O-ween Du Muh Waun (We Were Told)

2018 / O-ween Du Muh Waun (We Were Told) / Winnipeg, MB/ Public Art Commission

“We chose to install this sculpture here in this place called Winipi Manitowapow, a gathering place for many nations and home to two rivers that meet.The work is a symbol of the failed attempts to assimilate us. We were told to be more like them. It is an “anti-monument” to a forced colonial education. Instead, it speaks to the knowledge that comes from culture, from tradition. The stack of school chairs on a concrete table is deliberately overturned to signify an ending, finality—like the “ivory tower” paradigm of colonial knowledge that Indigenous communities, every day, turns on its head. O-ween du muh waun. The time of being told is over.” -Rebecca Belmore & Osvaldo Yero

Winnipeg Arts Council, O-ween du muh waun, Winnipeg, Canada, 2019