FEATURED FELLOW: MARK NADJIWAN
At his core, Mark Nadjiwan is a storyteller. The Neyaashiinigmiing Unceded First Nation artist wields his pen and ink to share the stories of his people through traditional Woodland and Northwest Coast Native art forms. He uses his gift for storytelling to advocate for environmental responsibility and stewardship. Canadian Geographic spoke with Nadjiwan about his passion for art, his role models and his connection to the Canada jay, which he honoured with “For Seven Generations,” an artwork featured in Canadian Geographic.
On his role models
The land is both mentor and inspiration — all facets of my encounters with the land, whether it’s trees, rocks, formations, waters and, of course, all the wonderful flora and fauna that inhabit these spaces. Everything is alive; everything is imbued with spirit. The land is a person. In terms of style, we have our grandfathers in the art form, no one more so than Norval Morrisseau and Carl Ray, who used a lot of simple colour palettes and heavy black form lines. Ray did a style that I really loved as a youngster. There was something about that traditional Woodland style. Contemporary Indigenous artists always have to be careful to give that nod to those who laid the groundwork for us.
On his themes
The messages I’m trying to communicate, such as connection and interdependence, are universal. So much of our attention today is focused, quite rightly, on the environment and our relationship to it. So if I’m going to talk about this topic in both image and word, it seems only right that I’m using the ways and means derived from my own Indigenous people, given our ancient kinship ties to the lands and the waters as well as to all the creatures that inhabit those realms.
On the Canada jay
One of the informal names for the Canada jay is the camp robber. It has that name because those who camped from way back, namely the Abitibi people, discovered very quickly that if they weren’t careful with their food, the bird was pretty good at finding and stealing it. So finally, Whiskyjack was confronted one day by someone who said, “Whiskyjack, why is it that no matter where we hide our food, you are able to find it?” Whiskyjack replied, “It is because the Earth is my plate, and each person knows how to clean their own plate.” Essentially, we take too much from the plate of the Earth, such that it’s having real impacts. We’re not keeping in mind the responsibility we all have to the next seven generations after, hence the name of my piece, “For Seven Generations.”
On becoming a Fellow
Indigenous people, we’re storytelling people. But since colonization, we are a people who have only been spoken to, spoken at or spoken about — rarely spoken with and rarely able to speak for ourselves. Well, that has changed now, right? So that’s what I'm doing with my art. Now people are finally paying attention to Indigenous perspectives. I’m a storyteller in both images and words, so this fellowship is a chance to be part of the storytelling community.
—Interview by Olivia Wiens