January 27, 2023 By Chelsea Novak
Researchers Sarah Carter (left) and Inez Lightning are co-curators of “Ancestors,” an exhibition of historic photographs and stories that shed light on the lives and cultures of Indigenous peoples in Western Canada. (Photo: Chelsea Novak)
An Indigenous couple looks out from a photograph taken decades ago — their image telling a multitude of stories. Elders and Indigenous knowledge keepers who looked at the photo pointed out that the woman is wearing a ribbon skirt, the man a vest with brass buttons. They also noted that the couple’s baby, bundled into a cradleboard, appears to be sleeping soundly.
Image courtesy of Bruce Peel Special Collections; catalogue no. IP110
The photo is one of many that researchers Sarah Carter and Inez Lightning shared with elders and knowledge keepers from First Nations in Western Canada, who brought forth stories of their ancestors.
The resulting exhibition — appropriately titled Ancestors — is now on display at the University of Alberta’s Bruce Peel Special Collections until March 31. There is also an accompanying catalogue, Ancestors: Indigenous Peoples of Western Canada in Historic Photographs, which dives even further into the stories and knowledge that were shared with Carter and Lightning.
Initially, they write in the book, they “were confronted with the problems and limitations of the collection.” The photographs had all been taken by non-Indigenous photographers, who brought their own assumptions to the images. They also had their own purposes in taking the photographs, and many — like the photo described above — were sold commercially.
The issue of how to approach the images resolved itself once Carter and Lightning began speaking with elders and knowledge keepers.
Those they spoke with were unconcerned with the colonial purposes of the images and instead “they approached the collection as a valuable record of their ancestors.”
“We had the first grouping of elders — there were three of them — and we brought them in and had them look at the photographs, and they would just tell these stories,” says Lightning. “Stories were just coming out one after the other about what they were seeing in each image, and so that is what we wanted to capture.”
Carter, retired professor in the Department of History, Classics, and Religion and the Faculty of Native Studies, was originally asked by Robert Desmarais, head of special collections, to produce an exhibition from items acquired through the Prairie Roots Endowment Fund, established by former U of A chancellor Ralph B. Young and his late wife Gay.
“At that time it was going to be something involving documents, diaries — really a wide spectrum of materials — in the Prairie Roots Collection,” explains Carter. “Then, as we trundled along, I was asked if I would be happy to focus on the photographic collection of Indigenous peoples.”
Carter agreed, and that was when she brought Lightning on as a co-author and curator.
Lightning, whose spirit name is Osaw Piyesis Iskwew or Yellow Bird Woman, is Anishinaabe from the Buffalo Child family and of the Bearhills people. Carter was the thesis supervisor for her master’s in history, which she successfully completed last fall.
Lightning also had previous experience working on a collection of historic photographs, having worked on an exhibition of agricultural photos taken at Maskwacis (then Hobbema) for Alberta Community Development in 1998. She interviewed elders in the community as part of the project.
Lightning explains that finding elders and knowledge keepers to consult on the exhibition came about mostly as a result of family connections. The people she and Carter spoke with also recommended others to speak to, though Lightning says these were often also elders and knowledge keepers she already happened to know.
“My husband is Rick, and his dad was a founding member of the Indian Association of Alberta,” says Lightning. “A lot of the root families, you might want to call them, of the Indian Association of Alberta, they remained connected over the decades — so that’s how we maintain our connections.”
The two researchers pored through hundreds of photos, choosing which ones to include in the catalogue and exhibition. The book was ultimately divided into 25 thematic sections — including a section on mothers, babies and cradleboards.
“We were really struck by the number of photos there were of women with their cradleboards,” says Carter, “and we used both the words in Nehiyaw and Anishinaabe, which are waspisonahtik and tiknaagan.”
Carter and Lightning note how the cradleboards protected babies and also gave them a strong head start in life: the devices were either worn on a mother’s back or propped up against a tree or tipi pole, so the babies were included in the social life of the community and were able to take in everything going on around them.
Carter points out that the images also contradict the colonial narrative that Indigenous women were poor mothers, which was used to justify the residential school system.
Another thematic section was commerce and labour, which highlights the ways Indigenous peoples in Western Canada survived and made a living. They produced and sold goods such as hides, furs, game meat, fish, berries, clothing and beadwork, and Indigenous men worked as guides for traders, hunters and tourists.
There’s also a section on tipis, which Lightning says captures only some of the stories they were told.
One story included in the book is from Niitsitapiisini Elder Allan Wolfleg, who recognized his family’s tipi design in one of the photos and was able to explain the significance of the design elements.
“The circles are the foxholes of the Crow. The dark holes are where the warriors got killed. The yellow line and the red line are war paint; just like how we paint our foreheads red, across the eyes and nose, we would paint these areas yellow. Those puffballs represent when people came back from the three stars.”
Image courtesy of Bruce Peel Special Collections; catalogue no. IP039
Wolfleg’s ancestors are also featured on the book’s cover. His grandmother, Mrs. Wolfleg, Eyiniimakii (Catcher Woman), is seated on horseback wearing her war bonnet, while her sister, Mrs. Duck Chief, is also on horseback beside her. Their young friend rides on a travois behind Mrs. Duck Chief’s horse. Wolfleg immediately recognized the beadwork in the photograph as his grandmother’s and the Niitsitapii floral designs on the beadwork as Mrs. Duck Chief’s.
Image courtesy of U of A Press/Bruce Peel Special Collections; image catalogue no. IP008
He was not alone in uncovering his ancestors among the photos, and pride became the overall focus of the collection — not only the pride in the faces of the individuals photographed, but also the pride shared by the descendants and community members viewing the images today.
“The [photographs] we’ve chosen show the resiliency and even how they present themselves. We wanted that strength in their being in each image, as much as possible, to come through,” says Lightning.
With the exhibition on display and the collection of photographs now available online, she and Carter hope more people will come forward with information about the photos. Lightning also hopes that high school teachers will take advantage of the opportunity to bring their students to see the exhibit — and that those who see it will be inspired to take a look through their own family albums.
“Hopefully more people come and get inspired by collecting photographs and the information that belongs to them, or that spreads out from them.”