When Rebecca Belmore came to The Banff Centre in 1991 as an emerging artist, no one could have known that the work she created during her residency would become an icon for Aboriginal arts in Canada. A 16-year journey, which began with a sketch and developed into a cross-Canada tour, recently brought Belmore’s influential work Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother back home to Banff as part of the Centre’s 75th anniversary.

Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan was originally commissioned for the Centre’s 1991 Walter Phillips Gallery (WPG) exhibition Between Views and Points of View. Belmore dreamed of creating a piece of art that would initiate dialogue between Aboriginal people and the government, and be a voice for Aboriginal rights. During her first visual arts residency at the Centre in 1991 she drew a sketch of the large wooden megaphone (six feet wide at the mouth and seven feet long) she wanted to create, and with the help of WPG preparators Mimmo Maiolo and Bob Knolden, Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan came to life.

“This artwork was my response to what is now referred to in Canadian history as the ‘Oka Crisis’,” says Belmore. “During the summer of 1990, many protests were mounted in support of the Mohawk Nation of Kanesatake in their struggle to maintain their territory. This object was taken into many First Nations communities — reservation, rural, and urban. I was particularly interested in locating the Aboriginal voice on the land. Asking people to address the land directly was an attempt to hear political protest as poetic action.”

Today, Belmore is internationally recognized for her performance and installation art. She participated in the 1998 Sydney Biennale, the National Gallery of Canada exhibition Land, Spirit, Power, and was Canada’s official representative at the 2005 Venice Biennale.

After facilitating many gatherings with Ayum-ee-aawach Oomamamowan, Belmore has a close personal relationship with the work. She even slept beside it in her vehicle during cross-Canada road trips. Since the first performance in Banff in July 1991, the work has been a focal point for political demonstrations and gatherings from coast to coast.

Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan returned to Banff this summer as part of the Centre’s 75th anniversary celebrations. “The megaphone has been well used and is not in perfect condition, and that is part of the beauty of the work,” says former Walter Phillips Gallery senior curator Sylvie Gilbert. “It’s like a violin, an instrument people have used over the years to share their voice.”

Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan was purchased by the gallery in 2007 with the support of the York Wilson Endowment Award. The work includes current and future photo and audio archives of the performances, and is part of The Banff Centre’s permanent collection.

“Over the years, the piece has become a way of representing the prominence and history of Aboriginal art in Canada,” explains Gilbert, who led the acquisition of the work. “It represents a significant and meaningful acquisition for the Centre, which has a rich Aboriginal arts history.”

“Banff is naturally the best place for this artwork to reside,” says Belmore. “This past summer another gathering was organized and took place near the original site out at Johnson Lake, as a celebration of this idea of returning to a place. For me, to hear again the echo of our voices in such a beautiful site was a testimony to our short time on this great earth. Although this artwork was a response to a political crisis in the early 90s, I hope that by leaving it in the care of the collection that it will continue to have a life of its own — to be used as a tool for the human voice to speak to the land.”

The Banff Centre is taking time to pick the ideal location on campus for the permanent display of Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan. “We want to make sure it is well maintained and that its spirit is kept alive,” says Gilbert. “To keep its poetic power it needs to continue to be used as an active instrument and be situated appropriately within the landscape.”

Above from Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan, part of The Banff Centre Permanent Collection (l-r): Gathering 24 Sussex Drive, Ottawa 1996. Photo: Michael Beynon; Bureau de Change exhibition, Walter Phillips Gallery, 2008. Photo: Laura Vanags; Gathering Parliament Hill, Ottawa, 1992. Photo: Michael Beynon.