Joi T. Arcand’s Wayfinding

When graffiti artists discuss their practice, they sometimes categorise tags as being ‘old-school,’ mostly text-based; or ‘new-school’, incorporating images with text.(1) Considering this definition has long since caused me to envision what an Indigenous equivalent could or would be.

Several years ago, Connie Dieter Buffalo(2) generously shared with me a story her great-uncle had told her about wayfinding: when Northern Plains people were being ‘allowed’ to leave the confines of the reserves, they were issued a pass from the Indian Agent. Many would visit nearby towns that were being established, and while there they looked for food, water and safe passage. To help others who would come after them differentiate between the stores and restaurants that were friendly to native peoples and those that were hostile, they would tag the buildings with short syllabic messages. The statements were simple: straightforward instructions like “food here,” “water here,” “be careful here,” etc.

Over time, this practice spread, morphed and eventually became part of what many now credit as ‘hobo signs.’ A few recurring examples of shapes from our syllabary are still evident in the hobo glyph system. Though over time they’ve been assigned different meanings, the glyphs evoke our presence and sound out ‘here’ or ‘ôta’ (ᐅᑕ). However, this wayfinding and tagging is still ‘new-school’ to even older forms of tagging—for instance, petroglyphs and pictographs that are our oldest land-based encyclopaedias of knowledge.  It seems we’ve always had an imperative to relay a message or share a teaching to those who will come after, using language, shapes and their likenesses to mark a place on the land that connotes and embodies an important memory, history, and vision.(3)

Joi Arcand’s latest Wayfinding series is a continuation of this critical transmission. The work embodies ‘old-school’ tagging, using our glyph system, brought to us from the spirit world by Calling Badger.(4) Yet, Joi’s Wayfinding signs also reference ‘new-school’ approaches by way of material and location: neon, LED or gold vinyl in darkened gallery rooms, on granite stairways or interrupting modern architectural design motifs.

Maria Campbell(5) recently shared with me a teaching: each new day is never the same as any that had come before, and like the ever-changing dawn, the coming generations will make adaptations, and by doing so, they will in turn teach us anew. She shared this as a reassurance that all the changes, variations, new understandings and re-sounding of our worldview is part of a vital, life-affirming and infinite continuum. Joi’s Wayfinding series epitomizes this sense of versioning with an instruction for the viewer to self-reflect, source out the meaning, sound out the glyph shapes, and take her statements and admissions to heart. With each new tag, she teaches, and in turn, we learn new words—though she modestly insists she doesn’t have hers.

The ancient art of wayfinding has been described as being both a process of calculating one’s position in time-space by estimating distances travelled, and of being deeply attuned, watching for signs and visualising what lies ahead. Perhaps this is at the root of Joi Arcand’s Wayfinding—we should all be watching for signs to understand the direction she is motioning us toward.

Cheryl L’Hirondelle (Cree/Halfbreed; German/Polish) is an award-winning and community-engaged interdisciplinary artist, singer/songwriter and critical thinker whose family is from Papaschase First Nation / amiskwaciy wâskahikan (Edmonton) and Kikino Métis Settlement, Alberta. Her work investigates and articulates the intersections of nêhiyawin (Cree worldview) and contemporary time-place incorporating sound, Indigenous languages, music, and old and new technology. She is currently a PhD candidate with SMARTlab/University College Dublin.

1. Janice Rahn, Painting without permission: hip-hop graffiti subculture (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002).
2. Connie Dieter Buffalo is a writer and activist from File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council, SK.
3. Louise Erdrich, Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country (National Geographic Books, 2006).
4. Winona Stevenson, “Calling Badger and the Symbols of the Spirit Languages: The Cree Origins of the Syllabic System,” in Oral History Forum d’histoire orale, vol. 19 (2000).
5. Maria Campbell is a renowned Métis writer, filmmaker, activist and knowledge-keeper.

This article is published in issue 36.2 of BlackFlash magazine. Get this issue