May 23 – September 13, 2019
at Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre, ODD Gallery and Yukon School of Visual Arts
on the traditional territory of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in
In partnership with Yukon Arts Centre

Opening Thursday, May 30th beginning at 7pm at DZCC
Please join us for artist talks, refreshments and a gallery hop around town to each of the venues. (With Fran Morberg-Green, Valerie Salez, Joseph Tisiga, Ken Anderson)

Artist Talk with Lianne Marie Leda Charlie: Monday, June 24th at 7:30pm
in the ODD Gallery
Land Claims Workshop with Lianne Marie Leda Charlie: Wednesday, June 26th from 3:30-5:30pm OR Thursday, June 27th from 5:30 – 7:30pm
in the ODD Gallery

Yukon Riverside Arts Festival: Talks, Gallery Hop, Workshops, Demos: August 15 – 18th – Schedule of Events

Join Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre interpreters for a walking tour of the exhibition (weekdays at 1:30pm)

A meeting, held in August of 1977 between Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau and five Yukon First Nations leaders regarding the then-approved Mackenzie Pipeline, is contained in a document archived in the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Government collections. These minutes of the meeting allows us to be a fly on the wall within a tension filled boardroom. Captured word for word these minutes vividly illustrate the dichotomy of two opposing ways of understanding economic, social and cultural development of a land and its inhabitants. A conversation that simply starts out about the pipeline ultimately became a conversation about First Nations way of life and a declaration for autonomous self-determination.

Through a diverse range of media Yukon artists Ken Anderson (Tlingit/Scandinavian), Lianne Marie Leda Charlie (Tagé Cho Hudän | Big River People), Fran Morberg-Green (Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in), Valerie Salez (1st Generation Canadian), Doug Smarch Jr. (Tlingit), and Joseph Tisiga (Kaska Dene) activate this archival document and ultimately continue the conversation surrounding self-determination in the face of federal and corporate agendas.