Mondays at Beinecke: Indigenous Archival Photo Project with Paul Seesequasis

Zoom webinar registration: https://bit.ly/3EYW1xw

Paul Seesequasis is a nîpisîhkopâwiyiniw (Willow Cree) writer, journalist, cultural advocate and commentator currently residing in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Since 2015, he has curated the Indigenous Archival Photo Project, an online and physical exhibition that explores history, identity and the process of visual reclamation. His writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Brick and Granta magazines, among others. He has been active in the Indigenous arts, both as an artist and a policy maker, since the 1990s. His most recent work includes the 2023 exhibit, “Turning the Lens: Indigenous Archival Project” at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina.

He is the author of “Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun: Portraits of Everyday Life in Eight Indigenous Communities” (Knopf, 2019). The publisher notes: “In 2015 … Seesequasis found himself grappling with the devastating findings of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission report on the residential school system. He sought understanding and inspiration in the stories of his mother, herself a residential school survivor. Gradually, Paul realized that another, mostly untold history existed alongside the official one: that of how Indigenous peoples and communities had held together during even the most difficult times. He embarked on a social media project to collect archival photos capturing everyday life in First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities from the 1920s through the 1970s. As he scoured archives and libraries, Paul uncovered a trove of candid images and began to post these on social media, where they sparked an extraordinary reaction. Friends and relatives of the individuals in the photographs commented online, and through this dialogue, rich histories came to light for the first time.”

This talk is in conjunction with the Beinecke Library’s current building wide exhibition, Art, Protest, & the Archives. This online presentation at 4pm ET will be followed by Q&A until 5pm.