Cycle "Rendez-vous du Gákte-quipo" with Huk Tgini’itsga Xsgyiik - Gavin Hudson and Gyibaawm Laxha – David Robert Boxley (ONLINE)

What role do knowledge transmission and environmental issues play in artistic creation? A meeting between two committed indigenous artists. Tuesday 1 February, at 7 pm (UTC+1).

Meeting in English with French interpretation

This second Gákte-Quipo e-meeting will offer you a chance to meet Gyibaawm Laxha - David Robert Boxley, Ts'msyen sculptor, and Huk Tgini'itsga Xsgyiik - Gavin Hudson, Ts'msyen poet. These artists collaborated on a major installation in the exhibition "Environmental Injustice - Indigenous People's Alternatives": "The Child Who Was Taken by the Salmon". They are invited to discuss their collaborative work and the importance of transmission in the revitalization of knowledge and know-how. This talk is part of a cycle that takes place virtually in the Time to Come Together, the last part of the exhibition "Environmental Injustice - Indigenous People's Alternatives". Just as the artwork Gákte-Quipo ties together the individual stories of indigenous peoples’ struggles to gain control over their lands and territories, these encounters will forge connexions between the artists and the audiences interested in hearing their stories.

The meeting will take place online on Zoom. Link to connect HERE.

GYIBAAWM LAXHA-DAVID ROBERT BOXLEY (born in 1981) is a Ts’msyen sculptor, born and based in Metlakatla, in south-east Alaska. He began sculpting at the age of six under the instruction of his father, the master carver David Albert Boxley, and often accompanied him on journeys to the United States to erect totems and teach Ts’msyen culture to members of the community. David R. Boxley and his father manage their dance group, the Git-Hoan Dancers, who perform every year all over North America. David R. Boxley is actively learning to speak Sm’algyax, the declining language of the Ts’msyen people, fluently and, with Kandi Mcgilton and Gavin Hudson, has founded the Haayk Foundation, a non-profit-making organization in Metlakatla whose mission is to protect and revitalize Sm’algyax.

HUK TGINI’ITSGA XSGYIIK-GAVIN HUDSON (born in 1980) is a Ts’msyen writer, translator and song writer from Metlakatla, in south-east Alaska. After obtaining his university diploma in Seattle in 2000, he returned home in 2010. In 2015, with David R. Boxley and Kandi McGilton he created the Haayk Foundation. The mission of this non-profit-making organization is to preserve, promote and revitalize Sm’algya x, the Ts’msyen people’s language. Although he cannot yet speak it fluently, he has spent hundreds of hours working with fluent speakers and is a competent reader, translator and transcriber of Sm’algyax. In 2016, as project coordinator, Gavin Hudson helped to create the children’s Ts’msyen language school “Wap Lip Algyagm House of Our Language” for 0-3 years-old.