Lori Blondeau

Asiniy Iskwew — Cree for “Rock Woman”— continues my interest in rocks connected to Indigenous traditions, such as petroforms (large stones or boulders outlining anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, or geometric forms), and rock art (paintings on or carvings into rock surfaces). In this series of photographs, I celebrate and give homage to Plains Indigenous rock formations, significant ancient sites created for sacred and rite-of-passage ceremonies and for recording battles and histories. I draw from oral histories of Mistaseni — a 400-tonne sacred boulder marking an important Indigenous gathering place that the Saskatchewan government dynamited in 1966 to make room for a man-made lake. Capturing performative interventions in the landscape, I stand atop rocks, draped in blood-red velvet cloth, reflecting the resilience of Indigenous cultures.

– Lori Blondeau