Meryl McMaster
Every Path Tells, 2022
Impression à pigments de qualité archive montée sur panneau en aluminium / Pigment print on archival paper mounted to Aluminium Composite Panel
Épuisée / Sold out
Épuisée / Sold out
40 x 60 "
101.6 x 152.4 cm
101.6 x 152.4 cm
Ed. 5 + 2 AP
Series: Bloodline - Stories of my Grandmothers, nôhkominak âcimowina
© Meryl McMaster
[English folllows] 'L'un des documents éphémères familiaux que nous possédons encore est la carte de voyage de ma grand-mère Lena', explique Mme McMaster : 'Le département des affaires indiennes lui...
[English folllows] "L'un des documents éphémères familiaux que nous possédons encore est la carte de voyage de ma grand-mère Lena", explique Mme McMaster : "Le département des affaires indiennes lui aurait délivré cette carte. Sur cette photo, je la porte au poignet. Cette carte lui permettait de prendre le train et de sortir de la réserve. On a raconté à mon père qu'elle avait pris le train pour se rendre à un endroit appelé Gleichen, en Alberta, où elle avait rencontré un homme nommé Howard McMaster, qui était un pied-noir de la Première nation Siksika. Elle a fini par l'épouser. "Sur cette photo, on peut distinguer la trace de la voie ferrée, aujourd'hui envahie par la végétation, ainsi que le chevalet du train au loin. "Ma grand-mère racontait aussi à mon père l'histoire de sa jeunesse, lorsqu'elle aimait aplatir des pièces de monnaie sur les voies ferrées. La ligne de chemin de fer a permis à la grand-mère de McMaster d'être libre, mais elle a également été un instrument de colonialisme et d'expansion territoriale pour les colons. "Je pense que le symbole du train a une signification pour de nombreuses minorités différentes à travers le pays", déclare Meryl McMaster.
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"One of the pieces of family ephemera that we still have is my grandma Lena's travel card" says McMaster: "The Departement of Indian Affairs would have issued it to her. In this photograph I'm wearing it on my wrist. It basically authorized her to be able to take the train and go off the reserve. My dad was told a story of her taking the train to a place called Gleichen in Alberta, where she had met a man named Howard McMaster, who was Blackfoot from Siksika First Nation. She ended up marrying him. "In this photograph, you can make out the trace of the railway tracks now overgrown by vegetation, as well as the train trestle in the distance. "There was also a story my grandma would tell my dad about when she was young and loved flattening pennies on the railway tracks." The railway line allowed freedom for McMaster's grandmother, but it was also an instrument of colonialism and territorial expansion for settlers. "I think that the symbol of the train has meaning for lots of different minorities across the country," says McMaster.
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"One of the pieces of family ephemera that we still have is my grandma Lena's travel card" says McMaster: "The Departement of Indian Affairs would have issued it to her. In this photograph I'm wearing it on my wrist. It basically authorized her to be able to take the train and go off the reserve. My dad was told a story of her taking the train to a place called Gleichen in Alberta, where she had met a man named Howard McMaster, who was Blackfoot from Siksika First Nation. She ended up marrying him. "In this photograph, you can make out the trace of the railway tracks now overgrown by vegetation, as well as the train trestle in the distance. "There was also a story my grandma would tell my dad about when she was young and loved flattening pennies on the railway tracks." The railway line allowed freedom for McMaster's grandmother, but it was also an instrument of colonialism and territorial expansion for settlers. "I think that the symbol of the train has meaning for lots of different minorities across the country," says McMaster.