ROLLBACK
By
Justin Jesse Havens
BFA, UBC 2009
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
OF
MASTER OF APPLIED ARTS

Emily Carr University of Art + Design

2016

©J. Havens, 2016

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Éy Swayel/ Shé:kon/Welcome

Before anything I want to recognize the unceded territories of the Coast Salish
Nations where the students of ECUAD study and where I have personally
resided for the last 24 years. I raise my hands in thanksgiving for everything this
land and the people have given me.

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ABSTRACT
This thesis and accompanying projects utilize and experiment with Indigenous
methods for education and art making framed by the theory of self-conscious
traditionalism. My studio work uses the strategies and techniques of contemporary art
making as a process for reconnecting and reclaiming Indigenous practice for the
purposed of presenting within cultural spaces.
The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) have a centuries-old way of
intercultural communication called wampum that stands at the intersection of oral and
written communication. Conventional wampum are shell beads woven into belts or
strings also called wampum, which use mnemonic design to stand in place of written
documents. In my practice I abstract theories associated with wampum tradition and
extrapolate their uses to a contemporary art platform for presentation and dissemination
of works to my audience.
In this paper, I document my creative process and trace the methodologies that
inform my practice, referencing art mediums and signifiers rooted in traditional practices
of production. I use found and reclaimed elements from commercial consumerist
landscapes as raw materials which after processing result in a product I label Rollback
Rawhide. By working in this way the finished projects become expressions of ancestral
heritage through design, form and the process of production. Like wampum belts the
retelling/presentation of the works attempt to operate in context-specific encounters
aiming to deliver specific information to the viewer. Whether it is in the gallery, classroom,
public space or a cultural gathering the projects attempt to operate as communicators
and even educators facilitating the kind of experiences that I believe are necessary
moving forward.

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CONTENTS
Welcome ………………………………………………………………………………………… 1
Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………..……… 2
Table of Contents …………………………………………………………………………….… 3
List of Illustrations ...……………………………………………………………………………… 4
Preface ………………………………………………………………………………………...…. 6
Part 1: Methodology ……………………………………………………………..…………..… 8
Figures 1-5 ……………………………………………………………………….…..…………… 18
Part 2: Rollback Series …………………………… ………………….………..…….………… 24
Moc Shop Drop ……………………………………………………….…..….…….…………… 25
The Bargain Hunter ………………………………………………………...…………………… 27
Rollback Drums ……………………………………………….…………..……………………... 30
Bargain Hunted ….……………………………….…………….….……….…………………… 32
Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….…………………. 35
Figures 6-31 …………………………………………………………………………..…………... 38
Works Cited ………………………………………………….…………………………………… 60

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ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURES 1 – 5
1. Field Research Trips Map …………………………………………..……………………… 19
I'tustolagalis: Rising Up, Together:
St. Michaels Residential School ………………………………………………….…………... 20
3. Splint Making Tools ……………………………………………….……………………..…... 21
4. The Bear Claw……………………………………..…………………………….………….... 21
5. The Fancy Basket ……………………………………………….………………….………... 22
6. Two Row Wampum by Tony Gonyea ……………………………………….…………... 23

FIGURES 6-30 Rollback Series
7. Haudenosaunne/Iroquois/Woodland Style Moccasins &
Woman’s Warp Skirt with Celestial Tree Design …………………..…..…..………...…... 39
8. Bargain Hunting Mocs …………..………………………………………...…….……….…... 40
9. The Moc Shop Drop……………………….………………..………………….….…………... 41
10. The Bargain Hunters ………………………………………..……….…….……….………... 42
11. The Bargain Hunter in Process ……………………………………………….………..…... 43
12. The Bargain Hunter’s Leggings ……….……………………………………….…………... 44
13. The Bargain Hunter’s Breechclout ………………………………………………..……..... 44
14. Colene Bins. Regalia
Commuter, Communication, Connect, Creation ………………………….………… 45
15. Cornhusk Doll T-Shirt Design …………………………………………………...…………... 46
16. Three Sisters Cornhusk Dolls ……………………………...…………………….…………... 46
17. Thomas B. Maracle. Cornhusk Doll ……………………………………………………….. 47
18. Processing Rollback Rawhide 1 ……………………………………………….………….. 48

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19. Processing Rollback Rawhide 2 ……………………………………………….………...... 48
20. Rollback Rawhide: shoes, bands, tassels ………………………..………….…………... 49
21. The Rollback Stack ……………………………………………….………………………..... 50
22. Bargain Hunting Drums:
Beaver Pelt, Deer Rawhide, Rollback Rawhide …………………………………...…... 51
23. George Neptune, GMO Indian Corn ………………………………………….……….... 52
24. The Bargain Hunted Heron ……………………………………………….………………... 53
25. Bargain Hunted Heron in Detail …………………………………………………………... 54
26. Heron Encountered in the Woods near Chehalis ……………………………………... 55
27. The Fancy Baskets of Gail Tremblay ……………………………....……………….…….. 56
28. Bargain Hunted Buck ……………………………………………….…………………..…... 57
29. The Bargain Hunted Buck Detail ……………………………………………….…..……... 58
30. The Buck in Process. Mirrored with Field Dressed Deer ……….………………….…… 58
31. The Buck Framed ……………………………………………….……………………………. 59

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Preface
The Iroquois are a thousand year old confederacy made up of six different nations:
the Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, Tuscarora and the Mohawk. I am person of
Haudenosaunee-Mohawk and Scottish-Canadian ancestry and a status member of the
Six Nations of the Grand River, Mohawk Bear Clan. I spent my younger years living on and
close to land called the Haldeman Tract in modern Ontario. This is a region granted to the
Six Nations after the American Revolution for the purpose of resettlement from our
ancestral homelands in what is now New York State. Since adolescence I have moved
between Musqueam, Sto:lo, and Haida territories continuing to practice and identify with
cultural ways of the Haudenosaunee as well as practices belonging to the communities in
which I reside. Up to the point of graduate study my institutional educational experiences
have not included significant curricula on Indigenous histories, theories or perspectives.
My aim throughout this degree was to change just that with a specific focus to rediscover
culturally significant knowledge from within my own nation.
Since beginning this research a number of significant events have been taking
place across North America which spurred me to continue this work. Events like the
Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, The National Inquiry into Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women and the Canadian government finally removing its
objector status from the UN Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as
grassroots movements like Idle No More, Wet'suwet'un efforts at Unis’tot’en Camp to
block liquefied natural gas development, as well as efforts to prevent oil pipelines and
resource extraction in Haida Gwaii, Standing Rock and many other communities
throughout North America and South America. In addition to these events, I also pay
close attention to local and provincial measures to implement and Indigenize
educational curricula and institutional systems at elementary through post-secondary

7
levels. I feel it is necessary as an Indigenous person living and working within cultural
spaces to further educate myself on issues and histories informing these happenings so
that I might better communicate to my peers, students and community with confidence
from a cultural standpoint.
My investigations have involved experiencing, being witness, and researching the
societal systems that have contributed over centuries and continue today to produce
inequalities experienced by Indigenous nations and peoples across North America.
Furthermore, the work compelled me to acknowledge my own complicity with colonial
structures that continue to distance populations, including myself, from culturally
significant Indigenous practices and ideologies. The projects in The Rollback Series are the
result of holistic educational opportunities and I believe operate, via contemporary art
making and presentation, as forms for reconnecting and reclaiming cultural spaces for
both myself, the maker, but also for the audiences they serve.

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ROLLBACK
Part 1: Methodology
The processes of colonization and decolonization are impacting current
conversations and relationships between Indigenous and settler populations both
individually and collectively. For me, healing from colonial projects begins by first
returning to and relearning traditions, reconstructing historical narratives and
reconnecting in culturally significant ways to forms of traditional society and practice.
Taiaiake Alfred calls this practice self-conscious traditionalism (SCT) in his book Peace
Power and Righteousnes, arguing that transposing and adjusting traditional concepts to
best suit modern day reality is what forms the basis of sound communities (16). The title
of this paper, Rollback, references both the body of works created for this thesis but also
the process of employing SCT to my art-making pedagogy. Additionally I see the title
referencing the form my research took, which involved traveling around North America
by car over the course of two years (see FIGURE 1). During these travels I went to great
efforts to encounter as many Indigenous arts, artists and culturally significant locations as
time would allow. Additionally I used my car as a space for learning by listening to a
great many lectures related to my academic interests and held many intense
discussions with my contemporaries who joined me along the road. This kind of field
research has allowed me to study issues in education reform, culturally relevant art
making process and design and the ability to parse individual and societal notions
around Indigeneity.
Before ceremony Elders ask: “What is your intention?” I must ask myself the same
question when I consider my overall practice and put simply my intention is this; I am
here to develop as storyteller through art making. My practice spans several disciplines

9
and the thread which ties these disciplines together is sharing through narratives. The
Indigenous storyteller is and always has been part educator, artist, historian and
entertainer. My work as an art maker and storyteller is aligned with principles of SCT as it
also attempts to employ the Haudenosaunee cultural practice known as “wampum” in
order to utilize theories rooted in layers of tradition. By informing audiences about
contemporary Indigeneity I hope my work will continue to disrupt the constructed
image of “The Imaginary Indian” which was created and continues in the imaginations
of many North Americans (Crosby 2011, Francis 1992, Pearce 1988, Berkhofer1978).
Countless scholars and artists alike speak to the image of this homogenous “Indian” and
how it comes to be the primary semblance within the mindset of society today.
The constructed image still continues to consist of stereotypes emerging from
collective imaginings and fears in which “Indians” together with authentic First Nations
culture are othered from Eurocentric America (Crosby 2011, King 2003, Francis 1992). For
instance, when I use terminology like “storyteller” even in the context of contemporary
Indigeneity, it still likely conjures up for the colonized mind a kind of mythic figure
associated with the constructed view referenced above; however storytelling and
storytellers today stand apart from that stereotypical convention and remain vibrant
elements in contemporary First Nations art and culture. Looking back to my journeys
around North America I can safely say there are more storytellers today communicating
through reinterpreted ways of telling personal and cultural stories from within Indigenous
culture to our people as well as to the wider public. I witnessed many Haudenosaunee
artists like Shelley Niro, Alan Michelson, Greg Staats, Marie Watt and Katsitsionni Fox
exhibiting in galleries and museums across the continent1 alongside artists such as

1 Niro, Shelley. The Shirt. 2014. Video. The Native Film Festival, Palm Springs. & The Shirt. 2015. Photograph

Series. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Michelson, Alan. TwoRow II. 2013. Installation. Museum of
Anthropology. Vancouver, BC. Staats, Greg. Artist in Residence. 2014. Art Gallery of Ontario. Watt, Marie.
Mound Builder. 2015. Installation. SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM. Fox, Katsitsionni. Under the Husk. 2016. Toronto
Imaginenative Film Festival.

10
Rebecca Belmore, Christi Belcourt, Brian Jungen, Terrance Houle, Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas or Nicolas Galanin.
In his seminal lecture series The Truth About Stories (2003), and in his book The
Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America (2012),
Thomas King talks about the complexities relating to modern day Indigeneity. He asserts
that although progress is being made on every level the cowboy and Indian dichotomy
remains very much alive in the mindset, institutions and territories of North America.
Decolonizing is a global initiative and it concerns all population demographics. North
America could achieve balance with proper education and institutional systems that
achieve cross cultural exchange, mutual respect, and calls for peace and
understanding. I was honoured to witness the success and connection made by such
efforts in February 2015 while attending I'tustolagalis: Rising Up, Together, a community
resiliency celebration sponsored by the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
in partnership with the Namgis First Nation at Alert Bay, BC. This event was witnessed by
four thousand people and included the emotional destruction of St. Michaels
Residential School (1929-1975) (FIGURE 2) and afterward community healing which took
place in the longhouse at the I'tustolagalis Potlatch.
Scholars I encountered early in the program such as Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2013,
2015), Jo-anne Archibald (2008), Shawn Wilson (2008) and Ken Robinson speak about
education reform and alternate pedagogies. Robinson brings to light in his lecture
Educating the Heart and Mind (2011) how alternate education can move away from
mechanistic and data driven curriculums to reflect individualism with focus on
personalized, experiential learning, creative thinking, collaboration and mutual support.
My research methodology finds strong affinities between Robinson’s suggested model
with Indigenous ways for conducting oneself and academic work as outlined by Smith,
Archibald and Wilson. The holistic research I undertook comes from utilizing Smiths,

11
Wilsons and Archibald’s premise for using story and cultural principles of “Indigenous
Ways of Knowing” (IWK) such as respect, relevance, reciprocity and responsibility (4R’s).
By focusing on Indigenous artists and thinkers that speak to interests like Indigenous
governance, ecology, sustainability, self-determination, social justice, cultural
resurgence and wampum I was able to integrate IWK through experiential and holistic
experiences. The works of Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun are
especially inspirational in that I find their brazen voices and aesthetics to be potent,
empowering, tenacious, and also funny. Both artists often successfully create uneasiness
in their audience pointing the finger at society rather than individuals to generate
discourse which forces audiences to recognize colonial structures which persist and
require debate.
Aligning my practice with such Indigenous ideologies is a direct attempt to form
ways of research, production and dissemination that come from within Indigenous
culture. Leanne Simpson emphasizes how traditional knowledge remains an unbroken
chain and we have certain responsibilities as Indigenous people to access those ways
of working. She affirms that traditional knowledge holds everything we need to survive
and it is essential for us to use and pass on practices for the sake of our grandchildren
and the following generations (Simpson, 2013). Taiaiake Alfred reiterates “the only way
we can survive [as distinct peoples] is to recover our strength, our wisdom and our
solidarity by honouring and revitalizing the core of our traditional teachings” (Alfred
2009, 29). By incorporating Haudenosaunee cultural knowledge such as wampum, I
endeavor to educate not only myself but also my audience through public
presentation. Jo-Anne Archibald says in Indigenous Storywork: Educating the Heart,
Mind Body and Spirit “Knowledge only becomes truly useful when it is passed on(134).” I
choose to pass on what I have learned through the making and display of objects,
installations or performance acts.

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When learning and working within IWK, many scholars and Elders mention that
everything the researcher does should be done with a good heart and good mind by
employing cultural principles like the 4 R’s which act as filters for the researchers actions.
The principles ensure work is relevant on many levels, not only to the self but also to
family, community and the nation (Archibald, 11). In FIGURE 3 we see a drawer of
th

Haudenosaunee tools at the New York State Museum dating from the 18 Century.
These tools were used in the production of black ash splint weaving materials. In FIGURE
4 we see the subsequent and similar tool I created and call “the bear claw” which was
built after “bargain hunting2” for my construction materials. I see the bear claw tool as a
successful example this research methodology on small scale; the resulting tool saves
countless hours in the studio when making similar splints for my weavings which are also
modelled on Iroquoian splint baskets (FIGURE 5).
The materials I use in my contemporary art practice draw attention to the
excesses created by the capitalist system. There was a time when Indigenous culture
was self-supporting using the resources from the land; everything we needed was
already in front of us. To a certain degree within my practice this previous statement
remains true, only the resources have changed, the tradition is being transposed. The
common materials I find are the leftovers of consumerism. Scholar of Haudenosaunee
art, Neal Keating states in his book Iroquois Art, Power and History, “Creative use of
tradition to adapt to the world is never fully without contradiction. The object of
adaptation is, after all, to do what works best” (Keating, 281). Haudenosaunee novelist
and visual artist Eric Gansworth acknowledges that “one cannot speak of mobilizing
any Native American tradition without also locating the contexts of colonization in
which it occurs (Keating, 280). There are cognitive contradictions that Indigenous artists
2

“Bargain Hunting” is a sort of wisecrack at predetermined perceptions of “The Imaginary Indian.” The
term in this context came about after a hilarious yet influential conversation with my friend Gracie Kelly
concerning modern day Indigeneity which became the spark of initial interest for this body of work.

13
today negotiate when looking at what aspects of tradition we choose to employ. For
me, reinvented rawhide is made from petroleum membrane and forms the skin of a
drum or plastics are prepped and stretched in transposed tradition; my connection to
culture is being strengthened through the practice of making in these ways. I choose
work with petroleum plastics as a material because using the material I feel reflects
reality today while also making use of traditional values like innovation and honouring
ancestral knowledge, which at the same time links me to urban landscapes in ways the
conventional materials link weavers to traditional territory. This is the essence of selfconscious traditionalism at work.
If we look at visual storywork3 from the Haudenosaunee, we witness a long history
of a certain art object called wampum. Wampum is a way of disseminating information
and making political alliances using mnemonics and narrative to communicate with the
audience, consequently I see promising possibilities for expanding the theory to the
given circumstances of my practice. The traditional practice of wampum observes
white and purple beads of shell (also called wampum) strung into strands and belts inorder to deliver to the receiver important messages through narrative encounters. Using
mnemonic signifiers in often pictorial representation (in the case of wampum belts),
wampum can be read to an audience by the maker or interpreter. We first see
wampum’s sacred use in the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace as a form of
condolence, mourning and healing4 (Hill, 2016). Artist Greg Staats takes up this form of
the wampum theory for his conceptual art making practice, which employs wampum
as a source for transformation and recovery from intergenerational trauma
(Nahwegahbow). Rick Hill writes about this form of wampum in the catalogue for
3 Archibald, Jo-ann. Indigenous Storywork: Educating the Heart, Mind, Body and Spirit.

Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008. Archibald coins the term “storywork” in her pedagogical research on narrative
methods of IWK.
4 Hill, Rick. Conversations in Cultural Fluency Webinar- Part Four: Hodinohson:ni Governance, The Great Law
of Piece and the Good Mind. Deyohaha:ge: Six Nations Polytechnic. Ohsweken. 2016. -Hiawatha uses the
making of wampum to ease his mind after his relatives are killed.

14
Condolence (2009) by Staats “I would take these shell strings in my hand and console
them. The strings would become words and lift away the darkness with which they are
covered. Holding these in my hand, my words would be true” said Hyenwatha. At the
edge of darkness, Hayenwatha condoled himself with the thoughts, words and actions
he invented.” (Hill 2011, 6)
Additionally wampum has links with commerce when, for a time, it was used as a
type of currency around the Great Lakes and the St Lawrence, Hudson and Mississippi
River territories between Indigenous nations but also between colonial powers during
th

th

the 16 and 17 centuries (Shell). It is perhaps most commonly known outside the
Haudenosaunee as an object of treaty making between Indigenous Nations and
colonizing forces (Hill, Navigating 2016). “For northeastern Native Nations wampum
beads and belts were the main diplomatic tools for negotiating and recording treaties…
Wampum was so crucial to a successful treaty that American officials would at times
put off treaty councils until the proper number (fifty to one hundred thousand) of
wampum beads could be acquired and woven into proper belts.” (Hill 2014, 42)
Keating notes in Iroquois Art, Power and History that this expanded communication
usage of wampum likely came about when the production of beads skyrocketed “with
the advent of new Dutch technologies (iron drills, Indigenous slave labour)” that made it
popular to produce the larger belt compositions (Keating 280). Within Haudenosaunee
society wampum continues to contain more sacred and ceremonial meanings; used
throughout Iroquoia for thousands of years5 it functions within The Grand Council of the
Haudenosaunee as someone’s credentials or certificate of office (T.Hill, 2015). Today

5 Corbiere, Alan Ojiig. The Underlying Importance of Wampum Belts…. Chippewas of Rama First Nation.

March 30, 2015. - Both Corbiere and Keating mention how the use of wampum can be traced back about
two thousand years, explaining linguists of Algonquin and Tuscarora languages note the root words for
“shell bead of wampum” are at least that that old.

15
wampum belts and the beads are also commercially available in tourist shops, craft fairs
and online where a finished belt operates as an educational method to teach and
remind people of who we are through the mnemonics of wampum theory. Artist Alan
Michelson produced a video instillation called Two-Row (2005) taking a wampum belt
of the same name, which was exchanged between the Haunenosaunee Confederacy
and the Dutch in the 17th century (Hill, Navigating), and reorients the mnemonics of the
original belt to question current Indigenous-settler relationships in the modern day
Grand River territory.
For artists like Staats, Michelson and myself the wampum tradition continues to be
a sacred form of conceptualized storywork; in wampum readings, “connections are
made and relationships formed” (Skye). Rick Hill makes the point in Nation to Nation:
Linking Arms and Brightening the Chain that wampum encounters were and continue to
be at the intersection of oral and written methods of communication due to the fact
that wampum belts can also be considered forms of scripture that have to be
interpreted by a person to the audience (Hill 2014, 44). Tradition also dictates that within
traditional wampum exchanges, as with the most well-known belt called The Two-Row
Wampum (FIGURE 6), often heartfelt calls for peace and greater understanding are
given (Hill 2014, Hirsch 59). In a lecture at Six Nations Polytechnic titled Rethinking the
Two Row Wampum Hill explains that the Two-Row belt today remains a living document
that “embodies the hopes of our ancestors” and “is the source of our wisdom” in
regards to the relationship between the Haudenosaunee and settler populations (Hill,
Rethinking.) The mnemonics in the Two-Row belt depict two purple rows to represent
two separate vessels (holding our beliefs and our laws) traveling along two similar yet
separate paths, neither coming into conflict with the other. The white background of
this belt is divided by the purple rows whereby creating three white rows representing
peace, friendship and respect. These white spaces also create a metaphysical chain

16
which links our cultures together indefinitely. Hill continues to speak about how the chain
requires polishing in order for it (our relationships) to remain strong (Hill, Rethinking) So
what happens when people today have a foot in each vessel?
The Rollback Series are made in response to such dialogues and looks at
narratives that are shaping the future of North America. By looking critically at personal
experiences and societal processes in which I participate, I am speaking to political
issues through the projects where I employ wampum as a method for sharing learned
information. Like historical wampum my works carry messages that speak about
relationships concerning consumerism, capitalism and commercialization, particularly
settling onto reservations. Lectures and writings from scholars like Taiaiake Alfred and
Glen Coulthard speak about economic development on tribal lands and the
implications this has to further colonize and distance indigenous populations from our
traditional ideologies through profit driven economic relationships (Coulthard 2013,
Alfred 2010).
Through conversation with Elder Raymond Skye I came to understand there is a
sincerity which takes shape within a wampum exchange and the people present during
the reading should leave a little bit different than when they arrived. The challenge for
me at the time of this thesis is how to best communicate this wampum information
within the context of the gallery. As revealed through public critiques as well as
individual conversation6 many of the narrative signifiers in the Rollback works were
picked up on and deciphered by a number of various audiences. I am excited to
6 The Bargain Hunted Buck, Five Rollback Drums and Bargain Hunting Mocs were exhibited alongside my

graduating cohort in the MAA-Lowres exhibition at the Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver BC with public
critique July 21, 2016 and multiple conversations about the works throughout the exhibition. Also on
exhibition The Bargain Hunter II and Bargain Hunted Heron II from May-August 2016 at the Kariton Gallery,
Abbotsford where I was Artist in Residence for 8 weeks leading up to the MAA intensive. I spoke with the
public every Friday during the residency and gave several artist talks throughout the city. Additionally from
June-August 2016 The Bargain Hunters Accoutrements (Gustoweh and Gorget) were on display in First
Nations Art 2016 at The Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ont. Finally, in April 2016 The Heron and Moc
Shop Drop were exhibited in Edmonton, AB at DC3 Art Projects where I gave a Rollback artist talk on April
23, 2016 for Between Among and Away Symposium presented by the University of Alberta, Art and Design
Graduate Student Association.

17
report that Wampum protocol for public readings also takes similar form to that of art
critiques, whereby the receiver of the wampum is asked to explain their understanding
of the mnemonics first, after which the interpreter responds by telling their version of the
mnemonics contained in the object (Corbiere).
Leroy Little Bear argues that North Americans live in a de-cultured space, stating
that the majority of populations do not have traditional knowledge from the land on
which they live (Little Bear 2015). For instance many people today still do not know the
name of the nation whose traditional territories they currently occupy. I come from a
situation that is not unique for Indigenous peoples today: I grew up in that kind of urban
environment with knowledge of my cultural background, but essentially removed from
appropriate cultural traditions and ideologies due to the legacies of colonial projects
and education systems. Durring the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
Justice Murray Sinclair established that everyone in Canada has been affected by
colonial projects which continue to represent First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples as set
apart from the rest of the Canadian mainstream and that now everyone must take on
the burden to fix it (Sinclaire 2014). For these reasons I feel it is important to share
traditions such as wampum and weaving within the gallery space because they are
fundamental to maintaining Indigenous culture and strengthen a sense of place within
the audience and community.
Finally, I see the Rollback works as questioning the ways wampum theory can
move beyond the traditional form of an identifiable wampum belt. By experimenting
with wampum theory I also hope for Haudenosaunee and others to make connections
to a notion of the wampum tradition in a new way. In this way the works maintain a
trajectory toward self-conscious traditionalism and become my way of passing on what
has been learned from the experiential research.

18

Figures 1-6

METHODOLOGY

19

FIGURE 1: Field Research Trips. Through 2014-2016 I traveled around North America in my Hyundai
Accent trusting that significant interactions would take place if I attended as many research relevant
locations, events and people as my time would allow. Often colleagues with similar interests would
join as travel/research companions for weeks at a time. Additionally we turned my car into a
classroom by hearing many lectures from scholars pertaining to my research.

20

FIGURE 2: I'tustolagalis Rising Up, Together, February 2015. Emotions run high with singing, praying, cheering, yelling,
crying and healing as an excavator takes to the front doors of St Mike's Residential School (1929-1975) which was
located next to the U’mista Cultural Centre, Namgis First Nation, Alert Bay BC. Photo by Jay Havens. Used with
permission.

21

th

th

FIGURE 3: Splint Making Tools. 17 -19 Century. New York State Museum, Albany, NY. Photo by Jay Havens.
Used with permission

FIGURE 4: Jay Havens. The Bear Claw with Rollback Rawhide made into ribbons. 2016. Wooden spatula, razor
blades, electrical tape, hot glue. Splint making tool. Kariton Studio, Abbotsford BC. Photo by Jay Havens.
Used with permission.

22

A.

B.

th

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FIGURE 5: The Fancy Basket. 19 & 20 century. Haudenosaunee baskets made of black ash splints. A.
Iroquois Indian Museum, Howes Cave NY. Phto by Jay Havens. Used with permission B. New York State
Museum, Albany, NY. Photo by Jay Havens. Used with permission

23

FIGURE 6: Tony Gonyea. Two Rod Wampum. 2014. Ceramic Wampum Beads, leather, Sinew. New York
State Museum. Photo by Jay Havens. Used with permission.

24

PART 2: The Rollback Series

The methodology outlined above takes physical form with a number of projects
making up The Rollback Series. I engage primarily with issues of commodification of
Indigenous forms, commercialization and corporate interests moving onto band land
and transposing traditional practices to contemporary art making platforms. The term
“rollback” has been appropriated from the marketing campaign of Wal-Mart in which
the company claims to “rollback everyday prices” thereby saving consumers like you
and me valuable money. The series finds precedent in traditional practices such as
basket, moccasin and regalia making, however this body of work employs the use of
contemporary materials with charged meanings. Projects like these are intended to
function in several different spaces, with different kinds of audiences.
First, the projects are intended to operate in conventional gallery spaces where
one could encounter the works in the arena intended for public display with little
distraction from an outside world. Museums and galleries are delicate spaces with
complicated histories of Indigenous representation. Kent Monkman and Wendy Redstar
are two Indigenous artist who take up the anachronistic language of the museum,
mocking and reinventing institutional display of the diorama where First Nations are
objectified, romanticized and/or presented as vanishing or extinct7. As I continue to
produce more and increase the scale of my projects I see The Rollback Series, especially
in displays like The Buck, demonstrating a move toward similar ways of thinking about
presentation. The dioramas that I witnessed on my journeys in many of the institutions
across the continent were often unsettling because they continue to represent the same

7 Red Star, Wendy. The Four Seasons. Installation. 2014. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Monkman, Kent. Bête Noire. Installation. 2014. SITE Santa Fe.
Monkman, Kent. Two Kindred Spirits. Installation. 2012.

25
stale narrative using repeated primitive characters, often performing domestic duties; it
excites me to disrupt this kind of representation with the characters and sculptures I
endeavour to create.
The second space intended for The Rollback Series is a public venue wherein my
work makes interjections into the everyday experience of an unintended audience
already occupying a designed and mediated space such as retail locations and
department stores. Consumerism is a way of life today and many people, including
Indigenous persons, persistently shop for best deals feeling elated even victorious when
they succeed is purchasing a bargain. I feel it is important for greater understanding of
settler/Indigenous issues to reach people who attend spaces like a Wal-Mart especially
when greater numbers of these commercial locations are opening across the continent
on Indigenous territories. Thus I see these retail spaces as rich environments for my work to
perform a gesture which provokes questions regarding current understandings of
Indigenous settler relationships.
The third space in which The Rollback Series are intended to operate is a formal
learning environment. This is a space where the works stand as integrated teaching tools
educating and interacting with focused participants. They are mnemonic objects that
target specific narratives and layered lessons meant to stir interactive discussion from
witnesses. In these kinds of reiterations I can clearly make connection to the wampum
tradition and use the works in more formal wampum exchanges.

THE MOC SHOP DROP
First Nations, Metis and Inuit in Canada and the United States have long histories of
commerce with other tribal nations and have successfully interacted with western based
business dating back to first contact and the following years of partnership with
corporate entities such as the Hudson’s Bay Company. Despite these companies’

26
exploitative nature and appropriation of tribal lands their success was crucially
dependent Indigenous co-operation. In recent decades, as the current decolonial era
materialized out of darker times, large scale commercialized and consumer zones have
been making space on Indigenous reservations located near and in larger urban areas.
These developments no doubt bring some economic benefit to the nations however
they also further remove the people from cultural ideologies and practices which remain
8

at risk due to the effects of the neocolonial era (Alfred, 2014). While I stand and witness
westernization and globalization progressing to reservation territories around me through
partnership making with monolithic corporations such as Wal-Mart, works like The Moc
Shop Drop remind consumers that where they shop remains designated Aboriginal
territory. Some of the early works of Terrance Houle like Urban Indian Series (2005) also
focus on retail spaces as a place for contemporary Indigenous practice. The Breakfast
Series (2006) by Sonny Assu additionally draws focus to consumer capitalism and the
influence on First Nations youth and food resources. For The Moc Shop Drop I leave a pair
of Haudenosaunee style moccasins (FIGURE 7) made from a petroleum-based-leatherlike material I call Rollback Rawhide (FIGURES 8, 9) in the commercial consumerist
landscape asking for contemplation from the shopper/audience who might encounter
them on the racks or placed within a display. These commercial spaces are, in my
opinion, a kind of a colonial façade acting as smoke screens to a series of complicated
histories and relationships most of us know little about. In contrast, when we enter other
racialized communities in North American urban areas, take Chinatowns for instance,
there are often visual cues and reminders of the people who occupy that place:
everything from advertising, signage and food options - to products being sold and the
architecture witnessed become signifiers of belonging for cultures and traditions different
8

Keating, Neal B. Iroquois Art, Power and History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2012. Print:
Keating breaks Iroquoian history into four distinct eras; The Era of Autonomy: Time Immemorial – 1535
CE, The Colonial Era: 1535-1800, The Neocolonial Era 1800-1950 and The Decolonizing Era 1950-Present.

27
from Eurocentric Canada. So why, more times than not, is there no significant
acknowledgement of place in the commercial spaces on the reservation? All too often
signifiers do not exist in the spaces I am referencing and when they do, many times they
actually move to further solidify the image of the “Imaginary Indian” by erroneously
presenting the individuality of the nation. I am therefore attempting to indigenize this kind
of commercial zone through small acts of activism attempting to make utterances into
the everyday experience of shoppers by offering a moment to question the
understanding of place.

THE BARGAIN HUNTER
The Bargain Hunter I (FIGURE 10) suggests economic growth brought to First
Nations through the appearance of big box stores to band land. His arms raised high The
Bargain Hunter I is meant to evoke a kind of celebratory mood through his stance while
on the other hand activate something more complicated in the audience by using a
politically charged material such as branded petroleum bags in place of conventional
textiles. Bargain Hunter pokes fun at the kinds of museum displays where Natives are
portrayed as peoples from a distant past with unchanging traditions. The Bargain
Hunter’s body is made from a plastic cling-wrap shell cast from a close friend who works
in the education system. Adding another mnemonic to this piece, we stuffed the figure
with torn up outdated history textbooks which also present the Eurocentric vison of
Canadian history (FIGURE 11.) The Bargain Hunter wears a version of Haudenosaunee
th

regalia which dates back to the 18 century (Hartman, 73). Many Haudenosaunee
continue to wear this type of regalia in dances, to longhouse and in ceremonies such as
weddings or graduations to signify cultural connection and nation affiliations. This kind of
regalia typically includes appliquéd beadwork displaying Haudenosaunee cosmology
featuring iconography like the Sky Dome (FIGURE 12), Waterworld before humans, the

28
Great Turtle, the Three Sisters and the Celestial Tree as seen in FIGURE 13 (Lyford, 82-97).
From the 19th century onward this type of Iroquois regalia maintains a somewhat
constant silhouette: only the materials and tools of construction have shifted dramatically
from generation to generation; leather becomes cotton and for me cotton becomes
plastic (Hartman, 1). Coleen Bins is a contemporary artist from the Oneida Nation also
making regalia which reflect contemporary narrative through materiality and design. In
Bins 2012 work titled Commuter, Communication, Connect, Creation (FIGURE 14) she
plays with urban iconography to stand in place of the traditional beaded designs. Many
Canadians have no idea that urban environments are on traditional land or that
reservations exist within many Canadian cities. Mainstream Canada’s collective mindset
still imagines Indigenous space primarily being “the rez,” which is how history and modern
society continue to present us. The rez in this mindset remains regulated to the fringes of
community; after all to remain separate from the rest of Canadia was the original
intention the reservation. However, urban sprawl and resource expansion have also
reached these territories and now corporations are looking to reservations with hungry
eyes. Dene scholar, Glen Coulthard argues against these kinds of developments saying,
“Authentic freedom for colonized people can only occur through transformative
practices where colonial identities are shed. Without the process of desubjectification
Indigenous people will be limited to colonial forms”(Coulthard 2013). Cree academic
Shalene Jobin continues this line of thought when she states,
When looking at the idea of market citizenship, especially during this era of selfgovernment, I see indigenous people striving for self-determination within the
Canadian state. We are being pushed into foreign versions of citizenship based on
values of the market. This is directly impacting communal ideologies and
relationships with the land (Jobin).
The Rollback Series attempts to redirect the public’s assumptions about what
reservations might be today especially when we predominantly see media focusing on
Indigenous territories mainly when they are in crisis situations.

29
The Bargain Hunter I & II likewise employ the Haudenosaunee signifier of the
cornhusk doll (FIGURE 15). The cornhusk doll was originally a toy with accompanying
narratives binding the object to cultural teachings of universal beauty and community
support. Today cornhusk dolls are enjoyed as culturally relevant décor typically
presented in small dioramas referencing cultural activities from the past and present.
They are popular items most often sold in gift shops, at powwows, craft fairs and also
displayed in museums (FIGURE 16). During my journey I encountered two artists using
cornhusk dolls within a gallery space; the first, recommended to me by Shelley Niro, is
Elizabeth Doxtator, located in Ohsweken, Six Nations. Doxtator uses cornhusk dolls in her
paintings and installations as a form for personal healing and finding cultural strength, in
her work she draws attention to atrocities like the residential schools and
intergenerational trauma. The second is Thoman B. Maracle from Tyendinaga, who
makes a series of small to large scale dreamlike or surrealist inspired cornhusk dolls
wearing traditional stone masks inspired by the medicine societies of the
Haudenosaunee called the False Face (FIGURE 17).
Returning to The Bargain Hunter, I see him as mischievous on some level by way of
posing questions to the audience but refusing to answer them. Why is he is dressed in
9

plastic? What is has he been shopping for? I see myself as The Bargain Hunter in some
ways because he is born from my experiences where I enact contemporary Indigeneity
as a consumer at the retail locations where I may use my federal status. The bags which
make up the 2015 and 2016 reiterations of The Bargain Hunter and The Bargain Hunted
have been sourced from retail locations on a number of reservations near and around
Vancouver, BC. I used bags from only the larger retail chains and multinational
corporations that also have presence in mainstream North America. These larger

9

The Bargain Hunter delineates the figure is Mohawk by the position of three feathers in the gustoweh
headdress.

30
businesses tend to push out smaller locally owned enterprise and shift power away from
the community.
The Bargain Hunter further engages with consumerist practices as the installation
employs a merchandising strategy for display whereby the figure is dressed up and
posed as a mannequin might be within a retail location or store window. For The Bargain
Hunter II at the Kariton Gallery in Abbotsford the figure has been repositioned into a
seated posture with his right arm raised in the motion of playing a Rollback Drum.
Recognizable branding continues to complicate works where rawhide and articles of
clothing on The Bargain Hunter display logos like Swiss Chalet and Save-On Food
standing in place of patterned calico shirts or perhaps Wal-Mart bags take the place of
leather and wool for the leggings and breechclout.10

THE ROLLBACK DRUMS
The Rollback Drums are my first experimentation into a material exploration of highdensity polyethylene (HDPE2) to produce the product I now call Rollback Rawhide.
However during early experiments and over the rest of the MAA program I found the
process of gathering materials and making the work was forming new relationships
through interaction with the community around me. I spoke with hundreds of peoples of
all ages and from all walks of life at artist residencies, symposia and throughout my travels
even at retail locations about my work11. What became clear to me was that many
people have the similar certain expectations regarding Indigenous art, which are
inextricable from their views on Indigenous peoples. Within these views, Indigenous art
must perform exquisite craftsmanship of handmade ceremonial and domestic objects or
10 Breechclout: the strip of material or leather which passes between the legs and is tied at the waist. A

loincloth.
11 The Wal-Mart at Eagles Landing on the Squiala Nation in Chilliwack donated excess bags which came

back with customer returns yielding entire bins of 2-300 bags with each visit. I estimate 1,400 bags have
been processed to construct the works in the 2015-2016 exhibitions.

31
clothing, which reflect cosmology art or the natural environment within the design. When
I began to align my practice with self-conscious traditionalism I was interested in
producing a body of that took up those preconceived notions of Indigenous art but
which also confounded those expectations in some way. When I looked around my
house at the excess visible there I imagined how any conventional material might have
been innovative at some point in time. Returning to tradition and learning the processes
of production is also a move toward an older way of being and yet the maintaining a
conscious engagement with the larger society. Alfred claims this is what exorcising an
authentic Indigeneity today is all about (Alfred 2010). Shopping bags have been used in
expressing urban Indigenous perspectives before with a body of work by Seneca artist G.
Peter Jemison who also uses paper shopping in Fur Trade (1986) to speak about
consumer loyalty, economics and brand recognition in relation to traditional clan
identities, Neal Keating says of Jemison’s work,
His experiments with paper bags, [began when] he noticed while riding the
subway that everyone carried some sort of bag, and that bags often marked the
owners’ identities … Familiar with the long trajectory of the bag as (as form) in
Native American history, Jemison began to appropriate shopping bags and alter
them with images and designs inspired by his observations and experiences as a
Seneca person living in the contemporary world.” Keating continues “Shopping
bags do not convey the kind of exclusivity often inherent in fine art. Anyone can
look at a bag without feeling alienated, because everyone, Native and NonNative, uses them. (Keating, 255)
I also see the way myself and Jemison use shopping bags alluding to larger narratives
referencing modern trade relations, environmentalism and commodification. Applying a
self-conscious traditionalist view on these work Jemison has taken traditional principles of
In my early experiments processing HDP2 shopping bags into Rollback Rawhide I
took note that I was drawing on previous knowledge obtained from involvement with
cedar based cultures living in the Pacific Northwest and was combining this knowledge
with the Woodland techniques of processing black ash which I was researching through
various media, during my travels, and in books like Black Ash Baskets by Jonathan Kline,

32
Seneca Splint Basketry by Marjorie Lismer or Kathleen Mundells, North by Northeast:
Wabanaki, Akwesasne, Mohawk and Tuscarora Traditional Arts. In the conventional
methods of both cultures processing starts with retrieving tree fibres which over a series of
steps like soaking, softening and splitting are tooled to eventually become the workable
material that can be utilized in any number of ways. I begin processing Rollback Rawhide
by manipulating “raw” petroleum material (the bags) through by first trimming, then
layering 20-40 layers thick, heat bonding, and then finally softening the cooled petroleum
sheet by hand (FIGURE 17). After some time the new leather- like sheet of material
(FIGURE 18) is functional in a number of applications such as textiles for moccasins and
regalia (FIGURE 19), perhaps split into ribbons for weaving using the aforementioned bear
claw tool (FIGURE 3) or to be stretched as rawhide might be over a cedar hoop and
made into drums (FIGURE 20).
The drum is an object with vast and varied teachings associated with its usage in
many nations. I was first taught by Sto:lo Elder Ray Silver that we should look at the drum
as a tool and to respect its sacred meaning because he was told it more than an
instrument. The drum is the heartbeat. The drum holds space representing the heartbeat
of everything from humans to animals to the universe. However the drum also has
become a commodity; today drums are used as canvas for painting bought and sold by
galleries and tourist shops across the continent marketed to a largely non-native
audience to hang silent as decoration in a home. I see the Rollback Drums (FIGURE 21) as
a to-the-point gesture asking the question: What does it mean when we make places like
Wal-Marts, Subways and Home-Depots the economic heartbeat of the community?

THE BARGAIN HUNTED
It is important to me that I learn and practice techniques like drum making, basket
making and regalia making because they link me to traditional ways of being and are

33
allowing access to cultural ways of being in more embodied ways. The Bargain Hunted
Animals become an exploration of tradition through a study of Haudenosaunee fancy
basket making technique, only I shift the structure and kinesthetic process from that of a
basket into sculptural forms resembling an animal.
In Haudenosaunee Traditional Arts: A Glimpse into Our House, Mohawk artist Sue
Ellen Herne explains how traditional arts are representations of specific people, the
materials make connection to specific places, while the procedures of making can be
considered direct connections to ancestors, histories and Indigenous world views. Herne
establishes how art making of this kind becomes integral for maintaining heathy
connections to heritage and keeping culture moving forward (Mundell, 8). I choose to
experiment with basket making for these reasons but am also aware that I live in a space
where I, like many indigenous people, am disconnected from the land in the ways our
ancestors were. Urban populations occupy spaces where natural environments are not
easily accessible. If I may return to the metaphor of the Two-Row Wampum, I see myself
straddling the two vessels and negotiating in every way where I might belong. As an
urban Indigenous person I feel harvesting my materials in the city aligns with a selfconscious traditionalist view because it honours the values of using what is available and
using every last part. Traditionally the making of objects was a prime time for sharing and
learning; as I weave my works I often listening to lectures or engaging in discussion with
the public and peers often about these complicated and pressing issues.
The Bargain Hunted Animals are meant to capture interest through their form,
recognizable technique and materiality (FIGURE 22). Time-honoured Iroquoian fancy
baskets take countless shapes and sizes coming in many different colours depending on
use and date of production. As goods from around the world have been available to
Iroquois for hundreds of years, traditions like basket making, beading and metal work
have adapted to utilize what is available. The tradition of innovation is something

34
common among any Indigenous way of walking in the word. Take George Neptune of
the Passamaquoddy Nation, who exemplifies the ways new generations of artists are
transcending the tradition of fancy baskets while bringing individuality and political
narrative to the art form. Neptune’s corn baskets titled GMO Indian Corn (FIGURE 23) for
instance, use traditional black ash for the material but experiments with unconventional
colour, pattern and technique of basket making while also making use of scrap splints left
from other baskets. Neptune in this case also implements useful titles to apply emphasis
on issues surrounding traditional food resources and sustainability.
My projects however are not finished when the basket is complete, because they
are not functional baskets. I only considered projects like The Heron and The Buck
temporally complete when they are activated through public interaction. The works
could even be looked at as never having final form because the presentation can be
improved upon and will be altered to suit the contexts each new showcase (FIGURE 24 &
25). I hope the work will unnerve viewers at first because what is initially recognizable is
that these are deceased animals hanging from the gallery ceiling. The animals embody
real life encounters from my time on the land and pay tribute to those moments in some
way. In FIGURE 26 we see one of these encounters which inspired The Heron. This work is
hung from a single point allowing it to attain a performative element as it spins slowly to
recreate a nuance of eeriness and awe similar to the original encounter with a heron in
the woods on the Chehalis River. Like the wampum the object has become a visual
device by which memory is kept alive while also propelling methods of making – such as
fancy weaving – moving into new directions.
While traveling through Portland in early 2016 I serendipitously walked into the
Froelick Gallery, next to the Museum of Contemporary Craft, where I happened upon the
works of Onondaga artist Gail Tremblay. Tremblay’s works set the standard for using

35
Iroquoian basketry in a contemporary art context where she utilizes film footage for her
weaving material instead of the conventional resource of black ash splints (FIGURE 27).
Her basketry plays with tradition and materiality gaining even deeper meaning when the
audience realizes the film footage she employs makes critique of preconceived notions
relating to “Hollywood Indians” or “The Indian Princess.” Similarly, with closer inspection of
projects like The Buck (FIGURE 28-30), audiences will witness recognizable icons of
consumerism such as branding from food related corporations. Building on the exhibition
where I introduced The Heron (2015) made from strictly Wal-Mart bags, The Buck (2016) is
a more direct reference to the loss of traditional food resources utilizing strictly fast food
joints and grocery stores. The title also lends some tongue and cheek to the work as
“bargain hunting” references the traditional practice and “a buck” the slang for
currency.
Corporate giants contribute in big ways to forces like globalization, climate
change and environmental degradation. As Indigenous peoples in Canada gain more
economic power by inviting these giants onto our land we also become implicated in
processes that push up against traditional ideologies such as land-stewardship,
community co-operation growth and strength based on non-profit models. So what is a
good deal nowadays? How are individuals implicated when we lend our “bucks” to large
scale consumer giants like a Wal-mart, A&W, or Subway?

Conclusion
I do not expect audiences to immediately decipher the mnemonics held within
The Rollback Series; initial encounters are meant to stir up questions and provoke deeper
inspection. This is the point when application of wampum theory can take over; as
mnemonics are explained and the objects narrative revealed the witnesses will become

36
more aware of contemporary Indigeneity and core traditional practices. My hope is for
viewers to leave carrying new knowledge of the world around them.
The current decolonial era can be seen to begin when First Peoples in Canada
and the USA were recognized to have the right to vote and activities such as the
American Indian Movement took shape during the 1960s and continue up to today. First
Nations have worked hard during this era to change restrictive laws, place Indigenous
people in leadership roles and continue to implement our institutional systems both on
and off the reservation. Over these last decades Indigenous Nations and individuals,
through grassroots movements, have been on a path to cultural resurgence through
efforts that return to older ways of being and express resiliency and strength through
language, arts and education. As an Indigenous man living and working in the urban
and dominant culture, I believe I must do my part to communicate the message of
resilience and I also believe that art is a useful tool to do so. On many occasions I
continue witness and experience cultural misconceptions and stereotyping within North
American society; as a Canadian person with both European and Indigenous ancestry I
am accustomed to constantly defining myself to others who question the authenticity of
my identity. I am attempting with these projects to make to change outdated views and
offer something different than the imagined Indian.
Consumerism describes the attitude that an ever-increasing consumption of
goods and services are what form the basis of a sound economy. Indigenous scholars
argue that consumer culture and commodification are reconstructed forms of
colonization which stand in position to create more dangerous outcomes than colonial
systems of the past. Today colonization takes the shape of globalized faceless
corporations and the the Rollback Series can be seen as the result of where the colonial
processes of today are or maybe have already taken us.
Finally, wampum is the practice of information exchange where an art object is

37
used in place of a document. The beads of wampum start as pieces of shell waiting to
be tooled and shaped by the artist into something that will eventually contribute to an
overall design. I also view my practice as a type of metaphorical wampum where each
of my relationships, interactions, courses, sources and experiences has become a bead
contributing to the overall design of my practice. The sinew which holds wampum
together is the methodology which underpins my practice. As the sinew weaves its way
through the centre of each bead, connecting them to others that combine to create
beautiful designs, a story, and visual document is formed. The sinew of my practice
remains Indigenous Ways of Knowing, which over the course of this degree, has been
used in experiential and holistic ways, with the aim of developing discourse and a
critique of contemporary Indigenous issues using cultural knowledge and technique
gained through art making.
Nia:wen Ko:wa.

38
Figures 7-31

THE ROLLBACK SERIES

39

FIGURE 7: Haudenosaunne/Iroquois/Woodland Style Moccasins & Woman’s Warp Skirt with Celestial Tree
Design. 19th & 20th Century. Leather, glass beads, wood, sinew and thread. Iroquois Indian Museum, Howes
Caves, NY. Photo by Jay Havens. Used with permission.

40

FIGURE 8: Jay Havens. Bargain Hunting Mocs. 2016. Rollback Rawhide - Repurposed shopping bags, sinew,
petroleum jewel bling. 12” x 10”. Photo by Jay Havens.

41

Figure 9: Jay Havens. The Moc Shop Drop #1. 2013. Repurposed petroleum shopping bags, sinew. 11” x 9”.
Interjection at Eagle Landing Wal-Mart, Chilliwack, BC. Photo by Jay Havens.

42

A.

B.

FIURE 10: Jay Havens. The Bargain Hunter ii & i. Repurposed shopping bags - Rollback Rawhide, petroleum
jewels, paper, cling wrap, wood, tape, wire, repurposed textbooks, stand or stool, gift card. A. 2016, 38” x
62”. Kariton Gallery, Abbotsford,BC. Photos by Jay Havens. Used with permission of the artist. B. 2015, 81”x
54”. Emily Carr University Concourse Gallery, Vancouver BC. Photo by Jay Havens.

43

FIGURE 11: Jay Havens. The Bargain Hunter in Process. 2015. Plastic cling-wrap, packing tape, repurposed
textbooks, paper, wire. Peach Road Studio, Chillwack, BC. Photo by Jay Havens.

44

FIGURE 12: Jay Havens. The Bargain Hunter’s Leggings. 2015. Repurposed Wal-Mart bags, petroleum jewels,
thread. Mitchell Press Studio. Mnemonic Design (bottom to top): waterworld with blue background,
skydome, turtle and ancestral tree, more water, the world as a garden, three sisters growing from garden
mounds, butterfly’s are rebirth/metamorphosis. Photo by Jay Havens.
FIGURE 13: Jay Havens. The Bargain Hunter’s Breechclout. 2015. Repurposed bags, petroleum beads.
Mitchel Press Studio. Mnemonic Design (bottom to top): three sisters, the garden, water world, earth and
mountains, celestial tree, butterflies are transformation and pollination. Photo by Jay Havens.

45

A

B

FIGURE 14: Coleen Bins. Cummuter, Communication, Connect, Creation. 2012. cotton, wool, velvet, glass
beads, bike reflector. Iroquois Indian Museum. Photo by Jay Havens. Used with permission.

46

th

Figure 15: T-Shirt commemorating the 400 anniversary of the discovery of the Americas showing cornhusk
dolls dressed in traditional regalia from many nations across Turtle Island. Iroquois Indian Museum, Howes
Caves, NY. Photo by Jay Havens. Use with permission.

Figure 16: Antoinette Scott. The Three Sisters – Corn, Beans and Squash. 2013. Cornhusks, sinew, cotton,
beads, feathers. New York State Museum, Alban, NY. Photo by Jay Havens. Used with permission.

47

FIGURE 17: Thomas B. Maracle. Corn Husk Doll. 2015. Corn husk, soap stone, wire, wood, sinew. Native
Renaissance 2, Tyendinaga, Ont. Photo by Jay Havens. Used with permission.

48

Figure 18: Jay Havens. Processing Rollback Rawhide 1. 2016. Flattening, trimming and cutting the bags
before layering them for bonding. Photo by Jay Havens.

Figure 19: Jay Havens. Processing Rollback Rawhide 2. 2016. Over 300 Post-heat-bonded bags lay on the
floor of the studio waiting to be softened by hand for sewing or cut into splints for weaving. Photo by Jay
Havens.

49

Figure 20: Jay Havens: Rollback Rawhide - The Bargain Hunter in Process. 2015. Repurposed plastic bags,
stick on beads, thread. Mitchell Press Studios. Photo by Jay Havens.

50

FIGURE 21: Jay Havens. The Rollback Stack: Five Rollback Drums with Bargain Hunting Mocs. 2016.Intallation in
Scott Gallery at ECUAD. Photo by Jay Havens.

51

FIGURE 22: Bargain Hunting Drums – Beaver Pelt, Deer Rawhide, Rollback Rawhide. 2015. Beaver skin, deer
skin, petroleum. ECUAD Concourse Gallery. Photo by Jay Havens.

52

GMO Indian Corn is an 8” basket in the shape of a corn cob. Neptune utilized scraps of
brightly died ash splints to make the fancy weave in this basket in no particular pattern
or design. The result is a beautifully executed functional basket resembling a brightly
coloured even radioactive cob of corn.

FIGURE 23: George Neptune, GMO Indian Corn. 2013. Collection of the Abbe Museum, Main.

53

A.

B.

C.

FIGURE 24: Jay Havens. The Bargain Hunted Heron. 60”x30”. Repurposed plastic shopping bags, paper, sinew,
willow branches, wire, tape. A. Installation ECU Concourse Gallery, Vancouver, BC. 2015. B. DC3 Arts Projects,
Edmonton, Ab. 2016. C. Kariton Gallery, Abbotsford, BC. 2016. Photos by Jay Havens.

54

FIGURE 25: Jay Havens. Bargain Hunted Heron in Detail. 2015. Repurposed plastic shopping bags, paper,
sinew, willow branches, wire, tape. A. Installation ECU Concourse Gallery, Vancouver, BC. Photo by Jay
Havens.

55

Figure 26: Heron Encountered in the Woods near Chehalis. 2014. Photo by Jay Havens.

56

FIGURE 27: Gail, Tremblay. The Work of Gail Tremblay: Film Footage Fancy Baskets. 2000 & 2013. Froelick
Gallery, Portland Oregon. Photo by Jay Havens. Used with permission

57

FIGURE 28: Jay Havens. The Bargain Hunted Buck. 2016. Repurposed fast food and grocery store bags,
repurposed garden stakes, sinew, branch, deer feet. Scott Gallery ECUAD. Photo by Jay Havens.

58

FIGURE 29: Jay Havens. The Bargain Hunted Buck Detail. 2016. Repurposed fast food and grocery store bags,
repurposed garden stakes, sinew, branch, deer feet. Scott Gallery ECUAD. Photo by Jay Havens.

FIGURE 30: Jay Havens. 2016. The Buck in Process. Mirrored with Field Dressed Deer.Repurposed fast food and
grocery store bags, repurposed garden stakes, sinew, branch, deer feet. Scott Gallery ECUAD. Photo by Jay
Havens.

59

FIGURE 31: Jay Havens. The Buck Framed. 2016. Repurposed fast food and grocery store bags, repurposed
garden stakes, sinew, branch, deer feet. Kariton Gallery, Abbotsford BC. Photo by Jay Havens.

60

Works Cited
Alfred, Taiaiake. Peach Power and Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto. Don Mills:
Oxford University Press Canada, 2009. Print.
------. From Noble Savage to Righteous Warrior. University of British Columbia, May 13,
2010. Lecture.
-------. Resurgence. How did we get where we are today?. Family and Community
Support Services, Calgary. October 1, 2014. Lecture.
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2012. Print.

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Kline, Jonathan. Black Ash Baskets: Tips, Tools and Techniques for Learning the Craft.
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Price, Maggie et al. What Are We Leaving for the 7th Generation? 7 Haudenosaunee
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