Curating Resistance: Erin Storus & “These Walls Hold our Wounds”

In our first official episode of the season, Lucy and Subhi sit down with Erin Storus, an independent curator and student within the Master’s of Visual Studies and Curatorial Studies at the University of Toronto. Her recent exhibit, “These Walls Hold Our Wounds,'' features three arpilleristas –  Soledad Fátima Muñoz, Bélgica Castro Fuentes, and Amaranta Ursula Espinoza Arias. These women use textile works, called arpilleras, as testimonies to their lived experiences during both the brutal regime of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the ongoing destruction of South America as instigated by North American capitalist systems. We hear Erin’s journey as an artist and curator, her positionality as a White Canadian woman, and her thoughts on how we can use art to expose, rather than exploit, under acknowledged injustice.

You can see Erin’s exhibit at the Jackman Humanities Institute Building on the 10th Floor (170 St. George St., Toronto, ON, M5R 2M8) during regular business hours until June 30, 2023. Learn more about arpilleras and these women’s experiences through the documentary, La Parte de Artas de la Arpilleras.

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We at the UnCover Podcast are producing and studying on the lands of the Huron-Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe, and the Mississaugas of the Credit River. We live under the Dish With One Spoon Treaty, the Williams Treaties, and Treaty 13. As part of these Treaties, we must work “in the spirit of peace, friendship, and respect” to be truthful about our positionality as students of the University of Toronto who benefit from the wealth accumulated by Canadian universities through stolen land, artifacts, and culture of Indigenous Peoples. We hope to use our platform to speak and act beyond this acknowledgement to educate ourselves and our audiences on how students around UofT challenge its foundations of colonialism, capitalism, and extraction.

Resources:

• Support an ongoing effort to restore the sovereignty of the Haudenosaunee: 1492 Land Back Lane, follow on Instagram @1492landbacklane
• Learn about Residential Schools and support survivors through https://www.irsss.ca/
• Watch and support Indigenous film through https://imaginenative.org/
• Educate yourself and help Indigenous women at Native Women’s Association of Canada (https://www.nwac.ca/)
• Read UofT’s “Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada” and help keep the university accountable to its stated goals:...