The Descendant Project is a conceptual mixed-media performance piece that embodies the IBPOC (Indigenous Black People of Colour) Canadian experience in two parts.
Firstly, it critiques the public and institutional pursuit of decolonization, diversity, and equity through the exploitation and commodification of IBPOC labour.
Secondly, it is an expressive work that embodies the grief, frustration, trauma experienced while working within these conditions.
Through the medium of a History Book, "The Golden Leaves of Canada's Past," I attempt to decolonize so-called Canadian history to fight systemic erasure and create restorative justice.
The techniques used in the book reflect those used by Black and Indigenous artists throughout recent Turtle Island History. The work imprinted on top of the writings of settlers consists of drawings, letters, stories, paintings, and prints that discuss IBPOC people and their contributions.
IBPOC art seems to hold considerable power in the art world today, activated during cultural and political movements by the public and cultural institutions.
In reality, any of these institutions lack the diversity and the perspectives necessary to have critical examinations of contemporary IBPOC art.
Although the art world may attempt to be post-colonial, it cannot escape the problematic discourse of racial logic and national identity. These are the very issues in which it tries to work against—resulting in institutions collecting, promoting, and glorifying work that can create blind spots.
Instead, because of their capitalist structures, these institutional bodies work to promote the racialized commodity.
To encourage edification by non-IBPOC individuals and prevent the exploitation of my labour, I have sacrificed this work.
By presenting my video, ashes and the bibliography, I am offering rebirth and change.
This project was undertaken on the the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, Haudenosaunee and the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Tkaronto is covered by treaty 13.
This territory is the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas, and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land.