Exhibit revives Cree tradition of oral history
By Malcolm McColl
An art exhibition touring Canada celebrates the life and work of Dr. Allen Sapp, and the history of his people the Nothern Plains Cree For almost his whole life of 78 years, Allen has been able to reproduce an almost ‘missing’ history using photographic memory and a deft hand. He produces images of life in the world of the Cree all the way back to a previous epoch. Dean Bauche runs the Allen Sapp Gallery in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, and arranged the Allen Sapp National Tour-ing and Exhibition to coincide with Sask-atchewan and Alberta provincial centennials, culminating in joining a larger presentation at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa.
Allen Sapp outside his exhibition in North Battleford, SK.
"We wanted to share this amazing story with all Can-adians," said Bauche, who is guiding the tour from Ottawa to Vancouver. "Actually the concept of a national tour began in 2001 when we proposed creating an exhibit for the Virtual Museum of Canada composed of Allen’s work that took a unique approach to the art. We took his work to Elders and recorded their response and produced a series of films that were overlaid with the art and the Elders’ commentary."
Bauche explained, "That was when we started to combine his art with oral history and came to a clearer understanding of Allen Sapp as ‘Keeper of the Story’, through images.”
He said, "When we created the site in 2002 it won an award for outstanding achievement from the Canadian Museums Association. They recognized the site’s unique contribution to an oral history of the Cree people." Bauche said the inspirational virtual site is available at www.allensapp.com. (Through the Eyes of the Cree) The national tour and exhibit of the Allen Sapp Collection was designed to encorporate the Virtual Museum’s work. The gallery worked to assemble a display of art, artefacts, black and white photos, and commentary that was presented in digital format on large LCD screens, in French, English and Cree.
The exhibition combined alternative media with original art. "We have a fairly substantial collection of Allen’s original art and the exhibition borrowed back some work." Owners were happy to contribute to the widespread tribute to a living Cree artist. Sponsors of this exhibit include Heritage Canada, Sask Centennial 2005, and the Office of the Treaty Commissioner. The tour launched in Alberta, where centennials coincide, "There were shared dates and Treaty territories. It went to Red Deer; Saskatoon, and then Regina where the show was split to exhibit at both the Saskatchewan Legislative building in Regina, (the Cumberland Gallery) and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.
It is now positioned to open in Yellowknife, NWT and Shaunovan, SK in September and Vancouver in January 2007.
The exhibit, said Bauche, had an excellent reception in Ottawa as part of the Acres of Dreams Exhibition, an exhibition at the museum devoted to settlement of the west. "Part of the 5,000 sq. ft. exhibition contained ‘Through the Eyes of the Cree’ and Allen’s art was presented very much like oral history. We should remember that Allen's grandfather was Flying Eagle who was in Battle of Cut Knife Hill and a part of the last generation to hunt freely on the plains."
Allen was raised with deep connections to First Nations tradition and history being raised by his grandparents. on Red Pheasant Reserve in 1928, in Saskatchewan,
Allen’s intimate connections to that generation allow him to capture a sense of the time when the Cree nation lived freely on the Great Plains. Allen rarely talks about it, instead, he paints a crystal clear memory, and Elders interpret the work. Allen is a definitive link to the Cree nation’s Plains heritage, a link that is founded on tradional ways of knowledge keeping. He may be both monumental and a living paradigm. Bauche explained the source of the images, that Allen has been gifted to paint about Cree reservation life at the turn of two separate centuries.
"He felt the extreme weight of being an Indian in a white man’s world," said Bauche. "He felt himself on the periphery. He knew the Cree ways and beliefs were rich even though the white culture marginalized and restricted the practice of their culture language and religion. Allan’s life had been nothing more than ordinary and mundane – typical of a life lived on the margins and sometimes in despair. Allen often wondered why these images would be of interest to anybody."
The career of Allen Sapp owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Allan Gonor of North Battleford who encouraged Allen Sapp to produce images from his life experience. Allen wondered why he would create imagaes that were descriptions of the mundane and ordinary. But after receiving encouragement from his own father, Allen began to work with Dr. Gonor who had strong anthropolgical interests in the Cree people, and believed Allen Sapp was uniquely positioned and gifted to tell a story. As it turns out, Allen has become a legend in his time for his contribution to this history.
Allen Sapp is a unique person for this kind of exhibit. His family knew he was born to it. Bauche explained that Allen carried himself with dignified social deportment throughout his life. "He was never drunk, never smoked, was absolutely a rock," said Bauche. If Sapp has any weakness, said Bauche, it is, "giving his money away to people who need it." The Allen Sapp Gallery occupies a distinguished Andrew Carnagie Library renovated in 1988, opened in 1989, by the community of North Battleford.
Bauche is curator of the public gallery. He noted that North Battleford is the only jurisdiction in Canada to undertake creation of a public gallery to a living artist.
"We are a richer people because of the art of Allen Sapp. In this gallery we see a lot of guests from the world over looking to embrace the art of Allen Sapp and dicover a history through the Eyes of the Cree."
Visit www.allensapp.com.