Other contributions
The exhibit also included an area dedicated to the life and work of Tyrone Tootoosis, an actor, member of the First Nations and descendent of Poundmaker’s brother. Tootoosis advocated for Poundmaker’s exoneration, working with historians and lobbying the Government of Canada.
“We really just wanted to honour Tyrone,” Nordstrom says.
The exhibit also included a child’s dress, on loan from the Canadian Museum of History, displayed outside the gallery area. The dress was originally made for community member Marilyn Kasokeo when she was a little girl. Kasokeo attended the exhibit and stood with the dress.
“That sparked a conversation about what repatriation might mean for our community,” Nordstrom says.
“Having that dress there was quite amazing. I think that was a really powerful moment for people to see what could happen when we have these objects come home.”
To help organize the show, Nordstrom spent a lot of time speaking with Tootoosis’s widow and daughter as well as with Odishaw, listening to their stories of Tootoosis and Beaudry.
“I went to visit Tootoosis’s family at their home and we had a discussion over tea, and they told me about him. That’s also why it was important for me to show these in a way that really honours these people,” she says.
“I think when that storytelling is brought into a show it can be really personal and relatable, and it can be also super powerful.”
The exhibit garnered an impressive turnout from the First Nations community and the surrounding areas, Nordstrom reports.
“It was really important for me to honour those objects and those people for the rest of the community. I wanted to show them in a way that made them proud,” she says.
“And for people who weren’t from the community, I wanted them to understand this history and the legacy of Poundmaker as a peacemaker.”
Learn more about the Poundmaker Cree Nation. Find out more about Concordia's Department of Art History.