A new art exhibit featuring art of “the survival, strength, and resurgence connected to residential and day schools” opens in Yellowknife on September 10.
How I Survived: The Exhibit is jointly organized by the Yellowknife Artist Run Community Centre and the How I Survived project – a collaboration between NWT Recreation and Parks Association and the University of Alberta that gathers, preserves and shares stories about recreation at residential and day schools in northern Canada.
It will be hosted at the visitor centre gallery, and runs until November 27. An opening day celebration will take place from 5-7pm on September 10.
The exhibit features works by Agnes Kuptana, Agnes Mitchell, Allysa Felix, Antoine Mountain, Brian Kowikchuk, Catherine Blondin, Michelle Gruben, and Pauline Tardiff to explore “difficult histories while centring the exhibit’s overarching themes: presence, strength, love, and creativity, said the How I Survived project in a news release.
“Making the bags became a longing to tell my story. At one point I could almost hear my mom tell me to start again when I made a mistake,” said Tardiff of the three bags she made for the exhibit, each representing her family’s experiences.
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Tardiff said the pieces feature themes like the northern lights and separation from her parents, memories of whale and fish camps, and her parents’ lives as subsistence hunters and gatherers.
The exhibit traces its origins to 2023, the news release said, when the How I Survived project commissioned a symbolic wall hanging by Kuptana, an Inuvialuk residential school survivor, artist and educator from Ulukhaktok.
Made in the shape of an Inuvialuk drum, it features a campfire surrounded by hide tanning, kayaking and canoeing, fishing, and snowshoeing. The wall hanging inspired conversations about residential and day school histories that would go on to shape the exhibit, the news release said.
“What I love about this exhibit is that it centres the voices, experiences, and creativity of Survivors and intergenerational Survivors themselves,” said Dr Crystal Gail Fraser, a co-lead of the How I Survived project.
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“There is a difficult history here, but there is also so much more: presence, strength, love, humour, creativity, and connection to Land and culture. These are all part of the history, too, and they deserve to be seen, heard, and remembered.”
The exhibit features artwork, personal statements and an immersive audio installation that weaves together voices of Residential School survivors with the natural sounds of the land.
It also builds on the How I Survived podcast, which launched in 2024 to share in-depth interviews with former students and survivors of residential and day schools of their experiences before, during and after school.
