Archive of Relatives: Curating a Bodily Archive through Indigenous Understandings of Objects

Authors

  • Dani Pierson

Keywords:

Archive, Objects, Relatives, Indigenous, Cree, Metis, Body, Curation

Abstract

This essay considers what a bodily archive may mean for Indigenous peoples and what it may look like. It uses Julietta Singh’s analyses on what a bodily archive is and Elizabeth Grosz’s explanations of how our bodies have meaning alongside Indigenous theorizing of archives, memory, and relations to curate a representation of the author’s bodily archive. Stemming from Singh’s understanding of our bodies extending beyond our skin and Indigenous knowledge traditions which find relatives in more-than-human subjects/objects, the author catalogues the histories and meanings of their body through objects. This approach displays transformation in action.

Author Biography

Dani Pierson

Dani is a fourth-year Gender Studies major and Cultural Studies minor at UBC Okanagan. She is a Métis/Dane-zaa(Beaver)/Cree/Settler from the traditional lands of Cree and Métis peoples in Treaty Eight territory (colonially known as Northern Alberta). Her research interests intersect in feminist and Indigenous approaches to land, archives, and rest. She is grateful to live, work, and learn on unceded Syilx territory. You can find more of her work at danipierson.ca

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Published

2022-03-14

Issue

Section

Articles