kwékwa7
kwékwa7 is a video work that includes voice clips of my grandmother Attsie Theresa Pascal on BCTV news series “Blood Ties” when she was searching for my mother Maria after they both were scooped and put into foster homes during the Sixties Scoop. The video comprises of clips I documented of bodies of water from our ancestral lands that have memories and ties to our history and family. Our whole lives were altered without choice when my mom and grandmother were both scooped in Vancouver, BC, 1965. I am currently residing on the unceded terriroties of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples and it marks coming full circle in my family being reunited with our community and being here on these lands that aren’t far from where home should have been.
Bio
Sydney Frances Pickering is a member of Lil’wat nation. She is currently living and working on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
Her multi-disciplinary practice includes hide tanning, video, sound, beadwork and poetry. She uses her practice to tell her family’s story, speak about identity and what it is like navigating as an Indigenous person within a colonial society. Her work over the past few years is grounded by her continued connection to land-based material practices.