Indigenous Arts & Stories - Kindness is Timeless

The piece “kindness is timeless” was inspired by the artwork “Aeroplane” composed by the Inuit artist Pudlow Pudlat. Pudlow spent most of his life living the traditional semi-nomadic way until settling in the hamlet of Cape Dorset. He experienced and catalogued a rapidly changing lifestyle as western technology altered the landscape and way of life. With the inspiration of Pudlow; I try to express this through the images and materials used.

When creating my artwork, I wanted it to reflect the same sudden transition of lifestyle that Pudlow’s artwork “Aeroplane” evoked but viewed with a touch of my own ways of knowing. I played with the objective perspective that time-lapses expose and segmented them into 4 individual time periods within the history of turtle island. I wanted it to bring an optimistic field of thinking while capturing the juxtaposition between the preservation of traditional life and loss of it when moving forward into this new world of colonization. My aim for displaying the buffalo stone being covered in dirt is meant to act as a monolith for the history of turtle island. In my own way this is a statement to the future, when mouths will not be there to speak it; if dug up, what will archaeologists pull from the interpretation of this time period? What do you as the viewer think of this time period?

In my Blackfoot culture, the word Niitsitapi refers to a person who is original, true to themselves and other’s and is genuinely kind in their humanly experience. This is a word that crosses barriers; independent of your cultural background. Being Niitsitapi is an individual experience measured by your effort to become true keepers of your land, women, children, friends and future generations. The forth and final time lapse is meant to encompass this unborn future that is built by people who take time out of their day to feel something sacred, those who feel a connection to the land and people, those who are simply kind in their everyday interactions and are defined by what they do. Niitsitapi; the architects of a better future.