What we do at home: PDX > AKL: roomsheet

_{Cora-Allan Wickliffe and Daniel Twiss, What we do at home: PDX > AKL (detail), 2017. Courtesy of the artists.}

“That blurry line between what should be shared and what should be kept sacred in an institutional space gave us our first rule of engagement. We share what we do in everyday life, at home. This exhibition is an exploration of how we embody being indigenous, through memories and past events. With whānau at the core of our thoughts, we will be intertwining memories to establish how we, as the BC Collective own, learn and are indigenous. The works will be installation based and involve conducting ceremonial / contemporary versions of events. We are hoping to involve different groups that inform ideas of being indigenous and the transmission of knowledge within the family unit and how working as a whānau promotes indigenous ideologies of learning.” — BC Collective

In 2017 Cora-Allan Wickliffe and Daniel Twiss launched the BC Collective. BC stands for ‘Before Cook and Before Columbus’, and was initiated as a way to share, directly engage with and exchange indigenous ideas and concepts. BC Collective holds Gallery One, with a series of installation based works relating to the home and lived daily experience. In the front window, donated objects are collected towards a Batons Up event to be held during the exhibition on Saturday 5 May (watch our Facebook page for details).

Cora-Allan Wickliffe (Ngāpuhi, Tainui, Alofi and Liku) is a multidisciplinary artist of Māori and Niuean descent, originally from Waitakere. In 2016 she returned to Aotearoa after working at the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff, Canada. Her practice often examines constructed identities of indigenous people, finding new ways to provide educative experiences through social art platforms. Cora-Allan has worked as a curator, preparator, photographer, artist and educator. In 2013, she completed her MA in Visual Art at AUT University.

Daniel Twiss (Lakota, Sioux, Rosebud Reservation) grew up in Vancouver, Washington. His family relocated for a year to the Coeur D’alene Indian Reservation in Plummer, Idaho. His late father Richard Twiss was the co-founder of the Wiconi organisation and a Professor of Native American Studies at Portland State University. Under his influence, Daniel took up Grass Dancing and joined the International Dancing our Prayers Tour in 2003, which created the platform for his involvement in Indigenous conferences and gatherings. Since then, he has attended and danced at numerous Indigenous events including NAIITS Symposium, Vancouver, Canada (2011); Rosebud Immersion Experience, Rosebud Reservation, USA (2012); Surrender in the Desert Conference, Alice Springs, Australia (2012) and Good Water Conference, Turangi, Aotearoa (2015).