8 Indigenous Contemporary Artists Reclaim Identity and Representation
It is common knowledge in Canada today that Indigenous people in our country have long endured a history of colonizationâs injustice since colonizers first arrived in North America. The statistics of horrendous massacres are arduously documented on paper, and the harrowing consequences of residential schools are on the mainstream radar. Stephen Harperâs apology in 2008 reached millions, and Justin Trudeau; despite the controversy around his tattoo appropriating Haida culture, has successfully created the illusion to many that he is going to further reconciliations. The Eurocentric narrative makes history seem like it belongs to the past; that the fact that is in the past makes it benign, unable to permeate the present.
This false construction of history as most non-Indigenous Canadians know it today, is based on centuries of much less implicit exclusion and silencing tactics. The marginalization of Indigenous people has occurred most remarkably through representation-first how the colonizers viewed them, then, how they conveyed their denigrations of the âdirty Indiansâ to the rest of North America and the world. Contemporary Indigenous artists in Canada are fighting back and reclaiming their image by giving a voice to their communities, which allow audiences to view Indigenous peopleâs identities in a humanizing and truthful light.
Sometimes that voice is quite flamboyant and gleeful. Kent Monkman, a multi-media artist of Cree ancestry who lives in Toronto, has garnered international recognition for his paintings, film and video, performance art, and installations. Monkmanâs portraits are often visually loud, and illustrious, using a wide range of vibrant colours and many bustling figures. His portraiture work, predominantly in the medium of painting, captures figures in midst of gestures and they are depicted with high degree of realism. In The Triumph of Mischief painted in 2007, he mocks Canadian landscape as painted by European artists such as Paul Kane and George Catlin, by reclaiming it and dispersing wild allegories of Indigenous people and colonizers in a flurry of battles and celebrations. Critics have described Monkmanâs work as highly satirical. Murray Whyte from The Star writes, âItâs fair to say that Kent Monkman stands alone in a genre of one: revisionist history, colonial period, of the Eurocentric fantasy of the ânoble savageâ, all seen through a queer lens.â Working with his alter ego persona Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, who makes an appearance in many of his paintings and performances, Kent Monkman introduces a world of intricate sexualities and identities of Indigenous people and the history that has been omitted by the European oppression.
 Ojibwe artist Carl Beam applies several layers of commentary within his multi-media practice to juxtapose images that challenge stereotypes of Indigenous people. The artist lived and died in his birthplace of MâChigeeng, and left behind a legacy of being the first Indigenous artist to have his work purchased by The National Gallery of Canada under âcontemporary artâ. This important accomplishment presented a platform for discussion on problems that affect First Nationsâ cultures, the environment, brutality of oppression, and how the retelling of history affected Indigenous people everywhere. Beamâs autobiographical paintings, prints, and sculptures which catalyst political commentary, make use of photo-transfer techniques to create a blend of subjects and events from the past and present. Carl Beamâs handmade bowls and pottery during his later years, was sometimes decorated with the imagery of the raven (âMigwansâ, Beamâs family name, translates to âfeatherâ or âbirdâ), which signified his exploration into self-portraiture, and reflection of a strong connection to his First Nations identity. The artist looked within himself and the socio-political atmosphere in which he lived to influence the aesthetic decisions of his groundbreaking work.
Since the invention of photography, the medium has been viewed with suspicion in the Aboriginal community.
 MĂ©tis artist Rosalie Favell is well known for her Facing The Camera series. Favell explains the underlying subjugation of photography, which is, âcamera was another weapon in the wars of domination in the history of colonization.â After meeting many artists during her Banff residence in 2008, Rosalie Favell embarked on a mission to professionally document the faces of her fellow Indigenous contemporaries to give them exposure; a project that was greeted with great support and positivity from the community. The artist sees the photograph as a space for peopleâs identities to perform.
In her statement, Favell writes, âidentity is constantly worked and reworked, represented, and perhaps hidden. I use the portrait convention to acknowledge the agency of the individual in bringing together in a conscious and unconscious way, the numerous cultural and personal factors through which the sense of self is expressedâ. In her portraits, the subject reveals themselves to the artist behind the camera, and furthermore, the subjects find their identities revealed to themselves. On occasion, Rosalie Favell takes self-portraits and finds herself reflecting on her own identity and image as an Indigenous artist.
Shelley Niro is an artist who presents a new perspective on Indigenous identity by weaving cultural symbolism and humour into stereotypical semiotics of Indians. She is a member of Six Nations Reserve, Turtle Clan, Bay of Quinte, and her projects incorporate beadwork, painting, photography, and film. The voice of her work is quite introspective and phenomological. In 1999, Niro constructed the piece Time Travels Through Us, which is a photograph of a mother and her two daughters placed in a silver painted frame that is embedded with purple and white beads. Also present is a turtle perching on the shoulder of the eldest daughter, the animal of the Niro family clan; symbolic of the animal from the creation myth. The mother gently holds a nest with eggs, which the youngest daughter supports with cupped palms. The chosen colours represent Iroquois aesthetics and the Wampum, and the importance of the document as it envelops the figures. The composition of the mother and her kin suggest the passing down of cultural, social, and personal values through generations. Â Â
Niroâs popular project, The Shirt displayed at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and also recently at the AGO, critiques the lasting detrimental effects of European colonialism that still affect Indigenous individuals today. In the photographs, posing against a green landscape as a stereotypical tourist, the subject wears a white t-shirt sayings such as âMy ancestors were annihilated, exterminated, murdered and massacredâ, âThey were cheated, tricked, and deceivedâ, âAttempts were made to assimilate, colonize, enslave and displace themâ, and âAnd allâs I get is this shirtâ. Although the punch line is darkly humorous, the message of colonialismâs disturbing past rings loud and clear. Niro made the artistic decision to juxtapose the tourist figure on an untouched landscape backdrop as a way to reclaim the land that was originally and rightfully theirs before it was polluted with the violent past of colonization.Â
In 2015, Macleanâs published a heartbreaking article on the racism problem of Winnipeg, labelling it as the most racist city in Canada. The article outlines the sexual assault and murder of young women, and the racism shown on social media through vicious accusations of Indigenous people shown as lazy bums living off government welfare. The racists highlighted in the article show little sympathy or acknowledgement of the brutal treatment of Aboriginals.
 Visual artist KC Adams reclaimed racial slurs endured by First Nations communities in her portrait series Perception. Adams photographs unsmiling individuals in black and white and plasters common slurs across the image, and in a parallel image, she captures the same individual with a softened expression. The second image illuminates the radiant, authentic identity of the individual, free of stereotypes and judgement.
Another artist that draws attention to Indigenous femicide and mistreatment of Indigenous peoples through history as a whole is Rebecca Belmore. Belmore is internationally known for her performance and installation pieces, and she was Canadaâs official representative at the 2005 Venice Biennale. Belmore pushes her body to its limits to perform works critiquing the cultural and political exhile of First Nations peoples. Critic Jessica Bradley writes of the artistâs practice, âThe work of Rebecca Belmore interrogates usual configurations of location, unmasking imagined relationships of nature and filling the abstractions of identity politics with heartfelt renderings of everyday life. She makes us think about how land is represented, exploring its mythic function in the circulation of colonial conceitsâ. Belmoreâs performances give voice to the complexity of the relationships between First Nations people and the western world.
Artist Dana Claxton looks at the gender and historical representation of First Nations people in her practice. Claxton is a filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist of Hunkpapa Lakota ancestory. In 2007 she was presented the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art award. She speaks of her practice as being âinfluenced by my own experience as a Lakota woman, as a Canadian, a mixed blood Canadian, and then my own relationship to the natural and supernatural world. So taking that whole bundle of experiences, it all goes in to the artwork, I think that's where the multi-layering comes in because I've had a very multi-layered life. And it's all those experiences that go in to the work.âÂ
Her work combines her world-view with real issues faced by Indigenous communities in the past and present and how traditional iconography plays into pop culture and contemporary culture. She explores colonization, body imagery, beauty, politics, and spirituality through the medium of video and photography. In her artwork On The Red Road in 2006, Claxton presented five photographs dealing with clothing and stereotypes of femininity. The artist wears traditional regalia, and gradually sheds articles of clothing, eventually revealing a stereotypically âsexyâ dress. The work highlights how Indigenous identity is multi-layered and deeper than surface layer perceptions of popular culture, while questioning gender bias among a wider audience. Â In Grant her Restitution (1991) and I Want To Know Why (1994) Dana Claxton investigates the effects of colonialism on women especially, and in interviews she revealed she wanted to âbring spirit into the gallery spaceâ. The artist brings together symbolism of Lakota spirituality and contemporary spaces of art.
 Arthur Renwick is a photo-based artist, curator, and professor who dedicates his practice to the exploration of identity as a cultural phenomenon and how colonization has affected it. Renwick is a descendent of Haisla First Nation, born and raised in Kitimat British Columbia. His earliest notable work looked into the impact of industrialization on society and nature, which was influenced by the Alcanâs iluminum smelter in his hometown. His portraiture work emerged with his Mask Series in 2008, where the artist asks his subjects to âlook through the lens and directly at the stereotypesâ and make an instinctive gesture. The portraits were highly animated, and confrontational. They speak of the identity of a group of people depicted to take a stand against stereotypes. The artist intended for his work to make the viewer feel diminished when they encountered the portraits. The series allowed Arthur Renwick to confront his own heritage that travels down a long path of unsettling discrimination.
There are themes that emerge within one artistâs practices that are reminiscent of another artistâs work, such as the gender and sexuality exploration that Kent Monkman and Dana Claxton share, or the landscape and worldview connection between Shelley Niro and Rebecca Belmore. Carl Beam explored and embedded his ancestory into his pottery and paintings, much like Niro and Arthur Renwick. Renwick and Favell discovered their role and responsibility as Individual artists through capturing the performing identities of other Indigenous subjects in their portrait photography. The goal of these contemporary eight artists can be summarized to be one of fighting stereotypes, questioning the complexities of identity with introspection, and contextualizing where and how the Indigenous representation relates to the western world-spiritually, socially, and politically.
