[MUSIC] The government really wanted a positive image in that pavilion and what they got was the truth. That's what really shocked them the most. [MUSIC] >> Let's begin our discussion about the reclamation of Indigenous art by Indigenous artists and curators, and the struggles for recognition in the national and international art world with Expo 67 in Montreal. Called the Indians of Canada Pavilion, this project was to be a highlight of the 100 year anniversary of Canada's confederation. Organizers of this celebratory Pavilion had expectations of the Indigenous artists to highlight the survival and resilience of Indigenous people, thus reaffirming the great and beautiful cultural mosaic of a confederate Canada. However, just as Harold Cardinal's 1969 response to the White Paper motivated and galvanized First Nations nationhood, the pavilion project was also a formative activist movement that vitalized and energized Indigenous artist and curators. The exterior of the pavilion relied upon the amalgamation and romanticization of the Plains and Northwest Coast tribes, with the use of the iconic teepee for the architectural form and the familiar totem pole to draw in crowds. As well, the exterior also had artists like Anishinaabek painters, like Norval Morrisseau, Carl Ray, and Francis Kagige, composing large murals created from their cultural stories and spiritual beliefs. These paintings supplied tourists with the expected and traditional understandings of Indigenous art, as they were recognizable as distinctly Indian. The interior, however, displayed more contemporary and abstract works of artists like Alex Janvier, Gerald Tailfeathers, and Jean-Marie Gros-Louis, disrupting the more familiar and comfortable broad public visions of Indigenous art. These modernist abstract pieces of art would alert the world that Indigenous art had the will and the propensity to not only maintain traditional forms of artistry but also to express Indigeneity in a modern context. Expo 67 brought together a diversity of Indigenous artists, activists, and organizers from across Canada to compete on an international stage with contemporary western art. >> The pavilion project brought a sense of the power of the artists, people all of a sudden realized what they could do, as artists, to communicate ideas. [MUSIC] >> The Expo officials' original intent, to present history from a colonial perspective became irrelevant. The process of a broad consultation across Canada revealed a desire for Indigenous peoples to present a different version of history between Indigenous people and Canada. The artists, contracted for Indigenous art, were steadfast in their visions for their art, and ignored officials' suggestions for more appropriate topics for art pieces. This break in the expected narrative of Indigenous art and culture shifted ideas of Indian art from being one that embodied a pure bygone era, to one that emphasized diversity and multi-tribalism. Prior to the Indian Pavilion, nothing else compared to the project's ability to bring Indigenous artists together, from across the country, from different generations. While the Indian Pavilion did not entirely break away from colonial patriarchal discourse of the Canadian government, it did act as a catalyst for further examination of the dominant discourse, and as a precursor to groups such as the Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporated, PNIAI, and the Society of Canadian Artists of Native Ancestry, or SCANA. Before we go onto examine SCANA or PNIAI, it's vital to begin by discussing the influence of artist Daphne Odjig. Described as Picasso's grandmother by Norval Morrisseau, and known even more widely as the grandmother of Indigenous art, Daphne Odjig was born in 1919, and was originally from Wikwemikong. Odjig's art experimented and pushed stylistic boundaries. As one of Canada's most celebrated Indigenous artists, her work exposed issues of colonization, the marginalization of Indigenous women and children, and other political issues. In 1972, her work was exhibited at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. This was a significant turning point, as this was the first time any Indigenous artist had their work exhibited as art pieces in a gallery and not as relics in a museum. Two years later, in 1974, she opened the Warehouse Gallery in Winnipeg, a place that supported emerging Indigenous artists. Odjig, along with six others, cofounded the Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporated, or PNIAI as they originally called themselves in the early 1970s, and became incorporated on April 1st, 1975. This collaborative group organized and fought for inclusion of their work and other Indigenous artists' works in mainstream Canada. Original members also included Norval Morrisseau, Jackson Beardy, Alex Janvier, Eddy Cobiness, Carl Ray, and Joe Sanchez. Although the artists themselves don't often refer to themselves as the Indian Group of Seven, they are often called and remembered as such. In fact, when Janvier speaks of this group, he talks about the collective as the group of eight, and includes Haida artist, Bill Reid. PNIAI formed during a particularly tumultuous time in history. As we've learned in previous lessons, the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Jean Chretien, and the liberal government had just come out with its controversial Indian policy. Political leaders, such as Harold Cardinal, were not the only ones who took notice. PNIAI fought against the idea that Indian art was merely handicrafts or artifacts to be put in museums. They worked together to establish credibility and respect as artists who happened to be Indigenous. Together, they faced colonial attitudes, racial barriers, and systemic racism. Alex Janvier discloses that as a burgeoning artist in the 1950s, he was forced to obtain a pass or a permit from the Indian agent to leave his reserve in Cold Lake to go to art school. Restrictive measures, such as the ability to travel freely, to the ability to participate in the mainstream contemporary art world as equals, compelled members of PNIAI to work together, to have their voices heard, and to challenge the oppressive social and political nature of Canada. In some of our last lessons, notably after the lesson on residential schools and the lesson on Red Power, we learned that Indigenous peoples were impelled to control their own destinies. And we're very interested in Indian control of Indian education. In 1973, the Manitou Community College was created. It is an art college dedicated to supporting and educating Indian artists in the arts, literature, media, and history. It was the first community college of its kind to be under Aboriginal control. As mentioned earlier, the creation of SCANA, the Society of Canadian Artists of Native Ancestry in 1984 was the result of the actions and coalition of Indigenous artists from Expo 67. They were a collective of Indigenous artist that advocated for more inclusion for Indigenous artists in contemporary western galleries and museums. Their primary aim was to be included in the National Art Gallery. It wasn't until 1986 that Carl Beam became the first Indigenous artist to be included in the National Art Gallery's permanent collection. The first major solo exhibit in the National Gallery by an Indigenous artist was Norval Morrisseau. SCANA successor, the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, started in 2005 because there continued to be a lack of opportunities for publishing and curating. Galleries were just starting to work with Indigenous artists, not treating them like curators. Again, Indigenous artists were reaching out and taking control and having their voices heard. No longer would they settle for one art show or a one shot deal. There were a lot of educated people who could curate, but they were not given the opportunities. The Spirit Sings: Artistic Traditions of Canada's First Peoples, is an exhibit that can also be described as a critical event for the transformation of museum, patriarchal colonial policies, and relationship with Indigenous people, and their art and culture. The Calgary Winter Olympics showcased an Indigenous exhibit housed within the Glenbow Museum and sponsored largely by Shell Oil. This exhibit, which showcased over 650 collected items of Indigenous art from other museums across the globe, caused a huge outcry amongst Indigenous peoples, artists, scholars, and curators. The controversy, and subsequent boycott, had two underpinnings. The first challenged the universal practices of western museums, who would often use ancestral remains, sacred, and ceremonial objects as displays and spectacles. The second controversy involved the Lubicon Cree Nation and their quest to be recognized as the original inhabitants and caretakers of a traditional area of land in northern Alberta. These traditional lands were never officially assigned or surveyed as reserves in the 1900s, and subsequently, without a land base, the Lubicon Cree were never federally recognized as a band. Ironically, Shell Oil was not only the corporate sponsor of The Spirit Sings exhibit but was one of the oil companies benefiting from resource extraction on the traditional territory of the Lubicon Cree. The exhibit provided the Lubicon leaders with the perfect venue to gain international attention. Across Canada, this pivotal event changed the approach of museums when working with Indigenous art and culture, including more consultation with Indigenous peoples. There are instances of Indigenous artists working and interacting physically with the land. One example is Marianne Nicolson. Her contemporary expressions of Kwakwaka'wakw concepts reimagines space and time, bringing the past to the present with powerful actions and imagery. In her Cliff Painting video, Nicholson's decolonial actions are clearly seen on the dune coloured cliffs. Accessible only by boat, Kingcome Inlet is a lesser principal fjord on the west coast by Vancouver. Her traditional Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw community sits close, only a few kilometres up the river. Nicolson revisioned and re-covered over a fading traditional design with fresh red ochre paint. This re-covering of the existing design is imprinted on the cliff in a type of naturalization process. Nicholson is reclaiming the territory, the space inhabited by her ancestors. In this way, we see a reclamation and revitalization of traditional tribal art within a new contemporary context. [MUSIC]
