We Carry Our Ancestors: Cedar, Baskets and Our Relationships with the Land

We Carry Our Ancestors:

Cedar, Baskets and Our Relationships with the Land

Legacy Downtown: September 28–December 21

This exhibition weaves together generations of Indigenous women through cedar basketry. For the first time ever, Legacy Art Galleries will exhibit Nuu-chah-nulth and Salish historical baskets from the collection, alongside portraits of theweavers including Alice Paul, Rosie Ross, Mary Jane Jackson, Mathilda Jim, Julianna Williams, Liz Happynook, Lena Jumbo and Ellen Jumbo. The photographic portraits are bydocumentary photographer Ulli Steltzer from Germany, who lived in Vancouver from 1972 until her death in 2018 at age 94. She used an unobtrusive hand-held Rolleiflexcamera while photographing many First Nationsartists at their work inBC.

Contemporary baskets by Salish artists Angela Marston and Brenda Crabtree, among others, will also be exhibited. Through new and intensive community research, this exhibition honours the resilience of women who have carried their cultures forward by passing down the art of cedar basketry to future generations. The exhibit is curated by Lorilee Wastasecoot, BC Arts Council Curatorial Intern.

Opening Celebration:Saturday, September 28, 3-5pm. Legacy Downtown, 630 Yates St, Lekwungen territory, www.legacy.uvic.ca, 250-721-6562.

Show here:  Alice Paul, 1975, photograph by Ulli Steltzer. Image courtesy of University of Victoria Legacy Art Galleries