For This Land

Halifax Law Courts plaza courtyard

The story of North American colonialism is one we all know—but maybe not as well as we should. A Nocturne project titled For This Land will get you more familiar, exploring what co-creator Jackson 2bears calls, in his artist’s statement, “an incommensurability between Western theology and Indigenous spirituality.”

The multimedia installation piece, which will wash over the Law Courts plaza ~~Citadel Hill~~ during Nocturne, is inspired by Sioux philosopher Vine Deloria Jr.’s 1998 work of the same name.

Co-created by 2bears, writer/artist Janet Marie Rogers and multimedia artist/musician Ronnie Dean Harris (AKA Ostwelve), this chapter of an ongoing series focuses on the importance of place in Indigenous spirituality. In the words of 2bears, “Indigenous world-views are spatial because they privilege a spiritual relationship to ‘place.'”

The project has taken 2bears and Rogers to the birthplace of Mohawk poet Pauline Johnson, where they spent several days “creatively engaged with the stories that Pauline left for us on the land.”

Editor’s note: The original version of this story had the piece’s location as Citadel Hill, but the official Nocturne guide says it’s at the plaza in front of the Halifax Law Courts, so now that’s what the story says, too.