Kinship Ecologies

To enter Kinship Ecologies is to step into an expression of overwhelming  gratitude for the natural world—the smell of the land perfumes the space. Everything is harvested, gifted or reclaimed and will ultimately decompose into the land.

Lara Felsing knows that her hands are the same as those of her mother, grandmother and daughter. They are hands that harvest medicines, pick berries and make dyes. Generations of her family, strong Métis and Woodland Cree women have preserved the land's wisdom, knowledge and skills.

For Lara, this is only a small gift of thanks given to the land to kin. Kinship with the land is a collaboration, a partnership. It is a relationship built on care that our society has been sorely neglecting. Reparation will be the work of generations and will not be as whole as it once was.

 

Image credits: Lara Felsing, Mother and Daughter, 2024. Sage, tobacco, wildfire charcoal, clay, chaga, dandelions, embroidery thread and latex paint on second-hand cotton curtains; Lara Felsing, Harvesting Hands, 2024. Bronze and dried dandelions; Lara Felsing, Gathering, 2024. Sage, ivy berries and gratitude baskets in second-hand wooden tray; Lara Felsing, Gratitude Baskets, 2024. Second-hand fabric and cotton cord dyed with sage, tobacco, pine needles and dandelions, Sweetgrass, twine, pine needles, sinew and floral broadcloth; Lara Felsing, Around the  Kitchen Table. Second-hand fabric, found embroidery hoop, embroidery thread, pine needle-dyed second-hand fabric, wildflowers, avocado net and cotton thread, 2024. Photo by Colin Conces of Lara Felsing at the Bemis Center, 2024; Portrait of Lara.