Sonny Assu
October 12, 2023 - November 10, 2023
Sonny Assu recalls the transformative experience of visiting the Ottawa institution now known as the Canadian Museum of History with a letter in hand, written by his grandmother Mitzi Assu. In it she requests that her grandson be granted access to the Chilkat robe, dance apron, and frontlet that were the belongings of his great-great-grandfather, Hereditary Chief Billy Assu, which she and her husband Herbie Assu had sold to the museum decades before with the intention of their long-term protection and preservation. In the sterile space of the museum’s vast collections, curators placed the robe on Sonny’s shoulders. He describes feeling an energy transmitted through his body, the weight and materiality of the woolen garment, a spark conducting a direct connection to his Kwakwaka’wakw ancestors, and the knowledge, ceremony, and resilience woven into the regalia.
For more details or a list of available works, please contact the gallery at info@equinoxgallery.com
CLICK HERE to read Legacy Format, an essay by Kate Hennessy
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