Valuable Materials, Invaluable Relationships: Exploring Indigenous Culture and Sovereignty Through Moose and Caribou Hair Tufting in the NWT
Moose and caribou hair tufting is an important Subarctic women's artform in the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories. However, tuftings and tufters have historically been identified following non-Indigenous ideologies rooted in colonialism and capitalist values, resulting in labels such as &...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Thesis |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://curve.carleton.ca/bbd9633a-c671-44ac-a984-d41852dbe70d https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2023-15422 |
id |
ftcarletonuniv:oai:curve.carleton.ca:42737 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftcarletonuniv:oai:curve.carleton.ca:42737 2023-05-15T16:55:41+02:00 Valuable Materials, Invaluable Relationships: Exploring Indigenous Culture and Sovereignty Through Moose and Caribou Hair Tufting in the NWT Wenzel, Abra 2023 https://curve.carleton.ca/bbd9633a-c671-44ac-a984-d41852dbe70d https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2023-15422 unknown https://curve.carleton.ca/bbd9633a-c671-44ac-a984-d41852dbe70d https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2023-15422 Thesis/Dissertation 2023 ftcarletonuniv https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2023-15422 2023-04-08T23:05:44Z Moose and caribou hair tufting is an important Subarctic women's artform in the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories. However, tuftings and tufters have historically been identified following non-Indigenous ideologies rooted in colonialism and capitalist values, resulting in labels such as "craft", and "artisan", that are difficult to change. This practice has undervalued, if not dismissed, Indigenous artists, their artistry and by and large their art. This dissertation takes a multi-sited approach using archival records, museum objects, and interviews with tourism shop employees, and especially with tufting artists to elucidate the complex ways artists have employed their art to traverse cultural borders. In tracing the history of tufting, I discuss how women have used their artistry as acts of agential resistance to re-assert their own cultural and place-rooted relationships and meanings in the face of centuries of colonial violations. The central objective of my research is to make clear the dimensions of significance engaged with in hair tuftings by Dene, Métis, and Inuvialuit artists. I show how important values such as skill, landscape, and culture are a connected whole that is embodied within each tufting. A second objective is to uncover how important Indigenous values were and continue to be impacted by colonization. In my early chapters, I explain how Western values were imposed on Indigenous peoples and livelihoods. Thus, the Indigenous values attached to artistic making were regarded as inferior as viewed through Western critics' lenses. Third, I discuss the ways tufters have used their creations as sites of sovereignty to continuously negotiate and challenge colonial endeavors and carry these vital knowledges and values into the future. A critical outcome of this research has been the deconstruction of the colonial spaces that have silenced Indigenous peoples and their textile creations. Here I have offered a revisionist narrative that is informed by artists, Elders, and community members to ... Thesis Inuvialuit Mackenzie Valley Northwest Territories Subarctic CURVE - Carleton University Research Virtual Environment Mackenzie Valley ENVELOPE(-126.070,-126.070,52.666,52.666) Northwest Territories |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
CURVE - Carleton University Research Virtual Environment |
op_collection_id |
ftcarletonuniv |
language |
unknown |
description |
Moose and caribou hair tufting is an important Subarctic women's artform in the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories. However, tuftings and tufters have historically been identified following non-Indigenous ideologies rooted in colonialism and capitalist values, resulting in labels such as "craft", and "artisan", that are difficult to change. This practice has undervalued, if not dismissed, Indigenous artists, their artistry and by and large their art. This dissertation takes a multi-sited approach using archival records, museum objects, and interviews with tourism shop employees, and especially with tufting artists to elucidate the complex ways artists have employed their art to traverse cultural borders. In tracing the history of tufting, I discuss how women have used their artistry as acts of agential resistance to re-assert their own cultural and place-rooted relationships and meanings in the face of centuries of colonial violations. The central objective of my research is to make clear the dimensions of significance engaged with in hair tuftings by Dene, Métis, and Inuvialuit artists. I show how important values such as skill, landscape, and culture are a connected whole that is embodied within each tufting. A second objective is to uncover how important Indigenous values were and continue to be impacted by colonization. In my early chapters, I explain how Western values were imposed on Indigenous peoples and livelihoods. Thus, the Indigenous values attached to artistic making were regarded as inferior as viewed through Western critics' lenses. Third, I discuss the ways tufters have used their creations as sites of sovereignty to continuously negotiate and challenge colonial endeavors and carry these vital knowledges and values into the future. A critical outcome of this research has been the deconstruction of the colonial spaces that have silenced Indigenous peoples and their textile creations. Here I have offered a revisionist narrative that is informed by artists, Elders, and community members to ... |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Wenzel, Abra |
spellingShingle |
Wenzel, Abra Valuable Materials, Invaluable Relationships: Exploring Indigenous Culture and Sovereignty Through Moose and Caribou Hair Tufting in the NWT |
author_facet |
Wenzel, Abra |
author_sort |
Wenzel, Abra |
title |
Valuable Materials, Invaluable Relationships: Exploring Indigenous Culture and Sovereignty Through Moose and Caribou Hair Tufting in the NWT |
title_short |
Valuable Materials, Invaluable Relationships: Exploring Indigenous Culture and Sovereignty Through Moose and Caribou Hair Tufting in the NWT |
title_full |
Valuable Materials, Invaluable Relationships: Exploring Indigenous Culture and Sovereignty Through Moose and Caribou Hair Tufting in the NWT |
title_fullStr |
Valuable Materials, Invaluable Relationships: Exploring Indigenous Culture and Sovereignty Through Moose and Caribou Hair Tufting in the NWT |
title_full_unstemmed |
Valuable Materials, Invaluable Relationships: Exploring Indigenous Culture and Sovereignty Through Moose and Caribou Hair Tufting in the NWT |
title_sort |
valuable materials, invaluable relationships: exploring indigenous culture and sovereignty through moose and caribou hair tufting in the nwt |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://curve.carleton.ca/bbd9633a-c671-44ac-a984-d41852dbe70d https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2023-15422 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-126.070,-126.070,52.666,52.666) |
geographic |
Mackenzie Valley Northwest Territories |
geographic_facet |
Mackenzie Valley Northwest Territories |
genre |
Inuvialuit Mackenzie Valley Northwest Territories Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Inuvialuit Mackenzie Valley Northwest Territories Subarctic |
op_relation |
https://curve.carleton.ca/bbd9633a-c671-44ac-a984-d41852dbe70d https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2023-15422 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2023-15422 |
_version_ |
1766046735889596416 |