Bimiwetigweyaa — Tcubúhatceh

It is one thing to know about a river, and yet another altogether to consider the river itself as a way of knowing. 

 The Big River Continuum  is an artist residency exchange that amplifies the interconnectedness of cultures, research, water and land through collaboration between multimedia artist Karen Goulet (White Earth Ojibwe) from the Mississippi headwaters region, and social practice artist Monique Verdin (Houma) from the Delta. Over the past three years, the artists have been exchanging visits and ideas about ways in which the headwaters and the delta of the Misi-ziibi (Big River, Ojibwe) have been in conversation with each other for thousands of years.

 This in-progress exhibition , guest-curated by Rebecca Dallinger at the Weisman’s Target Studio for Creative Collaboration, showcases the explorations of the artists, thus far, through works in diverse media, as well as the documentation of their creative collaboration with the partners at the Itasca Biological Station and artists of Ojibwe Country and Yakni Chitto.

Verdin and Goulet have curated an addition to the exhibition, a selection of works made by Indigenous creators in the Headwaters and the Delta: Tammy Greer (Houma), Janie Luster (Houma), Jenna Mae (Eastern Siouan, Mvskoke, Cherokee), The Neighborhood Story Project collective, Ozone504 (Saponi, Monocan, Lenni Lenape), Joseph Allen (Sicangu Lakota Oyate), Ella Countryman (Cass Lake Ojibwe), Penny and Rick Kagigebi (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe, White Earth Ojibwe), and Nancy Kingbird (Leech Lake Nation Ojibwe).

The river has been weaponized as an arbitrary boundary line to be conquered and controlled, ever since the colonizers arrived. This re-indigenized map of 1861 basins of the Mississippi and tributaries, their systems of drainage and downfall, reflects a mapped moment of history born out of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removals in the 1830s, when whitemen were sent west to survey, claim, and rebrand the lands and waters, operating as Indian Agents and informants to broker territories and treaties, leading to a long list of broken promises.

The blue line remembers the journey of the River’s lifeforce, connecting the traditional names of the sources of the headwaters and the territories of the Ojibwe to the coastal wetlands of the Mississippi Delta, where the Houma inhabit bayou communities that connect the watershed to the sea.

18 million people drink from the Mississippi River. Water gathered from the Mississippi’s headwater source near Lake Itasca, from the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and from the ancestral river distributaries, the Bayou Teche and Bayou Terre aux Boeufs, in the Delta are exhibited as a remembrance and reflection that water is life and connects us all. The Mississippi River is an artery of commerce, commodities, and trade. Northern trade items, such as maple sugar and wild rice, are juxtaposed with cane sugar and syrup, rice, and perique tobacco from the South.

Laser poster print

Framed photographs

Archival inkjet prints

Blanket, cotton, wild dyes and Indigo*

“This piece is a spontaneous assemblage using remaining pieces from other works. I selected fabrics, dyed  during my visits with Monique to the Delta, as I built the form. I wanted to create movement while simultaneously alluding to a sense of an ephemeral we are part of. After it was on the wall I could see the many miles of landscape I have traveled in my journeys. They were not always directly connected to the Misi-ziibi, but certainly to people, places and waters of memories that are with me now.” 

*Special thanks to collaborator Dr. Tammy Greer (Houma) for wild plant dyed fabric , poke berry, black walnut and goldenrod

Cyanotype photography

Photography and digital collage

Delta digital collage, created with an 1863 United States War Department map of a part of Louisiana and Mississippi, illustrating the operations of the U.S. Forces in the Department of the Gulf; 2019 Mississippi River Photograph by Monique Verdin Headwaters digital collage, created with a United States War Department map of the route passed over by an expedition into the Indian country in 1832 to the source of the Mississippi; 2019 Lake Itasca. Photograph by Monique Verdin.

Projection, digital collage video

“This digital sketch layers time and place, from the sources of Mississippi River Headwaters to the Yakni Chitto’s coastal Delta territories, collaging and juxtaposing communities and ecologies to reflect known and unknown histories and relationships. Images have been mined from public archives and contrasted with current documentation to expand perspectives.”

Shibori indigo-dyed, recycled cotton fabric

“After taking an “Intro to Shibori” dyeing workshop, I was inspired to work with the braided form I used for the buried pieces now on display in the Abijijiwaan exhibition at Watermark Art Center, Bemidji. I loved the aspect of pattern-making that is part of the shibori process but wanted to use a pattern that was a familiar aesthetic to me. Memories of moving water such as waterfalls, currents, and rapids come to mind when viewing the fabric strips. The aesthetic of the long draping fabric strips of this initial piece has opened a door of exciting possibility I intend to continue in future art works.”

Fabric scraps, ribbon, hand, and machine stitching, 11” x 11” (approximately).

Karen Goulet, Poem: Sister Water “This piece as a whole is reminiscent of a ceremony blanket being made. The individual pieces are memory maps of events, observations, and dreams I have while on this Misi-ziibi creative journey, reflecting various directions the work has taken over time.”

Birch bark, quills, ribbon

Time lapse animation

“Using my phone, I took  a picture of Lake Itasca from the same spot, same time, same angle everyday, that I worked, for a year. My favorite to observe was watching the ice on and ice off, of course, but also the intense wildfire smoke from Canada for part of the summer, and the color change of the tamaracks in the fall.” —Lesley Knoll, Associate Director, University of Minnesota, Itasca Biological Field Station

Archival injket prints

“South Louisiana is losing land at one of the fastest rates on the planet. Every 90-100 minutes a football field is lost from our shores. Sea level rise, the channeling of the Mississippi River, subsidence, the extraction of natural resources, and the dredging of over 10,000 miles of canals to support oil and gas production, petrochemical pipelines, and maritime navigation have all played a role. I have been creating Lost Treasure Maps as a way to provide perspectives to illuminate time and place by layering United States Geological Survey maps, historical maps, and other imagery mined from the public domain, in addition to photographs taken at sites found within the cartographic territories. Over the past twenty years my documentary work has been focused on my Houma Nation relatives living in the coastal bayous of the Mississippi River Delta, where the freshwaters kiss the estuaries that stretch south to meet the Gulf of Mexico. This small series of Lost Treasure Maps are of important Houma women in my life from the Yakni Chitto, the Big Country found between the Atachafalaya and Mississippi River. Armantine Marie Billiot Verdin, my grandmother, and great-aunt Jeanne were the women who took me down Bayou Pointe aux Chenes to tell me stories about their lives and how different the territory was before the oil and gas men came in to steal our land and water rights, forever changing our Houma homelands and ways of life. Clarice Friloux, my cousin, is a land and water protector who has fought to get the oil waste pits closed in a flood zone that neighbors the historic Houma community of Grand Bois, Big Woods, a place she and many other relatives call home. Janie Luster, a mentor, friend and traditional artisan, a survivor of many hurricanes, who despite losing her home due to Hurricane Ida in 2022 continues to find the strength to smile through the heartbreak and to keep pushing forward, determined to find a way back home.”

Cotton, hand stitching, hand-dyed indigo

“The blanket as a metaphor has brought me to many new and familiar places in my mind and on this life journey I am on. I took this opportunity to explore the conceptual evolution, design process, and technical exploration of prescribed patterns and assemblage of materials. The blankets were made with natural materials, hand-dyed and repurposed fabric. I used indigo dye fabric to explore and modify various shibori techniques. It was important for me as an artist to really push myself to new places in the familiar and inter-generational creative processes of using needle and thread. We use blankets as utilitarian objects, in our traditional ceremonies and gift blankets for significant life events. We welcome new life, honor human growth, and send our loved ones to the next place with blankets that have been stitched with purpose. It is a response to the very long battle between winter and spring this year. Waiting for the waters to open up in the North, I reflected on memories of my time on the Misi-ziibi in Bvlbancha, how the river moves through the city and the interesting energy between the two. It is the river who has been gathering people along its shores since long before the arrival of Europeans—and the stars have witnessed it all.” *Special thanks to collaborator Tammy Greer (Houma) for contributions of wild plant-dyed fabric, poke root, black walnut, and goldenrod

Palmetto, willow, mamou, red coral bean sunflower, gamma grass, and glass jar

“If it wasn’t for the Mississippi River there would be no land in the Delta, which has been brought down by centuries of the Mississippi River watershed breaking down stones and washing sediment.”

Handmade paper, wild plants, cotton, and hemp fiber

“This metaphorical ‘earth blanket’ initiated the Healing Blanket Series. I was able to return, after many years, to experimental papermaking as part of my residency at A Studio in the Woods in May of 2021. My son stopped to visit for a few days; we were able to create a variety of paper, using materials including local wild plants, cotton, and hemp fiber. This healing blanket was conceptualized out of the process of spending time with my son and sharing creative space and energy for the first time in many years.”

Beadwork, leather, copper

Video

Growing up in Cass Lake, Minnesota, where I learned about culture, family, and life, I was surrounded by these values. We live in a beautiful and sacred world, where life brings communities together. Seeing the Mississippi River as a river full of life made me think, how can I show others its beauty? By capturing the moments on the Mississippi, the sounds around the river, and choosing music I felt brought the experience together, I was able to accomplish this. In my work, I try to show viewers what my family and community showed me when I was a child about how nature brings life to our lives and brings us together.

Pictures by Karen Goulet and Lesley Knoll, edited by Monique Verdin

As part of the arts to science exchange, Karen Goulet worked with Itasca Station scientist Lesley Knoll, studying the depth of life within water. These microscope images were taken in winter and summer 2021, with some images taken from ice on Lake Itasca. “Lake water is teeming with life. These photos depict part of the microscope life found in Lake Itasca. We first see images of zooplankton -- tiny animals that live in the open waters of the lake. They eat algae and in turn are an important food source for many types of fish. Zooplankton can move on their own, but water currents can overpower their movements. Many of the zooplankton images are of a type called copepods. The later Lake Itasca images are of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton can be bacteria or single-celled plants that photosynthesize. These also live in open water and some have the ability to move on their own. The images taken in Lake Itasca show cyanobacteria (or blue-green algae) like Dolichospermum (previously Anabaena) and a diversity of other types including diatoms and chrysophytes.” —Lesley Knoll

“It was an interesting segue to examine and think about the microscopic world of water. I was inspired by a presentation done by Lesley Knoll (biologist at Itasca Field Station) who showed the Big River Collaborators a slideshow of some of her images taken from Lake Itasca waters. I was able to collect in late winter and summer at Itasca, as well as Delta water when on my residency. I learned how to take photos from a microscope with my iPhone, and those photos moved me into another realm of creative documentation.” —Karen Goulet

Suspended sculpture made from oyster shells, Palmetto, shrimp nets

As sea level rises and land subsides in southeast Louisiana, the future of coastal communities, fisheries and ways of life are threatened by the side effects of colonial practices; Practices rooted to a plantation mentality, built by capitalism, extraction, oppression and corporations. This Net of Uncertainty hangs as a reminder of the unknown future, artifacts as evidence, a memorial to the coastal realities bearing witness to rapid change in the lower Mississippi River Delta.

Dyed fabrics, photograph

Garfish Scales, palmetto

Karen E. Goulet is a multimedia artist often working with textiles and written word. She is a White Earth Ojibwe Band member who also honors her Metis, Sami and Finnish ancestors. Her work is informed by her experiences, people, and the places she loves. She received her MFA in sculpture from UW-Madison and an MEd from UM Duluth. She has been exhibiting nationally and internationally for 25 years. She is the Program Director for the Miikanan Gallery at the Watermark Art Center in Bemidji, MN working as a community change maker through her creative practices.

Monique Verdin is an interdisciplinary storyteller, citizen of the Houma Nation and director of The Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange, responding to the complex interconnectedness of environment, economics, culture, climate, and change across the Gulf South. Monique is currently working to support the Okla Hina Ikhish Holo, a network of indigenous southeastern gardeners, to grow food and medicine sovereignty in the lower Mississippi River Delta and is a member of the Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative, co-producer/subject of the documentary My Louisiana Love and co-author of Return to Yakni Chitto; Houma Migrations.

Rebecca Dallinger is guest curator and, since 2019, a curator in residence for the Big River Continuum at Itasca Biological Station and the Target Studio for Creative Collaboration at WAM. Becca has an extensive background in community organizing and rural arts development including co-creating the collective the Manoomin Arts Initiative and Artists on Main Street project Mahnomen, MN. While at the White Earth Tribal and Community College she facilitated many arts venues, artist-led workshops, seasonal camps and open studios. She is an alum of the 2021 Creative Community Leadership Institute.

Tammy Greer is a member of the United Houma Nation and director of the Center for American Indian Research and Studies (CAIRS) at the University of Southern Mississippi. She works with other gardeners and medicine people as part of the Okla Hina Ikhish Holo Network, growing food, native plants and distributing those, along with seeds, as part of an effort to regain food sovereignty. Tammy is a documentarian of Houma culture and of native plants and also works with traditional plant dyes used by Indigenous Peoples of the southeastern United States. Janie Luster is a well known Houma artist, basket weaver, and cultural preservationist. Janie creates beautiful jewelry and artwork using the scales of the Alligator Garfish. Janie is responsible for reintroducing the Houma Half-Hitch Palmetto basket weaving technique to her tribe, the United Houma Nation. Jenna Mae is a mixed southeastern daughter (via Zhigaagoong, also known as Chicago) of Eastern Siouan, Mvskoke, and Cherokee descent. Poet, parent, gardener, and community herbalist-- she dreams in Indigenous futures with beloved community in Bvlbancha. The Neighborhood Story Project is a nonprofit collaborative publishing organization in partnership with the University of New Orleans. Since 2004, we have produced books, exhibits, events, and courses that share the complex stories of South Louisiana with each other and the world. Ozone504 is a nom de guerre of an East Tennessee transplant of Saponi, Monocan and Lenni Lenape descent who lives in the Upper 9th Ward of Bvlbancha. He is a multimedia artist, producer/engineer of Bvlbancha Liberation Radio, and arts editor & design director of Bvlbancha is Still a Place zine.

Joseph Allen is a photographer with over three decades of experience in creating his art. Born in Eagle Butte, SD, Joseph is a citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate and currently lives in the rural Sugarbush Township in the White Earth Nation. His photographs are in the collections of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the C. N. Gorman Museum at the University of California - Davis. Ella Countryman is Ojibwe, born and raised in Cass Lake, MN on the Leech Lake Reservation. Currently she lives in Sartell. Ella started working with videography three years ago during high school and plans to enter college for videography this Fall. Editing is one of her favorite parts of videography because there is so much you can create with just a few videos. Ella says- “Videography is beautiful, and I can’t wait to further my career in this type of artwork.”

Penny and Rick Kagigebi (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe enrollee & White Earth Ojibwe first-generation descendent - respectively) Rick and Penny currently live in Detroit Lakes Minnesota, just south of White Earth Reservation. Both are full-time working artists making a wide range of art with Rick focusing primarily on appliquéd mural blankets to teach about Ojibwe culture and Penny’s main work in birchbark and porcupine quills to create quill boxes, embellished baskets and sculpture. They began exhibiting their work in 2018. Nancy Kingbird is a member of the Leech Lake Nation. When she was ten years old started making earrings stringing colored beads, porcupine quills, and bugle beads. Maefred Aery taught beading classes in school and Nancy took her classes. Family members were also beading artists and they influenced her commitment to beading. After losing her husband Nancy stopped beading for five years. She says “Then the materials were calling me. Spiritual energy is powerful.” For the last nine years, Nancy has dedicated herself to healing and developing her skills and visual voice in her work. She is well recognized in the region’s Indigenous community for her mastery of the art form. Here her unique style, techniques and use of materials is distinct, and her work can be found in many private collections. Lesley Knoll is the Associate Director and scientist at the University of Minnesota, Itasca Biological Station in Lake Itasca, MN located within Itasca State Park. Her research focuses broadly on how global change affects freshwater systems. “My research is highly collaborative and aims to protect water resources facing multiple stressors such as climate change, land use change, and invasive species.”  https://mndaily.com/255120/news/adlakes 

Prof. Jonathan Schilling, Director, Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories, University of Minnesota’s– for seeding the idea for the Big River Continuum exchange Guest Curator, Rebecca Dallinger for her guidance and support Dr. Tammy Greer from the Houma Nation Ama Rogan and Cammie Hill-Prewitt, A Studio in the Woods, New Orleans, LA Lori Foshee-Donnay, Director and staff at The Watermark Art Center, Bemidji, MN Dr. Lesley Knoll, Itasca Station Scientist, University of Minnesota Dr. Tim Mclean, Faculty, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University Big River Continuum is an initiative of the UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA’S WEISMAN ART MUSEUM and ITASCA BIOLOGICAL STATION, TULANE UNIVERSITY’S A STUDIO IN THE WOODS, and a deep collaboration with WATERMARK ART CENTER. This work has been supported by funds from the University of Minnesota Itasca Biological Station, Weisman Art Museum, Regional Sustainable Development Partnership through U of MN – Extension and by the 2021 and 2022 Institute for Advanced Study Collaborative and event grants. Many thanks for Ojibwe and Houma exhibit name and translation to: Zaagaatekwe, Nyleta Belgarde, Faculty, Leech Lake Tribal College, and the Houma Language project.

Peter McKenzie, Gudrun Lock, Joey Courville, John Enger, Timothy Johnston, Mike Ohl, Nokomis Paiz, Betsy May, Dawn Goodwin, Audrey Thayer, Judy Fairbanks, David Manuel, Nancy Kingbird, Clarice Friloux, Janie Luster, Joseph J. Allen. Honoring all our ancestors. This work has been supported by funds from the University of Minnesota Itasca Biological Station, Weisman Art Museum, Regional Sustainable Development Partnership through University of Minnesota -Extension and by the 2021 and 2022 Institute for Advanced Study Collaborative and Event Grants.