Lest We Forget: Carleton University
In the fall of 2013, the history department at Carleton University hosted a colloquium on the Samuel de Champlain anniversary. I was a panelist but also contributed by continuing my Lest We Forget series of portraits sittings at the colloquium. In order to have “No Retreat” present for the sittings, I had an enlarged photograph made and each sitter posed with the photograph.
For my presentation, I enlisted the help of Greg Hill to pose as No Retreat and to engage in a fictionalized conversation with me, beginning in 1992 and updated over the years. The first time I met No Retreat I was surprised how much his face looked like a real Indian and I was compelled to treat him as a living person. The last question I asked him was: “Where would you go if you could leave this place?”
It was a fitting conclusion to my project, given the fact that Greg Hill was the first person to take part in the Seize the Space series when he posed with his canoe on the empty platform in 2000.
View the other Portfolios from this series:
LEST WE FORGET 2013 Carleton University
LEST WE FORGET 2013 Major’s Hill Reserve
SEIZE THE SPACE 2013 – Sakahàn
