The Water We Call Home
Collaborative Media Production , Curation, and Exhibition Project.
2020 - ongoing
Co-produced and co-curated by Rosemary Georgeson, Jessica Hallenbeck, and Kate Hennessy with Advisory Circle Eva Wilson, Karen Charlie, Christie Lee Charles, Fay Blaney, and Kimi Haxton
Additional photography, video, and sound by Richard Wilson, Kali Spitzer, and Reese Muntean, and Access to Media Education Society
From 2020-2022, an advisory circle of six Indigenous matriarchs gathered on Galiano Island to re-presence connections to fish, water, and family around the Salish Sea. This work to date has been shown in exhibitions at the Yellowhouse Art Centre on Galiano Island, BC, and the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site in Steveston, B.C. The exhibitions features a series of films about these gatherings, and new works in photography, video, and sound by Kali Spitzer, Richard Wilson, and Rosemary Georgeson, and documentation of the collaborative process.
A Symposium based on the project was held on July 24, 2022, at the South Galiano Island Community Hall. Full documentation of the panels with the Advisory Circle, invited Indigenous and settler academics, and invited policy makers is available here.
Visit The Water We Call Home Website to learn more. Select production images and exhibition documentation are featured below.
Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, B.C.
July - August 2022
Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Exhibition preparation and weaving teaching. The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Exhibition preparation. The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Exhibition preparation. The Water We Call Home, Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, BC. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Advisory Circle, extended family and witnesses, curatorial team at the grandmother tree at Bluff Park, Galiano Island, 2022. Photo by Nova Weipert
“Our stories are being witnessed and held, bringing our young ones in so they know the stories. Sitting down and openly and honestly sharing our stories of connection with each other has been so powerful in bringing us back together as family.
And the connections that we all shared through water and fish.
What is the invitation for Galiano Island residents and visitors to the exhibition? I don’t know if it is an invitation, as much as a challenge, maybe to witness this exhibition and to understand more about the land that they call home. To understand it through our eyes and what was here before. Our connections are not just to the land but to the water, to the fish. And to witness our re-presencing of ourselves in this place that was shared by so many. Are you ready to expand what you know about Galiano and some of the impacts of colonialism?
Our stories are part of that land. They were there in that land and in those waters long before it was known as Galiano..”
— Rosemary Georgeson
Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site, Steveston BC
July 2023 - 25
The Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site, Steveston BC
Installation view. The Water We Call Home, Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view, with Advisory Circle member Christie Lee Charles. The Water We Call Home, Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Collections, Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Installation view. The Water We Call Home, Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Visiting the collections, preparing for The Water We Call Home, Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Collections, Gulf of Georgia Cannery. Photo by Kate Hennessy
Exhibitions
Georgeson, R., Hallenbeck, J., and Hennessy, K. (Co-curators) (2024).
The Water We Call Home, featuring works by Kali Spitzer (photography) and Richard Wilson (sound). In, Field/works II: Generating Ecologies of Trust (online exhibition, curated by Jen Clarke and Maxime LeCalve). EASA, 2024 (Lisbon). https://fieldworks.easaonline.org/
Georgeson, R., Hennessy, K., Hallenbeck, J. (co-Curators) (2023-25)
The Water We Call Home. (exhibition, media installation). Gulf of Georgia Cannery Museum and Historic Site, Steveston B.C. www.thewaterwecallhome.com
Georgeson, R., Hennessy, K., Hallenbeck, J. and Advisory Circle (Eva Wilson, Karen Charlie, Christie Lee Charles, Fay Blaney, Kimi Haxton, Rosemary Georgeson) (co-Curators) (2022)
The Water We Call Home. (exhibition, media installation). The Yellowhouse Art Centre, Galiano Island, B.C. July 23- Aug. 21, 2022. www.thewaterwecallhome.com
