In her writing, Nishnaabe-kwe scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson often highlights the values and knowledge systems that exist within the Nishnaabeg peoples and how these teachings and lifeways are rendered meaningless by settler colonialism and agenda of dominance. Indigenous knowledge systems are foundational to their lifeways, and within them there are important teachings and ways of knowing that are integral to resurgence. Reading Simpson’s ideas about storytelling and embodied knowledge, I was reminded of KC Adams’ exhibition Gage’gajiiwaan (Water flowing eternally brings people together), and how these ideas resonated with me deeply.
Adams’ solo exhibition is composed of a series of digital circuit boards mounted onto birch bark, as well as copper and clay pottery produced using ancestral methods. The exhibition explores the relationships that exist between ancestral knowledge, memory, and sacred water, and functions as a visual reminder of the teachings that are passed on through generations of life givers and water protectors.1KC Adams, “Gage’gajiiwaan,” KC Adams, 2020 Her work is of critical importance as many Indigenous communities are without clean water, thus it is very timely that her work is exploring the sacred nature of water and whether traditional teachings can be used to inform solutions.
In Dancing on our Turtle’s Back, Leanne Simpson highlights the importance of storytelling as a way of creating spaces free of cognitive imperialism, as the gathering of people within Indigenous lands solidifies and brings together the interconnected relationships that composes their communities.2Leanne Simpson, Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back : Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence and a New Emergence (Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring, 2011), 32. The idea of knowledge occurring within a collectivist, non-hierarchical and judgement-free space is compelling as it is oppositional to settler colonial ways of knowing in that Indigenous knowledge systems foster a sense of connection to the land, to each other, and to ancestry. Simpson connects this concept of storytelling with the idea of theory, as she explains that at the core of a theory is an explanation or narrative of some sort.
Returning to Adams’ practice, the work that struck me most from Gage’gajiiwaan reminded me of the importance Simpson placed on storytelling as pedagogy. In Birch Bark Technology: Gage’gajiiwaan, Adams attaches blue glass beads to a birch bark circuit board in the shape of a map based on a drawing by Chief Chachayhaywati of parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northern Ontario, and North Dakota.3Adams, “Gage’gajiiwaan.” Adams stated that she was thinking a lot about the knowledge and technology that was used by her ancestors and how she can incorporate it into the technology being utilized in the present.4KC Adams, “KC Adams at the WAG,” CTV Winnipeg, November 23, 2017. The work embodies the ideas of Leanne Simpson in that Adams is taking ancestral knowledge and working with it in the context of her own life, her own artistic practice, and her own experience of the world. Adams is engaging in the practice of storytelling and embodied knowledge by using her artwork as a medium through which she can transform ancestral teachings based on her own meanings and then transmit them to others.
At the root of Nishnaabeg ways of knowing and existing in the world is this idea of creating, interacting with, and living the stories and narratives that are passed down through generations. Simpson details the importance of personal stories and narratives within Nishnaabeg ways of knowing, as theory must be learned through the context of one’s own unique personal life.5Simpson, Dancing, 40. This is in stark contrast to western approaches towards theory and knowledge sharing, as it is very much a decontextualized process that does not invite the knowledge user to engage in a meaningful way. Simpson goes on to highlight the concept of embodied knowledge, which is the teaching that in order to access knowledge one must live that knowledge and engage in it with others and the land.6Simpson, Dancing, 41. She writes that we are “responsible for finding our own meanings, for shifting those meanings through time and space, and for coming to our own meaningful way of being in the world”7Simpson, Dancing, 42. .
The idea of embodied knowledge is further conceptualized in Simpson’s Land as Pedagogy, where she tells the story of Kwezens, a young Nishnaabeg who comes to know the spirit of the maple within the context of the loving support of her family and elders. Through learning about how maple syrup is made, she learns to be self- led, to find joy in learning new things, as well as what it feels like to be recognized and appreciated by those around her.8Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, “Land as Pedagogy: Nishnaabeg Intelligence and Rebellious Transformation,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3, no. 3 (November 21, 2014), 6. The story is a beautiful representation of how knowledge functions within Indigenous communities, as Kwezens is engaging with the teachings of her ancestors by making her own meanings and engaging in those stories with others and the land. Core to Nishnaabeg teachings is the fact that Knowledge is embodied within the land and community, and that accessing it is a process of understanding that all life is connected and must be understood in relation to all things.
In the context of resurgence, concepts and practices such as storytelling and embodied knowledge are incredibly important for dismantling the settler colonial state. Simpson explains that storytelling and the practice of embodied knowledge are decolonizing at their core because they are challenging the norms that are forced upon Indigenous peoples by the forces of coloniality. She highlights the importance of oral storytelling to escape cognitive imperialism and return to Indigenous ways of knowing which are founded on togetherness and webs of relationships.9Simpson, Dancing, 42-43. Indigenous knowledge systems are relational, contextual, responsive, and collaborative, and exist in direct opposition to the hierarchical structure that exists within western knowledge systems.
KC Adams’ work is an expression of decolonial resurgence in that she embodies the stories passed on by her ancestors through her art practice. Her focus on the preservation and transmission of Indigenous knowledge is important as it denies the power of the settler colonial state, and its devaluing of Indigenous ways of knowing. Adams remarks that her goal for the exhibition was to honour the past, present, and future, which serves as a beautiful manifestation of the way knowledge functions through a web of connections and relationships amongst people, animals, the land, and time.
Arguing that the “physical act of gathering people together within our territories reinforces the web of relationships that stitch our communities together” Simpson epitomizes the idea that Indigenous peoples already have what they need for resurgence within themselves and their complex ancestral knowledge systems.10Simpson, Dancing, 33.
When Kwezens learns about the spirit of the maple, she establishes herself as a force of anticolonial resurgence, understanding that the land is a place she is meant to inhabit and learn within.
Leanne Simpson – Land as Pedagogy
Adams’ work is an act of resurgence, as she is reclaiming the teachings of her ancestors and exploring how they can fit into the technology and ways of living that exist in the present. Through her artwork, she is creating new meanings, she is shifting those meanings through time and space, and as a result this is aiding in her ability to come into her own meaningful way of inhabiting the land. Simpson concludes Land as Pedagogy by stating that in order to be decolonizing, Indigenous knowledges cannot be institutionalized through academia, as this only fetishizes it and does a disservice to Indigenous ways of knowing.11Simpson, “Land as Pedagogy,” 16. Indigenous knowledge systems are decolonizing in their very nature, and thus do not require a settler colonial gaze to achieve some sort of ‘reconciliation.’
The concepts of storytelling and embodied knowledge are integral to Indigenous knowledge systems and ways of knowing refuse coloniality in that Indigenous peoples already have everything within them to be resurgent. There is no prerequisite for the state to step in and ‘reconcile’ things for them. KC Adams’ work honours ancestral knowledge by finding new meanings within them that are relevant to her life and the current state of the world. Her practice is a beautiful conceptualization of the importance of storytelling and embodied knowledge within Indigenous lifeways, and as a tool for resurgence.
