How I Survived: The Exhibit

How I Survived: The Exhibit is officially open at the Yellowknife Visitor Centre! We celebrated this milestone on Thursday, September 10, with a reception at the gallery.

When we first gathered the How I Survived Advisory Committee in 2018, we imagined an exhibit that could travel throughout the North and make stories about recreation at residential and day school accessible in the places where they belong.

That original vision did not come together as we had hoped, but now, more than eight years after the project began, it feels as though we have come full circle. The exhibit we imagined at the very beginning has finally taken shape, although it is richer and more beautiful than anything we could have envisioned then.

There is trauma and loss in these works because those realities are part of residential and day school history. But they are not the whole story. The themes that run through this exhibit are presence, strength, love, and creativity. 

At its heart, this is an exhibit about stories: stories carried through the artwork and artists’ statements, and through the words of Survivors interwoven with sounds of the Land in the audio installation that accompanies the artwork.

We offer our deepest thanks to the artists and Survivors who entrusted us with their work, experiences, and stories, including Agnes Mitchell, Allysa Felix, Antoine Mountain, Brian Kowikchuk, Catherine Blondin, Michelle Gruben, and Pauline Tardiff. This exhibit exists because of their generosity, courage, and vision.

We also remember Agnes Kuptana with gratitude and are honoured that her work is at the centre of this exhibit.

The exhibit will be up in Yellowknife until Friday, November 27. It will then begin its journey around the North, starting with Fort Smith in January 2027.

We are grateful for the financial and in-kind support that made this exhibit possible. We thank the Yellowknife Artist Run Community Centre; the NWT Arts Council; the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment; the Canada Council for the Arts; NWT and Nunavut Lotteries; the NWT Art Centre Initiative; and The Brick Yellowknife. A special thanks to Laura Hodgins and Mary Buckland at YK ARCC, Bob Overvold and Sara Komarnisky at the NWT Art Centre Initiative, and Rae Braden at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Society.