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The Diverse-A-Tree or Ancestor-Tree

 

As part of the PLOT Canada Cultural ART Day Event, an exhibit was created to honour the Indigenous communities across these lands currently known by many as Canada.

The Diverse-A-Tree or Ancestor-Tree honours the Ancestors of the Land the PLOT sits on. It acknowledges that the PLOT exists on the unceded territories of the Kwantlen, the Katzie and the Semiahmoo Coast Salish Nations. Red Ribbons were inscribed with the names of these, and many of the multitude of other indigenous nations, all of them equally important. The essence and energy of the art project is to honour ALL those who have lived for innumerable generations on this land we now call Canada.

Included was a Ribbon for the Cree Lineage of our PLOT and Newton Medicine Wheel Elder Grandma Amy Eustergurling, with gratitude for her mentor-ship and teachings.

Dried leaves from plants that have been imported from other parts of the world were used to denote the names of countries of origin or family lineage of those of us living here who are not from the lines of the original peoples of these lands.

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Symbolically the Tree and Red Ribbons represent those who have lived for countless generations upon these lands, living in sacred reciprocity with all life, and in keeping with the Natural Laws. The leaves of the imported plants, represent those who have either immigrated recently, and/or have come from an ancestral linage of those who colonized the land. Many of us are new students to a way of seeing and living that existed for thousand of years and was in keeping with the kind of reciprocity that allowed this land to flourish.

This art piece, viewed both an Ancestor-Tree and a Diverse-A-Tree, also begs us to ask questions about colonialism. It hopes to stimulate conversation and understanding of how colonization continues to affect both the indigenous population, and all people of colour. May we together explore ways to overcome and move out of the outmoded mind set of systemic institutionalized racism and into a way of being that is in alignment with the good of the greater whole.

Great Appreciation for the mysterious young man who appeared out of nowhere and dug the 2′ deep hole for the heavy ironwood branch that was to represent a tree of life; a tree of ancestry and diversity. Your efforts and kindness cheered and warmed the rainy afternoon~TreeSa

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