I was asked by curator Lori Blondeau to respond to the word Skoden as part of a coded communication in “our contemporary lives as NDN people on this land.”
I remember when the first Skoden meme started making the rounds on social media. It featured a Blackfoot man named Pernell Bad Arm in a boxer’s stance, grimacing and looking ready to throw down. Looking back, I remember grinning when I first saw the meme, but my brain shifted quickly wondering who the man was that was featured in the photo. It was some time later when his identity was revealed and his family requested that the meme no longer be circulated after he had passed away. I wanted to acknowledge this as an important point for our community when it comes to representation and respect.
Since that point in time the word Skoden has morphed and transcended through time and space. We use the word to fight back against oppression. We use the word as a knowing wink and as an affirmation of unity. It’s participatory. It’s funny. Even powerful. Skoden has been around in its current form…since??? Not Time Immemorial, but in our Indigenous languages I think we all have a word or words like this that mean many things and one thing at the same time.
Skoden
Bracken Hanuse Corlett is an interdisciplinary artist hailing from the Wuikinuxv and Klahoose Nations. He initially worked in theatre and performance and then shifted towards his current practice that fuses painting & drawing with digital-media, audio-visual performance, animation and narrative. He graduated from the En’owkin Centre for Indigenous Art and then went to school at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, while also receiving training in Northwest Coast art, design and carving from acclaimed Heiltsuk Artists Bradley Hunt and his sons Shawn and Dean. Working with and researching ancestral forms is are central to his work as well learning to work with new tools and media. Much of his process is collaborative, which includes working with youth, community and fellow working artists. He has exhibited, performed and screened his work locally and internationally and has received public art commissions in a handful of cities/territories.