Acknowledge 8

Mixed media and acrylic on canvas (set of 8).

16.50x16.50x2"

This piece is about counter-mapping the Prince Edward County through the lens of the impact of colonization on the identity of the landscape. Starting with the cairn, a memorial at the Carrying Place where, in 1787, the Chiefs of The Mississauga and Sir John Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, negotiated a treaty and The Mississauga agreed to cede land and a river on the isthmus which would facilitate travel between the Bay of Quinte from Lake Ontario, and around the county to places such as Waupoos, the only Indigenous named village or town in the county. The cairn, 'while hidden in plain sight' is overrun by bushes and is not very visible to the passerby. Nor are there any markers drawing visitors to the site.

While landmarks for the Loyalist colonizers where markedly present in the county, the naming of highways and on the quilted patterns dotting barns and homes, there was little to no public evidence of pre-contact and current Indigenous ownership or acknowledgement of the land.

By counter mapping the landscape the image resulted in a counter legacy to the predominant colonizer/settler landscaping and mark making in PEC. The canvases include a land acknowledgment in the painting and noting our obligation as artists we are claiming our role in re-shaping a predominant narrative of PEC.