EXHIBITION

PRESS RELEASES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  FEB. 11,2009

Alfred hínuu díi kya'áang.(My name is Alfred)

In 1976 a project began to disassemble and re-landscape the Cemetery at Woodlands. This new landscaping design included the covering over or removal and disposal of the 3065 headstones of those buried there.

As part of my upcoming exhibition, Dead and Buried, in the Amelia Douglas Gallery at Douglas College, I have undertaken the project of remapping the former cemetery and assigning searchable GPS coordinates to each of its gravesites.

Recently, as a result of this remapping project, I was contacted by Lisa Donaldson who, after many years of genealogical research, had traced a long lost relation to the Cemetery at Woodlands. While working with her to locate the actual burial site I learned the story of her great great-grandfather Alfred McNeil. Alfred was born in 1838, the son of William Henry McNeil, the first captain of the Hudson's Bay Company's SS Beaver, and his wife Matilda, the daughter of a Kaigani Haida chief. Lisa told me how, after a long and eventful life, Alfred became separated from his family and died alone in 1921 at age 83 in what was then the New Westminster Mental Hospital. Alfred's life story is but one of the thousands of stories that have been buried here amongst the bones at Woodlands. For me, discovering Alfred McNeil's story has put a human face on what otherwise might remain just a database of names and numbers.

In order to honour Alfred and close a gap in their family history, Lisa and Alfred's living relations, many of whom are of Haida ancestry, will be joined by New Westminster Qayquat band member Robert Bandura, on this traditional Qayquat territory, in a ceremony, to mark Alfred's grave and share the story of his life.

The repatriation ceremony will take place on Saturday, February 21, at 11:00 amin the former Woodlands Cemetery (Memorial Dr. and McBride Blvd.) in New Westminster. Members of the media are invited to attend.

A photographic record of this historic act of repatriation will become a feature work in my exhibition which is subtitled "What became of the Cemetery at Woodlands?".

Dead and Buried (March 5th to April 4th, 2009) is a part of the Douglas College Woodlands Project which also includes the theatrical premiere of Mary Burns' play entitled Imperfect.

For further Information contact Michael de Courcy
Tel.: (604) 525 0677
e mail: mdec@decourcy.ca
Website: www.michaeldecourcy.com