RETURN TO SPIRIT RIVER
Meeting The In Laws As Told By My Mother
This series is based on a story often repeated by my Mother. It tells of the journey to visit my Fathers Uncle in Northern Alberta, known to us as “the indian side of the family”. I cast my Mother as Zera from Planet of the Apes, my Father as Bud Spencer, spaghetti Western actor. The “six or seven indian children” , as she described, are all taken from tv and film. I chose some of the most ridiculous and comic depictions of hollywood indian regalia I could find. My Mothers description of crossing the Spirit River in a canoe and meeting the family seemed otherworldy. I tried to capture this by making the environment look like as alien as possible.
After finishing this series, I made the pilgrimage to visit them myself and was amazed to find that much of my Mothers memories were correct. My cousin still lives on the homestead and showed me where the canoe landing was as well as the restored tiny cabin where the “six or seven” lived with my Great Uncle Emerson and his Cree wife Bertha.
What I originally considered my Mothers romanticized distortions were actually accurate memories and has caused me to rethink my perspective on this project as well as her life.