Veronica Rose Waechter

To Witness Laxyip: Continuous Gitxsan Material Practices


Following alongside Gitxsan thinkers Xsiwis Dr. M. Jane Smith, Hahl Yee Doreen Jensen, and the Delgamuukw court case, To Witness Laxyip draws together significant Gitxsan history along with visual works to discuss continuing relations and realities within a changing Laxyip (ancestral Gitxsan Lands). Indigenous land-based relational material practices are discussed while current, altered, land relations and climate anxieties are addressed through visual works. The Gitxsan methodologies of recognition and validation were followed, as stated by Delgamuukw, which include the display of crests or visual connections, the formal telling of histories, the performance of songs and compositions, and finally to be witnessed and to give offerings. Each of these steps has been attended to through the ancient practices of stitching, weaving, carving, mixed with the new strategies of audio, video, and photo work.

Keywords: Gitxsan history, mixed media

 2023