Mary K McIntyre
Walking Near Water: my relations with (through) land
I am a metalsmith; an artist whose practice is grounded in materials and making, and on the generational connections of my Scots/English-Canadian family to the Tkaranto waterfront and the Wonscotonach1 and Cobechenonk2 watersheds.
I am re-thinking my relations with these lands, using a research-creation methodology that walks between two rows: one of craft knowledge founded on European traditions of design and making, and one influenced by Indigenous ways of knowing that are rooted in this place.
Each row reveres reciprocal knowledge-sharing that is embedded in materiality and community – cultures of making and visiting. With that in mind, I have re-framed autobiographical narratives of remembrance in works that combine metalsmithing techniques with materials gathered from local sites meaningful to me and my family. Through these works, I imagine new associations between the rows and reconfigured relationships with the land and water where I live with many others, human and non-human.