Michif – Michin (the people, the medicine)

Exhibition runs: Aug 5th – 28th
Opening: Friday, August 5th 6-9pm

The Elders Say We Don’t Visit Anymore, tea and conversation socials Thursdays during the run of the exhibition from 1 to 3pm

Michif – Michin (the people, the medicine) uses traditional plant knowledge as a starting point to think about and through community health. In this ongoing project, Miner investigates Indigenous medicines and other forms of earth-based and non-Western knowledge and healing. Over the summer, Miner collaborated with plants in and around Vancouver, as well as work with community members in the Downtown Eastside as part of the socially-engaged project. Miner considers himself an artist and not a medical or health practitioner. He is someone whose grandfather’s grandmother was known for her ability to make healing and other earth-medicines. As such, he has a familial relationship to Métis medicines and is interested in their possible ability to heal.

The title of this project, Michif – Michin (the people, the medicine), plays on the linguistic similarities between a Métis word for medicine (michin) and a word used to describe the Métis language and people (Michif). Accordingly, Miner’s work focuses extensively on language and herbal remedies as being at the core to community healing. Activating the exhibition during it’s run, Gallery Gachet will become a space to share tea and conversation. Miner calls this The Elders Say We Don’t Visit Anymore and through this particular socially engaged artist practice, Miner will work with gallery volunteers to organize tea times where people can stop by to share tea and conversation, creating and maintaining existing social relationships. Those interested in spending time together, sharing tea and conversation, can stop by Gallery Gachet on Thursday’s from 1-3pm during the run of the exhibition.

Dylan Miner is a Wiisaakodewinini (Métis) educator, writer, historian, and curator, as well as an artist working in multiple media. Presently, Miner is Director of American Indian and Indigenous Studies at Michigan State University, as well as Associate Professor in the university’s Residential College in the Arts and Humanities. A widely published scholar, Miner is a founding member of Justseeds, a graphic arts collective. He earned his PhD from The University of New Mexico and currently lives in East Lansing, Michigan with his wife, Dr. Estrella Torrez, and their two daughters.