Apr 4 – 30, 2024 – Treaty Space Gallery, 1107 Marginal Rd.
Exhibition Catalogue for Living Our Languages
Living Our Languages community project—led by Dr. Joshua Schwab-Cartas, funded by SSHRC—focuses on Indigenous language reclamation through community celebration and education.
The exhibition Each Drum Has Its Own Story, on display at the Treaty Space Gallery at NSCAD University in Halifax (Kjipuktuk), is a moving testimony to the power of art in revitalizing indigenous languages. Through the creation of raw hide drums, Mi’kmaq artists share their personal journeys of reconnection with the Mi’kmaw language – a profound expression of identity, memory and resistance.
Each drum becomes a link between past and present, between language and territory, showing how artistic practices can be living tools of education and community healing. The curatorship, centered on indigenous knowledge, invites the public to listen to stories that vibrate with each beat – stories that not only preserve, but rekindle the language that is the heart and soul of the Mi’kmaq people.
This exhibition is more than art: it is territory, it is language, it is life. A powerful example of how art and culture centers can support paths of decolonization and linguistic sovereignty.
Follow this powerful story from CBC News:
“Each Drum Has Its Own Story” is an exhibition at NSCAD University in Halifax that uses the art of rawhide drums to explore and strengthen the revitalization of the Mi’kmaw language. Indigenous artists share their personal stories of reconnecting with their ancestral language, transforming each drum into a living expression of identity and cultural resistance.
The exhibition is a powerful example of how art can be an ally in the fight to preserve indigenous languages and assert cultural sovereignty.
📖 Read the full story:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nscad-exhibit-explores-indigenous-language-revitalization-1.7174076
Land Connects Us 