A research associate in Fine Art at the University of Dundee has received £54,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Board to continue his work to help a Sub-Arctic Indian people gain autonomy from Canada.
Gavin Renwick will use his award to work with the Dogrib Dene of the Western Sub-Arctic. Together they will design and build housing for the post-colonial future based on Gavin's research of the hunter-gatherer concept of "home".
He will also host a visit to the UK by several Dogrib elders who will inspect Dogrib artefacts collected last century by fur traders from the famous Hudson Bay Trading Company and which is now kept by the Royal Museum in Edinburgh. The artefacts will later form a major exhibition about the Dogrib's traditional way of life.
While completing his PhD, Gavin has spent roughly half of the past four years living and working with the Dogrib. As part of the Traditional Knowledge Project he was one of several Western scholars from various disciplines who assisted the Dogrib with their land claim and move for independence.
The focus of his research has been to explore the Dogrib concept of "home". Unlike the Western notion of fixed settlement and private property, the traditionally nomadic and hunting culture of the Dogrib regards "home" as the wider surroundings of their vast Sub-Arctic homeland.
The AHRB grant will allow Gavin and the Dogrib to begin applying his research. Working with engineers they will design and build a modern Dogrib dwelling based on their traditional culture.
Gavin will also work with the Royal Museum to redefine its extensive collection of Dogrib ethnographic material, culminating in a major exhibition in around three years. Artefacts will be presented according to Dogrib principals of space and framed in relation to their idea of land as home.
Gavin, who is currently based at the University's Visual Research Centre at Dundee Contemporary Arts, said, "Traditionally, the Dogrib have a close relationship with the land but their way of life changed following the treaty with the Canadian Government, signed in 1921. For example, the layout of the houses they live in today are based around the Western way of living and notion of space.
"We are now aiming to design housing based on the traditional Dogrib culture but which is also forward-looking.
"The Dogrib are now seeking autonomy from Canada but are not looking to go back in time. Their wish is to move forward yet continue to embrace their traditional heritage and I feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to work for them."
For further information or photographs of Gavin with some of the Dogrib people, please contact him on 01382 348067, or mobile 07751 408706.