Arts Service Organizations: Positioning a Future Forward

Heather is a mother, gardener, beader, curator and PhD Candidate of Euro-Canadian and Kanien’kehá:ka descent. Heather’s home community is Akwesasne, most of her professional career has been spent working in Six Nations of the Grand River. Much of Heather’s personal and professional work has been directed at gaining a better understanding of the culture and history of her nation. Her thesis work examines the historical and philosophical underpinnings of contemporary museum practices across Haudenosaunee communities. Heather’s curatorial practice combines historical documents, storytelling, material culture and contemporary art with the understanding that there is no one way to tell a story, she seeks to engage audiences through a wide variety of engaging, immersive and gently disruptive approaches. Heather is currently on leave from her position as Curator of Indigenous Histories at the Canadian Museum of History, working as a Guest Curator at Woodland Cultural Centre. Additionally she recently took on the role of president of the Canadian Museums Association at an exciting time as work begins on a new national museum policy and implementation of UNDRIP.

There is no Permanence 

Cyclical ellipsis of thought, 

shared across and between the generations. 

Carried in the intangible, 

expressed in the tangible, 

It is fleeting only held in solid form for just a moment.

Repetition of form, of pattern, of song, of dance, of word, 

Repetition, upon repetition, upon repetition. 

Communities of knowledge, 

Communities of care, 

Communities grounded in place and space.  

Indigenous expressions 

Used not as a symbol of a colonial nation 

Rather as expressions of self-determination. 

Common ethics and values become our focus, 

no longer needing a singular national identity. 

A new commission, a new story, a new cycle?  

Building on my curatorial approach grounded self-decolonization this solution pathway will approach the topic of Permanence and Present Nature of The Arts through facilitated conversations and artistic works that seek to enact a process of permanence through intergenerational knowledge sharing, present-ness of story and a critical deconstructing of the last major report on the state of the Arts in Canada (the Massey Commission). 

Four topics will guide four conversations alongside the creation of four artistic pieces. The topics for investigation will include Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer; Holistic and Interdisciplinary Approaches; Art as Healing; and Grounding Art in Place and Identity.  Conversations will present both challenging and hopeful thoughts around the structures and systems of support needed across the sector.