based performances and natural material workshops that raise awareness of Syilx First Nations sovereignty.

Mariel Belanger

(c̓ʕ̓n̓c̓ʕ̓an̓)

Mariel Belanger: is a Syilx interdisciplinary performance artist and doctoral student in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario. Following in her Syilx grandmothers analog footprint, using ethnographic historical recordings to map the archives for family specific Syilx song and story, she encounters, captures and creates her own understanding of these texts, sound bites and visual recordings of the important knowledge her grandmother left behind re-constructing her story-world as methodology of contemporary cultural engagement, transferring community-driven, land-based artistic knowledge and practice into a trans-media research creation project that carries a story of caring for the land and maintaining matrilineal relationships.

Sienna Belanger-Lee (x̌ixʷutəm, Shongswiigeezus)

Sienna (she/her) is from the Syilx and Anishinaabe Nations and was raised on reserve at Okanagan Indian Band, located at the head of Lake Okanagan. She is a student obtaining a bachelor's degree in the nsyilxcn/nqilxʷcn language through the Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency program at UBC-Okanagan. Sienna currently resides at nsisul̓aʔxʷ(dry creek) where she facilitates Indigenous planting opportunities as well as her digital arts, language learning, and horse culture.

Thank you to our project partners

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