Alex McKay
Settler artist

The Transcription process is how we went about making enough handwritten treaties to make Treaty Canoe. Now it is something we do any time Treaty canoe pays a visit to a gallery or commmunity. If a person transcribes a treaty, writes it out by hand, they invariably read it, closley. When a person is asked to consider what treaty they might want to transcribe, for we always make this the choice of the Scribe, they invariably choose to write out the treaty from where thier ancestors first settled, or where they summer, or where they live now. Upon reading the treaty closely, and thinking about the circumstances in which it was negotiated, one tends to question what it is one is reading, the disparities between languages and cultures, if it is actually what all parties agreeed to, if everyone has kept up thier treaty obligations, etc. Mostly Scribes tend to reach the conclusion that there is something fishy about the treaty they are transcribing, and question whether anyone would knowlingly agree to such onerous terms.