Reconciliation with the Land and Waters challenges hierarchical power dynamics and questions who is in need of reconciling. Informed by their ongoing work as the Onaman Collective (founded by Belcourt, Murdoch, and Erin Konsmo), the artists worked collaboratively, positioning the land as the respondent to their activities and asking the more-than-human world to reciprocate their gestures. Belcourt and Murdoch led ceremonies at multiple gatherings on Indigenous governance throughout Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan, demonstrating an ongoing commitment to building relationships with the land and waters, recognizing the way in which these relations, and the everyday practice of making offerings, have been interrupted by colonization. Belcourt and Murdoch’s ceremonies prioritize revitalizing Indigenous ways of being and place-based knowledge; the act of offering is a direct, embodied action of respect, acknowledgement, connection, and balance of the human order with spirit and nature. Together, these actions function as ongoing resistance against exploitative resource extraction industries and work towards informing future possibilities.

Belcourt and Murdoch painted records of their ceremonial activities in the following locations: Whitefish River First Nation, ON (June 2015), Gabriel’s Crossing, SK (August 2015), Serpent River First Nation, ON (September 2015), Espanola, ON (November 2015), Mississauga First Nation, ON (March 2016), Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, ON (March 2016), Spanish, ON (April 2016), Garden River First Nation, ON (July 2016), Gabriel’s Crossing, SK (August 2016).

The buffalo robe has been returned to the artists where it will continue to be activated at Nimkii Aazhibikong, Culture Camp Forever, a permanent camp for the restoration and revitalization of Anishinaabemowin (Ojibway) language, and where youth can be connected to the land and the traditional knowledge of the Elders.