JENNIFER BOWEN
COPPER BREATH
December 2016
This work is based on a traditional story told by the T’satsąot’inę (Copper People) and recorded in 'The book of the Dene' translated by Emile Petitot (1838-1916). Here is my telling of the story.
A Dene woman living along the shores of the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories was kidnapped by an Inuk to be his wife. After barring him two children, she escapes her Inuit captives. On a long journey home, she discovers metal nuggets of copper. When she returns to her people, they do not welcome her back. In an attempt to win favour with them, she tells them of her copper discovery. She leads a small group of men in search of the metal. Along the way, the men lose faith in her story and they abuse her violently and abandon her on the tundra. Alone, heartbroken she sits down and begins weeping. As she weeps, she begins to sink into the ground. In her sorrow, she begins to produce tears of copper. It is said she could produce copper with her breath. As people came upon her in their travels, they offered her caribou meat in exchange for copper. In time, she slowly disappeared beneath the surface of the land, taking all the copper with her.
Copper Breath
Gallery
DENE PORTAL
April 2017
This work is based on the shape of canvas wall tents used by many Dene traveling on the land in winter. The canvas wall tent was introduced to the Dene during the fur trade and has remained because of its usefulness. It is also known as a prospector tent.
The meaning implied in the title of the piece is related to a sacred site located in my traditional territory. The portal was created after Dene settled into, what is now known as Tli'cho Territory. The portal was used by people to transport themselves back to the desert. There are stories told among the people that the Dene migrated to the subarctic regions after a dispute within their traditional lands among the Dine'e. While working for the Native Communications Society in the 1990s, I attended the Gathering of Nations Pow wow with a Tli'cho speaker to explore some of these connections.
I am interested in the displacement of the people and the journey made by this group of Dine'e to Wiilliideh.
Dene Portal