Moe Clark

Spirit Markers Portal brings together light and sound to explore language as a technology that forges connections across space and time; among land, people, and the cosmos. At the centre is a moving projection of the Cree Syllabic Star Chart, a teaching tool structured by the cardinal directions and composed of phonetic symbols known as Spirit Markers. The artist received extensive teachings about the Spirit Markers from nēhiyaw Elder and language keeper Leo Yahyahkeekoot, who understands each sound as embodying complex relationships to land, cultural knowledge, and nêhiyaw spirituality. Opening the portal with four founding vowel sounds, each additional spirit marker merges a consonant and vowel sound into a single, complete syllable. Radiating outward from a central point, the chart connects the sounds of language to four bodied-being: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, while positioning language within a broader cosmological context.  

The projection is cast onto a circular bed of salt, evoking the remnants of sweat produced from bodies of ceremony after sweat lodge or Sundance, left as traces on the land. The salt functions as a threshold between the material world and the cosmological realm, transforming the projected spirit markers into a portal connecting earth and sky. Surrounding the circle are bows of cedar, recognized as medicine, which create both a ceremonial boundary and a passageway for the knowledge presented. 

Two speakers suspended above the installation carry the artist’s vocalization of the emergent Spirit Markers star chart. Language begins with sound. The audio composition also features overlapping words in different languages, re-animating place for 2Spirit relations from different Nations. These include “Naawenangweyaabeg,” meaning “centre of the snare” or “rainbow” in Anishnaabemowin; “tastawayihk-iyiniwak,” which means “in-between being” in nêhiyawêwin, and “si kom di loo,” which means “to be like water” in Michif.

This work was originally presented as a performance for Moe’s MA research and research creation, which examined 2Spirit cultural resurgence through language reclamation and song creation. Through voice and light, language emerges as a living technology for carrying knowledge, memory, and animating relationships across dimensions.