Standing amidst The Haida Language exhibition at the Bill Reid Gallery, co-curators Jisgang (Nika Collison) and Jusquan (Amanda Bedard) take evident pride in seeing the culmination of a seven-year undertaking. However, their enthusiasm is tempered somewhat by the the work that still lays ahead if the Haida language is to survive.
Today, there are less than 40 fluent speakers, Collison says. Our language is on the brink. If anyone takes a moment to think about what a language is, it really is your identity. Her voice wavering, she adds, The thought that we could lose our language... Its still a horrible thought.
It was photographer Farah Nosh who laid the groundwork for the exhibition by capturing striking large format portraits of the fluent Haida elders. Standing before one of these evocative portraits, Collison marvels, You feel like you can see the lives that these people have lived in their faces and their eyes. You can see that theyre telling their stories.
Upon seeing Noshs picture of her own grandfather, Collison recalls, It took my breath away. I thought, What the hell are we doing not having this show? It was then that she, along with Bedard and others, began the protracted process of recording the elders life experiences for both the exhibition and catalogue that accompanies it.
We really thought about the questions we should be asking the elders and how we should be asking them. You dont want to go, How did residential school affect you? Theyre not going to answer. But if you ask them, When did you stop speaking Haida? theyre going to say, When I went to residential school. She says, The realization of what our elders have lived through became much more than just an intellectual understanding of assimilation. It broke our hearts.
However, rather than dwelling on the dark days of the past, many of these elders (whose average age is 80) are leading the charge to keep the three Haida dialects alive. Bedard works at the Old Massett language centre and witnesses their selfless contributions every day.
A big part of it for me was honouring those elders and acknowledging the ones who are working day to day. Who are dedicating their lives to it. She offers, Often, it can feel like were always on their shoulders. I felt they really deserved us holding them up like this.
That Which Makes Us Haida is at the Bill Reid Gallery until September 9, 2012.
