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Photo: Svava Tergesen

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Statute
4th Vancouver Bienniale, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada.
with Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun
Curated by Natalia Lebedinskaia

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The Indian Law is the main statute by which the federal government of Canada administers the status of its native populations. The “Indian status” is the legal recognition of the First Nations heritage of a person, which provides certain rights to live on land reserves. The law also dictates First Nations local governments and manages land reserves and community funds.

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The Indian Law gives the Canadian government the power to limit the existential rights of First Nations people, by not recognizing them as free human beings, but as a property of the state. This work reflects on the social and cultural disturbances that have resulted in traumas and human rights violations for generations of First Nations people, which is inherent in the existence of the statute.

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I remain locked inside a metal structure designed to hold a body. My presence can be seen through a grid with the silhouette of the body of a First Nation person.

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