Resistance to Erasure
My Acadian ancestors have lived on Canada's east coast since the 17th Century. For centuries, my people have relied on tenacity and each other to live in harmony with the sea and the land. Sustaining this ethic has not been an easy journey. In 1755, the overlords of the day deported my ancestors from the lands where they had lived for a hundred years and dispersed them to faraway places. In the years that followed, many found their way back home, rebuilding a peaceful Acadia anchored in values and higher learning that fortified their steadfast resistance to erasure. We have endured and thrived to this day, over 400 years later.
I have inherited my love of salt air and the tranquillity of the land. The sights, cuisine, and music of my coastal homeland and its inland pastures anchor my sense of belonging. I wonder, "What is it that feels so deeply?"
Guided by the inner voice of my ancestors, my photography practice seeks to go beyond documenting what is seen. Through a quiet luminosity, I strive to give poetic reverence to what can be sensed by contemplating how all manner of coastal and rural people live sustainably. Their ethic serves as a counter-narrative to ecological detachment and cultural erasure.
I craft handmade prints rendered in the tactile alchemy of platinum-palladium or monochrome inks to create lasting meditations on the strength of co-existence. I hope that others may find connections of their own by contemplating my images in their own spaces.
My work has been exhibited in Ottawa, Canada, published nationally, and is held in private collections.