Garry Gottfriedson

2021Soundings

Apr 14

(Secwépemc)
Kamloops, BC
Currently based in Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc

Land and Language
2021
Installation
Commissioned by the Kamloops Art Gallery
Collection of the Artist

Forming an exterior score for the exhibition Soundings: An Exhibition in Five Parts, presented at the Kamloops Art Gallery April 24 to July 3, 2021, this project by Garry Gottfriedson serves as a land acknowledgement for these territories.

The score contains a poem, Land and Language, translated to the language of this land, Secwepemcstín, by Elder Flora Sampson and Dr. Janice Dick-Billy, and a sound recording of the poem read in English by Garry Gottfriedson and in Secwepemcstín by Dr. Janice Dick-Billy, heard from speakers above.

The poem in both languages surrounds the shape of an elk hide with a painted pictograph in the centre, recreated from an image on a rock in this region. As Gottfriedson’s poem describes, this visual language shares ancestral stories written on rock and passed down through oral tradition. The image links the sky, land, and human figure, speaking to the interconnection of Secwepémc people to the celestial realm and the Earth.

The traditional language, Secwepemcstín, is likewise connected to the land and its people, marking a geography of harvest and sustenance. Traditional place names for this region point to important areas of water and sources of food. The shape of the elk hide, the rich red colour of the paint and deep brown background of this installation affirm the traditionally inseparable relationship between the land and people and how the language was born of this connection.

Poet, teacher, and rancher Garry Gottfriedson is a member of the Secwépemc Nation. Born into a renowned rodeo and ranching family in Kamloops, British Columbia, Gottfriedson earned an MA in education from Simon Fraser University; he also studied creative writing at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

His works include Clinging to Bone (2019); Chaos Inside Thunderstorms (2014); Skin Like Mine (2010); Whiskey Bullets (2006), a collection of cowboy and Indian heritage poems and a finalist for the Anskohk Aboriginal Award; Glass Tepee (2002), which was nominated for a First People’s Publishing Award; In Honor of Our Grandmothers: Imprints of Cultural Survival (1994); and 100 Years of Contact (1990). He is also the author of the children’s book Painted Pony (2005).