By Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter INDIGINEWS
It was the middle of the pandemic, and syilx Okanagan artist q虛史蓹q虛史cw虛iya蕯 (Chipmunk) Taylor Baptiste found herself feeling homesick for her Osoyoos Indian Band community.
She had left to attend art school at Emily Carr University in Vancouver.
Baptiste thought about her family harvesting ochre 91裸聊视频� an iron-rich clay earth used as a pigment around the world for millennia 91裸聊视频� from her ancestral homelands. Community members taught her how to grind it down to mix it into a natural paint.
So to stay connected to her home, Baptiste got to work mixing ochre she had harvested from her land.
91裸聊视频淔rom there, I went through combining ochre pigment that I harvested and learned from them, with other materials to create my own paint,91裸聊视频� Baptiste told IndigiNews, explaining how she mixed the powder with binders such as bear grease, fish oil, honey, and even saliva.
The experiments helped 91裸聊视频渂uild my relationship with the material,91裸聊视频� she said.
After making her own paints this way, she said she began to try creating different paintings and pictographs on rocks and other canvases.
Now, nearly five years later, Baptiste is back in her homelands. She brought with her two pictograph sculptures that she created during her time in art school, which are inspired and informed by her syilx practices.
The two sculptures 91裸聊视频� 91裸聊视频楬ow Turtle Set the Animal People Free91裸聊视频� and 91裸聊视频楩light of Union91裸聊视频� 91裸聊视频� make up the q虛ayisxn: Off the Rocks exhibit this month at the University of British Columbia Okanagan91裸聊视频檚 art gallery in Kelowna. According to Baptiste, q虛ayisxn in her nsyilxcen language is a type of pictograph not painted on rock.
The exhibit opened Jan. 9, celebrated with a reception the next day. It91裸聊视频檚 on display until Jan. 22.
Ochre pigment has been a key ingredient used by generations of syilx Okanagan people to create pictograph mark-making on their territories. Pictograph paintings are found on rock surfaces, recording events and depicting everything from the nation91裸聊视频檚 creation stories to family lineages and to stories about the specific sites where they were painted.
91裸聊视频淭hey were marks left by our ancestors on this land,91裸聊视频� Baptiste said, a reminder of how long syilx people have lived on their territories.
There are pictograph sites across syilx Okanagan territory, dated from hundreds to thousands of years old. These sites are protected and their locations safeguarded, because settler-colonialism led to some historic sites being vandalized or even removed entirely.
That happened in 2020, when a pictograph site in Baptiste91裸聊视频檚 home community was vandalized with vulgar, racist remarks.
91裸聊视频淚 remember the moment when I saw it on the news, while I was in Vancouver,91裸聊视频� she said. 91裸聊视频淚t felt like losing a loved one, seeing that happen.91裸聊视频�
Fortunately, state-of-the-art laser technology was able to save and preserve the pictograph by removing the spraypaint.
The incident led Baptiste to begin researching the restoration technology she learned that a layer of microorganisms can develop and live over the top of pictographs for hundreds of years.
91裸聊视频淭hey actually absorb the pigments themselves, so these tiny little microorganisms that live on the pictographs become pigmented and they91裸聊视频檙e moving around them,91裸聊视频� she explained. 91裸聊视频淪o these pictographs actually become living beings and living documents themselves.91裸聊视频�
She dedicated a research paper to this natural phenomenon, and to the laser technology used to save her community91裸聊视频檚 pictograph. With her academic focus on sculpture, she created an art piece to accompany her research 91裸聊视频� honouring her culture in the process.
91裸聊视频淚 wanted to create a piece that could symbolize how pictographs become their own living beings,91裸聊视频� she said. 91裸聊视频淪o my thought process in doing that was to take it off of the wall, and to give it its own 3D space off of the rocks 91裸聊视频� something we could walk around and see.91裸聊视频�
The result was a nearly three-metre-tall figure depicting a core story from the nation91裸聊视频檚 91裸聊视频�91裸聊视频媍aptik史艂 91裸聊视频� syilx oral narratives 91裸聊视频� titled 91裸聊视频淗ow Turtle Set the Animal People Free.91裸聊视频�91裸聊视频�91裸聊视频�
Passed from generation to generation, captik史艂 are a collection stories and teachings about the syilx Nation91裸聊视频檚 laws, customs and values. They are stories that provide instruction on how to relate to and live on the land, according to the Okanagan Nation Alliance.
Baptiste91裸聊视频檚 pictograph sculpture shows Turtle being carried into the air by Eagle, with the sun hanging over them. She uses leading lines to illustrate the movement of the animals.
91裸聊视频淭his is one of our core captik史艂, and so integral to who we are as sqilx91裸聊视频檞 91裸聊视频� as syilx Okanagan people,91裸聊视频� she said. 91裸聊视频淚 wanted to up the scale to make it larger than us, because it91裸聊视频檚 something that we look up to.91裸聊视频�
The sculpture91裸聊视频檚 image is not of a pictograph that already exists. Baptiste created the image herself, inspired by studying different pictographs on her territories.
To make it, she used her fingers to paint 91裸聊视频� like her ancestors had done 91裸聊视频� on paper hung on her art studio91裸聊视频檚 wall, using the ochre paint she mixed.
91裸聊视频淚 spend a lot of time at the pictograph sites,91裸聊视频� she recalled. 91裸聊视频淚 never make a one-to-one copy of a pictograph. I don91裸聊视频檛 believe that91裸聊视频檚 right.91裸聊视频�
She then photographed her painting, and used her iPad to digitize the image, then created a 3D rendition of the image.
Shortly after, Baptiste followed a similar process to create a second original 3D pictograph sculpture, Flight Of Union. After watching two eagles mating above a river, Baptsite said she was inspired to preserve fast, fleeting but wondrous moments in nature.
She spent three days hammering out sheet metal, sculpting the curves that illustrate the eagle91裸聊视频檚 features. The nearly-two-metre high figure was then attached to a heavy-duty motor 91裸聊视频� the kind used to turn a disco ball 91裸聊视频� to keep the eagle constantly rotating.
When illuminated, her creation projects its own shadow underneath that depicts two eagles mating, their talons locked together as they spiral down toward the earth.
91裸聊视频淚 wanted to immortalize it a bit 91裸聊视频� having the tension of it so close to the ground before they break apart,91裸聊视频� she said of her concept behind the moving sculpture and its 91裸聊视频渟hadow work.91裸聊视频�
Both sculptures are made of metal and foam, and use colours that are matched from ochre mixed paints that she had processed herself. Additional touch ups were done using spray paint.
The pieces were created last winter and into the spring, before she graduated from the university in May. Flight of Union was her graduation show piece, and had been installed at the institution91裸聊视频檚 main opening area above the staircase.
91裸聊视频淚 think taking a 2D pictograph and making it into a 3D form does give it its own breathing space,91裸聊视频� she said. 91裸聊视频淭o me, they do feel like they91裸聊视频檙e partly alive even though they91裸聊视频檙e made of metal and foam.
91裸聊视频淭here91裸聊视频檚 so much life and culture that gets projected onto them, that they absorb it and become part of it as well.91裸聊视频�
Baptiste has since moved back home. And for the first time, her two sculptures have found a place outside the university91裸聊视频檚 walls 91裸聊视频� on her ancestral homelands through the q虛ayisxn: Off the Rocks exhibit at UBCO.
Dozens of people attended the exhibit91裸聊视频檚 opening night on Jan. 10, including Youth and members from Baptiste91裸聊视频檚 home community of the Osoyoos Indian Band. Their support, she said, warmed her heart.
91裸聊视频淚t just made my heart so full to see the young people wanting to come out and see artwork,91裸聊视频� she said.
91裸聊视频淭he fact that I can do something I love, and to be able to show kids in my own community, means everything to me.91裸聊视频�
In the future, she wants to increase the visibility of syilx Okanagan art and culture in her territory by bringing her work to more public spaces. Not only would that representation boost the confidence of her people, she said, but it would also offer different syilx stories at specific popular sites, helping connect Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities through art.
91裸聊视频淚 don91裸聊视频檛 want it just out in front of a building,91裸聊视频� she explained. 91裸聊视频淚 really envision it still being a part of the land 91裸聊视频� maybe it91裸聊视频檚 in a field with sagebrush around it.91裸聊视频�
She described feeling a sense of vulnerability in sharing pictographs and their associated cultural stories. But at the same time, she said it91裸聊视频檚 important to educate non-Indigenous people in the region, to help inform them about what the markings are, and why it91裸聊视频檚 important to protect them if they ever came across one.
91裸聊视频淲hen it comes to this series, the most important thing people take away is to respect pictographs,91裸聊视频� she said, 91裸聊视频渆specially when so many sites have been vandalized.91裸聊视频�
After moving back home after school, she added, having her two sculptures on display on her ancestral territory is 91裸聊视频渏ust as much91裸聊视频� a homecoming for them, as it was for herself.
91裸聊视频淭hese symbols are so important and integral to our culture and who we are as Okanagan people,91裸聊视频� she said. 91裸聊视频淔or them to be back in their own homelands is just so special.91裸聊视频�
