Tamara Lee-Anne Cardinal, Mekinawewin: to give a gift, Remediation Room edition, 2021.

Rooted in a circular process of remediation, this multi-day papermaking workshop was an invitation to guests on Treaty 7 territory to enter into a relationship that recognizes the role of reciprocity and transformation in processes of repair, healing, and restoration.

The workshop unfolded over three days with online and in-person participation. Participants in Otôskwanihk/Mohkinstsis (Calgary) were invited to choose personally relevant materials that they would like to remediate by transforming them into handmade paper. Materials could be paper or plant-based. Paper documents related to health, family heritage, culture, education, work, and/or political spheres. As the global pandemic continues to take lives and widen income and wealth inequalities, they were also invited to bring records, reflections, stories, or documents related to the last year and a half related to COVID-19.

Throughout several iterations of this project, Cardinal’s focus has been on hosting multiple workshops with various community organizations, families, and individuals. Conversations revolve around Indigenous histories and ways of knowing. In keeping with Nêhiyaw tradition, the artist requested the first paper sheet that an individual pulled, to stay with the project.

Scroll down to view images of Day One: Breaking Down Materials.

Entrusted with the participant’s materials, Cardinal broke them down into pulp over the course of a day with her mentor Brian Queen at his papermaking studio. Diary and journal entries, art, poetry, medical records, email correspondence, news articles, drawings, stories, letters, backyard leaves, prints, invasive weeds, Newton’s second law of motion (force), and oil and gas company documents were among the paper and plant materials pulped. Documents were not opened or read but treated purely as material to be pulped. Tamara carefully packaged and labeled each participant’s materials for Day 2 of the workshop.

The process was live-streamed on Zoom (scroll down to see view) allowing participants to virtually drop in throughout the day, observe, learn, and ask questions. Images: Alana Bartol.