“I liked the fact that it isn’t just about art history here, it’s also about visual studies — so all of my interests are supported in terms of what I can teach,” she says. “Being a dancer and choreographer, I teach everything through music and performance as well as visual arts, and I also love Indigenous filmmaking, so I bring that in too. My classes are very much passion projects — like my Indigenous tattoo course — so it’s really enhanced my teaching to be able to explore all these other areas.”
Prior to UVic, Dangeli taught at the University of Alaska Southeast, UFV and UNBC, as well as serving on various curatorial teams for Canadian, American and European museums — all of which offered the perfect background for this position.
“The approach I take is historicizing the present, so all of the artists I talk about are producing now,” she explains. “As Northwest Coast First Nations People, we live our art history every day, so I look at not only the historical roots of a wide array of art practices but also distinct and important differences Indigenous artists are making for future generations.”
Dangeli is also careful to avoid problematic terminology in her teaching.
“I steer away from oppressive terms like ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary,” she says. “It’s a continuum: Indigenous artists are still doing the work of their ancestors who incorporated all the tools, materials and technologies that came through many trade routes before and after colonial invasion. If we’re going to talk about tradition, the most ancient tradition we have as Indigenous people is to use the tools, materials and technologies of the time period that we live in to express who we are today.”
Over the past year, Dangeli has found a home in Fine Arts: not only through her teaching but also by leading panels, engaging with other units and using the building lobby to rehearse her First Nations dance group, the Git Hayetsk Dancers. But her biggest highlight? The students.
“The students at UVic are amazing: critical, intellectual, thoughtful and willing to create a safe space in my classroom to have challenging conversations about historical and ongoing colonization and about how Indigenous artists are engaging with today’s issues through their work,” she says. “There’s a gratitude here for the opportunity to learn that I haven’t encountered at any other university.”