Artistic call-and-response, Guatemala-Canada: BTS at Antigonight

Artistic call-and-response, Guatemala-Canada: BTS at Antigonight

By: Janette Fecteau, BTS Antigonish Committee member; Romi Fischer-Schmidt, New Hope Foundation Cooperant; and Ally Lord, New Hope Foundation Intern

Saturday, September 14: Antigonight Art After Dark Festival in Antigonish/Nalikitquniejk unfolds, starring a spectacular installation exhibiting a months-long call-and-response between local and Maya Achí (Rabinaleb’) youth artists. This international collaboration supported by the local BTS Antigonish Committee and Rabinal-based BTSers is solidarity at work.

The smell of Guatemalan coffee draws in passers by and is coupled by the percussive melodies of Indigenous Marimba-music, then layered again by hanging textiles textured by ancient Mayan patterns with the embroidered names of victims of the Rio Negro massacres. This stark reminder of the violent inheritance of all colonies across Turtle-Island and Abya Yala is balanced by the playful light projections of Indigenous Guatemalan youth, survivors of genocide and Canadian-supported extractivism, sharing their culture through art to the open hearts of Maritime community members.

A crowd gathers at the BTS submission to the Antigonight Art After Dark Festival as local youth artists, Adrienne and Anika share information with listeners.

This is one in a long line of BTS creative offerings at Antigonight.

Janette Fecteau, BTS Antigonish Committee member and artist, in collaboration with BTS Cooperant Romi Fischer-Schmidt and BTS Intern Ally Lord—who are both placed with long-time BTS partner, the New Hope Foundation (FNE) in Rabinal—seized the opportunity to share creative gifts from FNE students with the world. The Rabinaleb’ students shared a stunning quilt of remembrance, embroidered with the names of those massacred in Rio Negro. These sacred pieces of historical memory were carefully bundled and sent to Canada, and are digitally accompanied by recorded footage of the students’ creative process, which included learning from elders, and was shared as a video projection (created by Romi). This, along with Zoom calls during the summer, provided a richer and more inspiring “call” for students in Nalikitquniejk to respond to. The video was shown throughout the evening of Antigonight and included stunning poetry, guitar and singing, and marimba music.

Many hearts came together to make this happen, thank you to our spectacular Nalikitquniejk team (standing in front of the beautiful quilt).

It’s important to invoke the ancestors present in the quilts and other representations in the language of offerings familiar to these Maya Achi grandparents, far from home, having traveled from Rabinal, Guatemala to Nalikitquniejk.

What responsibility lives within learning difficult (genocidal) truths? Two youth artists from Nalikitquniejk, Adrienne Hayne and Anika Jacob, responded to the creative work of the Rabinaleb’ students. With support from BTS members, Janette and Bob Zecker (StFX history professor), as well as Romi, Ally, and students in Rabinal, Nalikitquniejk students learned much over a few short months, and began to work on their artistic “response” part of the project.

In the exhibit, Anika shared her oil paintings which meditate on the history of the Maya Achí (Kaj’yup mountain) and their hopeful future (the New Hope Foundation). Adrienne displayed a powerful ceramic and stained-glass piece they made in representation of Rio Negro, showing the village before the massacre (below the watery stained-glass surface) and the gruesome walk up the mountain to Pacoxom where the March 13, 1982 massacre took place. Adrienne and Anika also collaborated to create a coffin to bring awareness surrounding the subject of proper burials, for the victims of genocide who had been dumped in clandestine mass graves. Moreover, they movingly and articulately shared the story of the imposition of the dam and the flooding of Río Negro.

Nalikitquniejk-based student Anika’s paintings and Adrienne’s ceramic and stained glass sculptures on display at Antigonight.

Youth aritsts, Anika and Adrienne collaborate to create this coffin, which teaches on the proper burial of even brutalized ancestors.

Congratulations to all of our community members who worked across borders and differences to tell such a difficult story through deep respect, cunning creativity, and tactful beauty.

We’re excited to share that this extraordinarily powerful presentation will be recreated at the BTS 2024 Annual Gathering (October 18-20 at Tatamagouche Centre)! Janette, Romi, and Ally will be present to share more of the story of this incredible joint creation.
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See more photos below of FNE youth:

Festival de Mi Pueblo (People’s Festival) was held at the New Hope Foundation where students shared their creations with each other, and in preparation for sharing to the Antonight Art After Dark Festival in Nalikitquniejk.

Grade 10 FNE students, Angel, Alex and Moises perform an ancestral tune at the People’s Festival in Rabinal, recorded and grafted into motion film by BTS Cooperant, Romi and presented at Antonight.

Lucy, grade 10, shares a poem she wrote “Guatemala Tierra Inmortal” which elaborates on the complexity of Guatemala’s inheritance at present.

Students in grade 7 show off their paintings, painted juacales (traditional drinking vessels), and sketches. For many students, this is their first time painting on canvas.

Students in grade 9 proudly display their paintings and painted juacales. Thanks to the BTS Antigonish Committee for supporting the art program at the FNE in Rabinal.