The Canadian Studies Center was just awarded an Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) Fund for the Arts Grant to host an exhibit on food sovereignty by Inuk photographer, Barry Pottle. The Fund for the Arts Grant will enable the Center to host the exhibitFoodland Security in Spring Quarter 2013. The exhibit reflects various kinds of country foods including implements used in its preparation.
Barry is an Inuk photographer, originally from Rigolet, Nunatsiavut. He lives in Ottawa and identifies as an Ottawamuit (Inuit from Ottawa). Given that the Inuit culture is closely tied to food, acquiring country food for personal consumption has been a challenge for Inuit and urban Inuit living in major Canadian cities. Foodland Security is a photo-based project stemming from this idea of access to and the securing of country food.
In Spring 2012 Barry was the keynote speaker for the all-day forum, Canada and the United States in the Arctic: Past Successes, Future Challenges where he presented slides of Foodland Security. Barry wrote about his visit to the UW in the Summer 2002 edition of Nunatsiavut Silatâni. Find the article on page 5 here.
Foodland Security received financial support from a grant from the Ontario Arts Council and will be co-sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Canadian Studies Consortium, also the recipient of a 2012-13 Fund for the Arts grant from ACSUS.
The ACSUS Fund for the Arts grant program is designed to stimulate U.S. academic institutions to organize symposia, roundtables, conferences, public lectures and authors’ appearances in literature, the performing and visual arts, with the aim of promoting Canada through cultural events. For more information, visit http://www.acsus.org/display.cfm?id=311.