About

Commissioned by the University Hall Gallery at UMass Boston for the exhibition Local Ecologies, this video, letterpress print, and boat tour focuses on the land use histories of Deer Island in the Boston Harbor. Going beyond mere ‘recognition’ of Native territory, the project asks instead what it means to accept the relationships and responsibilities that come with living on occupied land. In the 17th century, Deer Island was a forced Indian removal and incarceration site, where between 500 and 1,000 people suffered from dire conditions comparable to a concentration camp. It is now the site of the Boston’s wastewater treatment plant.

A hand-annotated letterpress print.
A brown man with a baseball cap with the text "Native" speaks into a microphone before people on a boat.
Left: Annotated letterpress print after series of three exhibitions. Top: Faries Gray lead the Indigenous boat tour of Boston Harbor.

The framed land acknowledgment is presented alongside a stack of leaflet prints available for viewers to take away in the gallery venues at UMass Boston, which occupies Massachusett land. In traveling versions of the exhibition, an annotation of the original print poses questions that might guide viewers in acknowledging Indigenous claims to this territory.

The boat tour that accompanied the original exhibition of the film and print may become an annual event sponsored by UMass Boston.

Exhibitions/Screenings

Boston, MA – Roxbury International Film Festival, June 17-26, 2021.

Medford, MA – Tufts University Art Gallery, “Artist Response,” September 8, 2020-May 15 2021.

Lowell, MA – UMass Lowell, University Gallery, “Local Ecologies,” January 21-March 6, 2020.

Dartmouth, MA – UMass Dartmouth, University Art Gallery, “Local Ecologies,” November 7, 2019-January 10, 2020.

Boston, MA – UMass Boston, University Hall Gallery, “Local Ecologies,” September 3-October 26, 2019.

Credits

Sarah Kanouse and Nicholas Brown, Ecologies of Acknowledgment, 2019. HD Essay film, 9 minutes, 53 seconds; three-color letterpress print, 12” x 19,” edition of 10; black and white letterpress print, 12″ x 19,” edition of 250.

Sound Mix: Jacob Ross

Letterpress: David Medina, Huskiana Press at Northeastern University