Ziibi (River)
Yvonne Garbutt
Curve Lake First Nation (Michi Saagiig)
Yvonne Garbutt, is an Indigenous (Michi Saagiig) artist and member of Curve Lake First Nation. Born into a family of artists and craftswomen, her career as an artist and educator spans over 35 years.
Yvonne works primarily in oils and acrylic. Her colourful expressive paintings contain a strong narrative element. Family stories, humour, the environment, and cultural traditions feature prominently. She often relates and interprets the stories passed down by her beloved nookomis,(grandmother). Social commentary, as it relates to identity, is also a recurring theme. Design and content in the work are equally important. Yvonne explores elements like colour, texture, and shape to construct and build form with paint. Incorporating text honours traditional speakers, while found objects- sometimes beads and bark- honour the craftswomen in her family- the quill workers and basket makers.
Garbutt has been involved in mural projects including "Rolling Back the Moss," a large-scale project and collaboration with David Beaucage Johnson that was completed in Peterborough in 1993. She is a long-time gallery artist at the Whetung Art Gallery in Curve Lake and has participated in group and juried exhibitions across Ontario. Her work is held in private and public collections and has appeared in several publications and productions.
Yvonne was a secondary school visual art teacher for several years in Peterborough , and also worked with local youth in the classroom and in enrichment and extracurricular arts activities in the community. A lifelong learner, Garbutt is an eager student of the Anishinaabemowin language.
About Ziibi
The waterway has always been important to the Anishinaabe. The rivers and lakes changed drastically with the development of the canal system and Trent-Severn waterway in the nineteenth century.
I have a few water and canoe-related stories passed down to me by my Nookomis (grandmother). I was working on a painting, when I heard about the call for submissions for this public art project recognizing the original portage route through Nogojiwanong. I thought this painting connected to the theme.
The painting shows a veil of paddles with a lake landscape in the background or negative space. The paddles reaffirm the picture plane, but I was initially interested in playing with positive and negative space and pattern. There are two birchbark canoes tethered together in the foreground. The paddlers are not present, but are perhaps resting or enjoying a shore lunch.
Nookomis was very proud of her father, who worked as a fishing guide in the area and occasionally northern Ontario. When she spoke about her father, he always seemed to have superhuman strength even though he was in his mid-forties when she was born. Nookomis and her family often travelled by canoe. This would be around 1908-1920. The growing family would camp lakeside in tents in the summer. Nookomis said her father would paddle one canoe tethered to a second canoe containing Nookomis and her siblings. This image of the two canoes tied together always stuck with me. It paralleled the strong family bond between Nookomis and her father. They were also connected to the water. It was their highway.
Ziibi recognizes the importance of the waterway to my Michi-Saagiig ancestors.
– Yvonne Garbutt, 2024
