Delaronde returns to town for artist residency

Lindsay Katitsakatste Delaronde has become the first artist-in-residency for the Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center (KOR) with her PhD thesis “Reconstellation of the Village.”   

She will be presenting workshops in collaboration with other local artists throughout the months of May and June. The work in question broaches building peace, whether it be inner peace or outer peace through conflict resolution, using the Haudenosaunee village and all its constituent parts, breaking them down in workshop form.

Delaronde said the inspiration for the concept of using the village as structure for the project came from remembering something she did in school in Kahnawake.

“It originated from my social science project back in grade seven with Rosie Beauvais, who made us create the village. It’s an activity that a lot of Mohawks of Kahnawake would have done. Basically, you get your Styrofoam, and you carve out the river and you get your popsicle sticks. And so, when I thought about how to how to structure this arts-based program called ‘Reconstellation of the Village,’ that was the imprint,” said Delaronde.

The first workshop is titled “Sky World,” and is a two-day ceramics workshop with guest artist Owisokon Lahache being held May 10-11. It will explore Haudenosaunee consciousness and origin stories through the ceramic.

Another example is “The River,” a canoeing workshop in collaboration with the Onake Paddling Club that looks at the value of water in spiritual cleansing and the process of grief.

While many of the workshops are open to all, some like “Sky World” are open only to Kanien’kehá:ka women.

Delaronde said this was to give the opportunity for women, historically put aside or silenced, to hold space in the conversations she wants to achieve with these workshops.

“It was really essential for me to create more space for women and to really illuminate their voices and how they’ve experienced, or not experienced, peace building in their lifetime. I think that there’s a sensibility there, there’s an emotionality there, and there’s lived experiences where women are not all always given the opportunity to share that experiential knowledge,” she said.

After two decades outside the community, which included time spent in Victoria getting two master’s degrees - one in fine arts and another in Indigenous psychology, both at the University of Victoria - she returned to Kahnawake for the project because participation of and collaboration with artists and women from the community is crucial.

“The essential aspect of that is the participation from the Kanien’kehá:ka women who live in this community. What I’m trying to do is just generate conversation and dialogue in regard to us looking at what peace building is, looking at the ways in which that peace could be defined by many different voices to get a real, larger scope of what is the definition of peace,” said Delaronde.

“What is that feeling that we’re searching for, and what inhibits us from becoming peaceful? What are those challenges, both internal and external, that rupture the opportunity of unity so fundamentally?”

It was also about taking care of her own village, the one inside of her.

“This reconstellation of my own internal village and me coming back into recognition that to be Kanien’kehá:ka, the only place to be able to enact that and learn is coming back to the community,” said Delaronde.

To Delaronde, peace can be achieved through art in all its forms, something that has been historically a part of the traditions of the Kanien’kehá:ka, as is still present now, thanks to the hard work of artists and activists past and present.

“Art is such a beautiful tool to include others and to show another aspect of how democracy can be taken up in communities through art and storytelling and different means of art,” said Delaronde.

She added that she does not want it forgotten that she is building upon the hard work of others for her project. “This work is inspired by the activism and the resilience that this community has already done before me,” said Delaronde.

The full schedule and descriptions of the workshops can be found on KOR’s Facebook page.

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