AMS Student Nest, University Boulevard, UBC, Vancouver, BC, Canada
After meeting with Jessica, an Indigenous knowledge holder and our Indigenous course instructor, we have decided to change the direction of our inquiry project. We were inspired by the idea of two-eyed seeing from the Bartlett et. al article. Two-eyed seeing refers to the process of weaving Indigenous and mainstream knowledge (Bartelett et. al 2012). We wanted to see how public art can foster this perspective. The article states 8 important lessons in which we found importance in lessons 1, 2, and 8. The first and second lesson learned focuses on the idea of the co-learning journey (Bartelett et. al 2012). This means that we must acknowledge both perspectives. That’s what got us thinking about the meaning behind the Shadow Tree. Who’s story is it telling? The third lesson was to develop a council of knowledge holders from both perspectives. In terms of the Shadow Tree, the question remains did it consult people of both groups? Thinking about this, we thought about what would be the impact of this art and wanted to expand to other public art pieces. After talking to Jessica, we wanted to explore how are these arts are reclaiming spaces within an urban context. This would be done by using two-eyed seeing.
By: Guneev Randhawa