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You’re A Guest Here

Ofield Williams

You’re A Guest Here – Ofield Williams

Artist Statement:
When I first heard Jocelyn Wabano-Iahtail speak in 2017, my first relation was to my own mother. As a leader, when you travel a path unseen, you have no choice but to assess things swiftly and with poise as you move forward. Without a voice, a path less traveled although linear, remains circular. My mother, after moving her family to Canada had her voice taken from her.

Suffocated and pressured by her peers, she struggled with no real support system. My mother, an only child, was strong to begin with, however, how does one exude strength without a voice. My mothers fight won’t end during her life time. I know this and she knows this, yet, whenever I hear her voice. The strength she gives me, void of pain and suffering, makes me feel like I can achieve anything I put my mind to. A Womxns ability to nurture is unsurpassable.

When you hear Jocelyn Wabano-Iahtail speak, you truly can feel and live her fight as a Native American womxn. Every string of emotion coming from her I’ve felt growing up next to my mother, along her fight. As I matured and began to understand her plight of living as a black womxn in Canada, I would overstand the strength required to walk the line in the dark, yet raise a family.

“You’re A Guest Here” brings attention to the frequencies we make as humans when emotionally affected. We are drawn to Jocelyn’s statements because she delivers them in ways we don’t want to admit we know quite well. We are reminded every day how much we are similar as one human race yet we thirst for ways to differ from one another. The visuals chosen have been arranged to give a bed of insight into the struggles of “our” strength and what it means to sustain and create value, when you can’t speak.

My production musically was driven by frequencies a baby may hear for the first time from within the womb, almost as if underwater, engrossed by feelings you will have no choice but to learn, understand, and eventually voice yourself. Healing journeys should begin before you even know you need one.

Artist

Ofield Williams

Ofield Williams

@brandNew2ndHand

@blastAction_HERO

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WAG-Qaumajuq recognizes that land acknowledgements are part of an ongoing dialogue with Indigenous Nations, and we are grateful to live and work on these lands and waters. Institutionally, WAG-Qaumajuq is committed to acknowledging our colonial history and we are actively working to interrogate the Gallery’s colonial ways of being.

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