Congratulations to Cynthia Cui, MA Defense!
Congratulations to Cynthia Cui, who recently defended her MA Thesis “Reframing The Water We Call Home and the “Iron Chink” at the Gulf of Georgia National Historic Site”.
Learn more about her project or read her thesis here!
Abstract:
The Water We Call Home is the first Indigenous-led exhibition on display at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site, and this thesis explores the collaboration with Rosemary Georgeson to introduce female-centred counter-narratives into the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site and the reframing of the exhibition as it migrates from Galiano Island to Steveston. I ask how the concept of re-presencing and reframing impact the Cannery’s direction to move toward decolonial museum practices, and what it looks like to introduce counter-narratives into a settler-colonial museum institution through an analysis of The Water We Call Home and a speculative digital exhibition that reframes the “Iron Chink” within the context of the Cannery. Through reframing as the main lens of the creation of my exhibition and the Scrapbook of The Water We Call Home, I argue that pulling away from objects to focus more deeply on stories and creating space for Indigenous collaboration are two ways to introduce decolonial practices into Canadian museums.
