Description

Supplement 7: Uncle Doug’s Fishing Shack traces Joar Nango’s artistic process, mapping the development of his temporary installation and sculpture Uncle Doug’s Fishing Shack, 2019. The publication features an interview between Nango and Indigenous architect David Thomas about an abandoned military barracks’ transformation into Canada’s largest urban reserve. It also includes a short essay by Indigenous architect Ryan Gorrie in which he examines Circle of Life Thunderbird House in Winnipeg, designed by renowned Indigenous architect Douglas Cardinal. These texts are paired with critical writings by architecture lecturer Timothy O’Rourke and architecture scholar Courtney R. Thompson, who detail accounts of governmental suppression of Indigenous architectural and artistic ingenuity in both Australia and Canada. These writings are interwoven by text by Jenifer Papararo, curator of Uncle Doug’s Fishing Shack, reflecting on Nango’s research process and the conversations that ignited, developed, and epitomized the nature of this collaborative and improvisational site-specific installation. We launch this publication as part of Girjegumpi, Nango’s ongoing library project for which he has been assembling an archive of books related to Indigenous architectures for over fifteen years. AGYU, Fillip and Plug In are pleased to contribute to the contents of Girjegumpi. To animate the installation as part of the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale in the Nordic Countries Pavilion, they present a conversation between Nango and Thomas discussing Indigenous architectures within a global context.