Body to Land - Stone Soup (2020- )
Gluk
Over a period of years (2020-present) we are studying and recreating through video and movement, seminal works from the repertoire that explore our emotional, physical and cultural relationship to land.
Stone Soup (1995-1997) is the first work we are addressing in the Body to Land project. Underlying and central to Stone Soup is the Gitxsan concept of Gluk: a ceremony of redoing a wrong, as in replacing a rotten plank in the foundation of a structure. Doreen Jensen, Hahl Yee, Gitxsan elder, artist, writer, activist, educator and thinker, as well as a beloved friend and mentor, introduced and proposed the concept to create a dance that would fulfill a Gluk by touring BC asking permission to enter and dance on each of the First Nations territories we came to.
March 2020 was to be the official start of this multi-year project. Due to the pandemic and issues with gathering, lockdown, and the residential school revelations, we had to extend our timeline. Currently we are finishing work on the video component of this project. The resulting film, entitled Gluk, will premiere in early December 2024. The performative outcomes have been postponed due to circumstances beyond our control.
Notes on Gluk
As for the voice-over of Gluk, Karen Jamieson writes: “it quickly became clear that this voice could not be mine. My voice needed to be very limited. What was required was that in each Nation’s land we come to, the voice must shift to the Indigenous leader or elder who has the authority to speak about the events that took place on that land. Delhia Nahanee proposed creation of a skeletal script to be developed and then sent to each of the potential interviewees. The people I approached to be interviewed were all very interested and supportive of the project.”
Those interviewed for the film include:
Delhia Nahanee, Villages of Laxgalta’p and Gitwinsilkh, Nisga’a
Simoget Yugadets, Chief Hagbwegathu, Vince Jackson, Village of Kispiox, Gitk’san
Sharon Bryant, Village of Kitsumkalem, Tsimshian
Delores Pollard, Village of Kitimaat, Haisla
Guujaaw, Chief Gidansda, Villages of Masset and Skidegate, Haida
Chief Xalek Ian Campbell, Sekyu Siyam, Squamish, Musqueam
Yal Aubrey Jackson, Gitk’san
The map above was retrieved with permission from Native-Land.ca.
We were drawn to this map because of the way it represents the land in a precolonial way, allowing for the visualization of Indigenous ancestral lands and the languages that grew out of the land, without colonial borders or names. Throughout this project, we will work with maps to reflect on our evolving relationship to the land, and our commitment to learn and to respect Indigenous teaching about their lands and how to enter and comport ourselves on each Nation’s land.