An exhibit of erasure poetry created with historical documents and political discourse that have impacted the lives of Indigenous people.
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Une exposition sur la poésie de l’effacement créée avec le discours historique et politique.
Erasure Poetry, also known as blackout or redaction poetry, is a type of poetry created from the material of an existing text. “Redact” will exhibit this form of created using existing historical documents such as the Indian Act, the Peace and Friendship Treaties, 1969 White Paper, Scalping Proclamation of 1749 and quotes from correspondences of Sir John A MacDonald and other colonial founding fathers, as well as some online social media hateful comments towards Indigenous People. The aim for this project is to reassert power over language that has typically been used to dehumanize and disempower us as Indigenous peoples and challenge official historical and present-day narratives by creating counter-narratives and poetry using the same text. While erasure mimics the violence we continuously face by the government and the systems that uphold this country, this project will restore Indigenous voice, and put it at the forefront.
