Forging the future through craft practice

Perth Museum is delighted to make available on the Culture Perth and Kinross YouTube channel, a wonderful set of films exploring the colonial inheritance of some of our early collecting.

They add a necessary contemporary view of that inheritance through demonstrating our desire and willingness to be open to collaborations with descendant Global Majority communities, communities whose ancestors were directly affected by 19^th century colonial endeavours, some of which resulted in precious objects being send back to Perth.

The films very much celebrate the importance of craft and creative arts as an avenue of restoring lost knowledge around cultural practices and re-affirming identities and cultural pride as pivotal foundations for self-determined futures.

‘We Weave to See Them Dance’, ‘Inspiring a New Generation’ and ‘The Reawakening’ are the three films about life on the North West Coast of North America, deal with weaving, carving and dancing practices amongst the Salish, Haida and Chilkat cultures (including the Ts’myen and Shíshálh Nations). They were created for us by Marina Dodis, Canadian documentary film-maker. We thank her for brilliant work and for representing us on the ground with various indigenous practitioners, to whom we are indebted and grateful for sharing their knowledge and skill. We hope our relations will flower in the years ahead.

The first film ‘We Weave to See Them Dance’, is one of three films created by documentary film-maker Marina Dodis, that can also be seen in the decolonisation gallery at the new Perth Museum, helping to contextualise and interpret the collections we hold from indigenous communities in what is now the North-West Coast of Canada. The film explores the art form of Chilkat weaving to the Ts’msyen, Shíshálh and other First Nations. In particular, it explores the dancing into live of Chilkat blankets and aprons and the need for the traditions to continue.

The second film, ‘Inspiring a New Generation’ covers a cross a range of cultural pursuits, including salmon, carving, and masked dancing, important to the Haida First Nation and the need to pass those traditions on to succeeding generations.

The final film, ‘The Reawakening’, explores rich traditions around weaving and its significance to the Squamish First Nation (part of the Coast Salish language group) and the importance of keeping those traditions alive.