Beaded map of the Haldimand Tract now the centre of an art exhibit in Hamilton
CBC
It took nearly a year and half to complete, but a beaded map of the Haldimand Tract was ready to be part of an exhibition that opened last Thursday at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton.
The Bead the Tract project was part of Protect the Tract, a Haudenosaunee-led environmental initiative out of Six Nations, Ont.
Talena Atfield, one of the project's principal beaders, said there are many ways Indigenous people can make a statement beyond protesting on the front lines.
The project took a traditional art form — raised beadwork which was originally learned from the Tuscarora — and transformed it into a political act, she said, "alongside all the other statements that were made in that exhibition."
The exhibition, We Remain Certain, was a collective decision by the organizers involved, from academics to community members to artists.
Atfield said the title reaffirms their historic ties to the land within the Haldimand Tract.
The Sullivan campaign — a U.S. military-led scorched-earth campaign against Haudenosaunee villages in New York state — and the American Revolutionary War forced the relocation of the Haudenosaunee. A 1784 decree called the Haldimand Proclamation granted Six Nations six miles (about 10 kilometres) on either side of the Grand River from its mouth to its source as compensation for aiding the British during the American Revolution.
"It was a promise," she said.
The land was chosen because it was known to Haudenosaunee as part of their traditional hunting grounds.
"So we remain certain that this land is land that we have had a lasting and continual relationship with for centuries," said Atfield.
Carol Podedworny, director and chief curator at McMaster Museum of Art, said the exhibition is revolutionary and can serve as a model for museums and galleries across Canada.
"This is the first time we've done a project where community is involved and has a say as opposed to just a curator working on it, Indigenous or otherwise," Podedworny said.
Todd Williams from Six Nations was at the opening reception.
Williams was involved as an activist at 1492 Land Back Lane, a site on part of the Haldimand Tract occupied by members of Six Nations of Grand River since July 2020 to halt a now-cancelled housing development.
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