Why Art and Law?

Abstract

Witness Blanket is a large-scale, three-dimensional work assembled from almost nine hundred objects sourced from First Nations individuals, groups, churches, government buildings, treatment centers, institutions, and individuals including a small woven basket, a vibrantly patterned sash and a drum set contributed by the Kwikwetlem First Nation (Figure 1). Conceived and executed by Carey Newman, it was first unveiled to the public in 2014 as a monument to the generations of Aboriginal children removed from their homes and forcibly assimilated into Euro-Canadian society from 1870 to 1996. Incarcerated in church-run "residential schools" funded by the Canadian government, student-inmates were forbidden from speaking their native languages or practicing their native customs. Newman, whose own father endured time in a Residential School, negotiated a contract with the Canadian Museum of Human Rights that conspicuously diverged from typical acquisition agreements. Rather than an instrument enabling a final transfer of ownership rights, the agreement recast acquisition as an ongoing process of caretaking to be renewed at various intervals. The finalization of the agreement through an indigenous ceremony became the first instance that a state-owned enterprise ratified a legal contract through indigenous traditions. 1 The agreement is a step towards a broader conception of law wrought through the process of enmeshment rather than as a delimited set of rules and claims. Witness Blanket is perhaps most convincing as a trust jointly administered by Newman and the Canadian Museum of Human Rights for the benefit of multiple audiences; the donation of objects reads not only as a voluntary surrender of title to property, but also as an act of entrustment. 2 But although the Canadian government formally apologized to former Residential School students in 2008, the words provided insufficient relief. Witness Blanket renews the urgency of this history by virtue of its scale. Twelve meters long, approximately 3.2 meters high and weighing a staggering 1590 kilograms, the work involved hundreds of contributors and will likely include hundreds more as it travels from one venue to