Behind the curtained-off entrance down one of the Museum of Anthropology’s long hallways, dozens of robes, beautifully designed, detail the life and history of a Haida woman and her family.
The new exhibit, I Use My Haida Eyes, will run from May 14 to Oct. 12 at the MOA. It’s a showcase of the work of Haida artist Jut-ke-Nay Hazel Wilson, an artist who designed and created 51 pieces of what she called “history robes” — wearable art that showcases aspects of her history, stories of her people and past experiences.
The exhibit’s first display, tucked around a tight corner, showed three button blankets; one was created by Hazel, one by her mother and another by her daughter, Dana Simeon, reflecting how Haida history has been transmitted matrilineally. MOA’s Curator of Pacific Northwest and Contemporary Indigenous Art, Jordan Wilson, explained that Hazel’s life’s work was very different from these blankets.
“The[se] history robes are quite a departure in a number of ways, in terms of the materials that she was using, such as acrylic paint, and all kinds of different textiles and cloth and buttons and beads and shells,” said Jordan. “But also in terms of the imagery that she depicts on each robe — they're much more representational. Each robe is depicting a specific story.”
In planning the exhibit, Jordan expressed the importance of highlighting Hazel’s voice. For each robe she made, she wrote out the story it depicted by hand, and some of this text was put on display at the start of the exhibit. Simeon explained that it was important to her to see her mom’s words on display, as her mother had always wanted the stories she shared to have a personal feel — like giving the reader the sense that “she did it for you, personally,” said Simeon.
Upon entering the exhibit, I was struck by the sheer scale and volume of these history robes. There is an enormous difference between simply reading that she constructed 51 robes between 2005 and 2006, and actually seeing all 51 of those robes, together, in the same room. It took my breath away to walk from robe to robe, experiencing each different story.
While many of the robes in the exhibit concern Hazel’s own experiences, she also used them to share stories passed down to her by elders. One such robe, entitled “Friendly Parting,” showed three Haida women speaking with three hairy creatures. The women were encouraging these creatures to flee so they would not encounter others who may not understand or respect them. Other robes in this area showed Haida sinking gold and hiding oil, so as to protect their resources and land from being taken.
Hazel deliberately did not sequence the robes as she was creating them, nor did she create them in chronological order. Because of this, robes were often grouped within the exhibit based on subject matter. One section called “The Mistake” included robes depicting early encounters with Europeans and the beginnings of settler-colonial violence. Simeon spoke about her mother’s experiences as a residential school survivor and the process of obtaining compensation for this, which were also depicted in a series of robes.
“[Residential school survivors] have to have three memories and witnesses to the abuses that they endured. And then when they go to court, they have to have three more memories. There's six memories that they have to regurgitate,” said Simeon. “I've never forced her to talk to me. I never asked her about her own past or her own stories. That was for her to share.”
Hazel sometimes wrote multiple stories for one robe, and several of her stories were given voice by Simeon and her sister Avis. Hazel’s stories can be heard at different points across the exhibit through their audio recordings. The robes were primarily made of recycled materials, often found at thrift stores. Whenever she and her mother would go into these stores, Hazel would tell Simeon to “use her Haida eyes.” Hazel explained that to look with her Haida eyes meant to imagine how items could be used again, or differently. Now, Simeon explained, she can’t enter a store without using her Haida eyes.
When I asked which robe was her favourite, Simeon immediately brought me over to one showing trucks and cars stuck in quicksand on a beach. She said she loved this piece because she remembered seeing the story it depicted take place during her childhood.
“I remember that as a little girl. When we used to all go to the beach, my whole family with our relatives,” said Simeon. “I remember hearing my uncles yelling, ‘Get off the beach. You're going to lose your car. Get off the beach.’ And people would just wave them off as we're leaving the beach. And then I just hear all my relatives laughing because they're like, ‘We tried telling you. We tried telling you, it's quicksand here.’”
Simeon said she hopes the exhibit shows people more about her family and her culture. "That's what I would like for people to understand, is that Haida — we're people. And the things you're seeing [are] part of history, part of her personal experiences.”
