YOURS FOR INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY,

Notice

Web notice 20220517

Artist/Creator: ReMatriate Collective (Artist)
Date: 2018
ID #: BG5892
Notice: Web notice 20220517
Content Notice: Content notice 20220517--

Physical Description

Medium: textile
Support: nylon
Dimensions: 243.8 cm 1219.2 cm (Object)
Overall installation dimensions with BG5893)
Object Description: Approaching the history and language of protest, ReMatriate Collective’s banner YOURS FOR INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY,, (2018) borrows a message from the 1978 dispute between a group of female Indigenous workers and the Muckamuck Restaurant in Vancouver. Fed up with the poor treatment from the non-Indigenous, art gallery-affiliated owners, these workers organized an independent feminist union to strike for job security and protection from ongoing abuse. Joining in solidarity with the feminist Service, Office and Retail Workers Union of Canada (SORWUC), they staged a three-year protest against Muckamuck Restaurant becoming the longest running strike in BC history. In the words of union organizer Ethel Gardner, “in this society being in a union is the only way we can guarantee that our rights as workers will be respected.” The text on the banner was inspired by a letter written by SORWUC members titled “Muckamuck: A Strike For Indian Self-Determination.” ReMatriate’s use of the language of the letter's signatories acknowledges these women’s efforts and asks what sovereignty means over four decades after the initial events. The work was originally commissioned by the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery for the 2018 exhibition Beginning with the Seventies: Collective Acts.

applique banner, nylon with custom ribbons

History

Collection: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Permanent Collection
Credit Line: Purchased with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, 2019
Related Exhibitions: Beginning with the Seventies: Collective Acts

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