niigaanikwewag Art Gallery of Mississauga
Art Gallery of Mississauga
FEBRUARY 22–APRIL 15, 2018 MISSISSAUGA, CANADA
Leader women. This is the core concept of curator Rhéanne Chartrand’s recent exhibition niigaanikwewag, which brings together and creates dialogues between the works of 16 powerful Indigenous women ar tists. The exhibition opens with an epic abstract painting by Rita Letendre, OC, OOnt, RCA, titled Sunset (1971), evoking the cycle of death and eventual rebirth of each new day. Nearby, Caroline Monnet’s Creatura Dada (2016) captures a group of six women having a sumptuous dinner while revelling in their combined power as Indigenous creative women. This video work succinctly and directly sets up the overarching theme of the exhibition, the web of conversations and ideas shared between Indigenous women.
The following room features a second work by Letendre, a small silkscreen titled Moon Beam (1971), which is positioned above the door. The piece, notes Chartrand, is a reminder of women’s “intimate connection to the cycles of Grandmother Moon.” By positioning Letendre’s work at the entrances to both sections of the gallery space, the exhibition is anchored, both by the work of a notable Indigenous elder artist and by pieces that abstractly conjure the female body. Directly adjacent to Letendre’s print, Vanessa Dion Fletcher’s beaded menstrual stains in Mark (2016) are a more overt corporeal reference. Delicate and richly beaded in varying shades of red, the seven textural patterns are modelled on the artist’s own menstrual stains and are affixed to a light floral pattern fabric, the wall colour beyond them is itself work. For Home Depot Colour Match (2016), Dion Fletcher brought her own menstrual blood to the home improvement store to be matched as a custom paint colour. In my own community there has been a lot of conflicting opinions on women’s moon time, with some women being rejected or shamed into not participating in ceremonies. Closely related to skirt-shaming, the taboos on menstruation that persist amongst some Indigenous communities make Dion Fletcher’s work all the more crucial within the context of this show.
Similarly striking is a series by Olivia Whetung, titled onjishkawigaabawin (2015), that features five panels of unfinished beadwork designs suspended within steel frame looms. Whetung’s patterns are based on ones found in the book The Crafts of the Ojibwa, a 1943 text published by the Office of Indian Affairs in the United States, which does not credit the Indigenous designers of the patterns. The missing beads speak of Indigenous erasure, both as labourers and creators. They also hint at absence.
It is impossible to expect that a show of this scope could contain the full breadth of work being made by Indigenous women today —the missing beads, then, call forward those artists who are not included and most profoundly those missing women who will not be able to make work at all.
Still, the theme of resilience carries the exhibition forward. Rosalie Favel’s Transformation (1999) pictures the wellknown figure of 90s television character Xena, Warrior Princess, transforming into Favel’s Plain(s) Warrior Artist as embodied by the artist herself. Favel’s creation of her own heroine, modelled in her own image, speaks to the power of self-representation
by and for Indigenous women and their future relations. In this same vein Untitled (2003) by Annie Pootoogook (1969–2016) depicts a peaceful and tender domestic scene of a mother breastfeeding her child while her partner adjusts a stereo. Despite the systemic issues facing so many Indigenous children in Canada, including the high proportion of them being removed from loving homes because of things like poverty and intergenerational contact with the child welfare system, there is a hopefulness to this work that this family will stay together through mutual love and care.
Although niigaanikwewag successfully highlights a multitude of women’s experiences, I’m left wondering if the curator has played it safe. I’m curious, for instance, why one of Pootoogook’s more challenging works, such as those depicting domestic violence or addiction or homelessness wasn’t chosen. This said, Indigenous trauma is so over represented, consumed and expected by settler Canadians that perhaps there is more power in denying this view. Ultimately, through centring the strong voices and inspiring works of numerous celebrated Indigenous women artists, including Kenojuak Ashevak, CC, ON, RCA (1927–2013), Christie Belcourt, Rebecca Belmore, RCA, Joane Cardinal-Shubert, RCA, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Meryl McMaster, Marianne Nicolson, Shelley Niro, RCA, Daphne Odjig, CM, OBC, RCA and Rolande Souliere, as well as those discussed above, Chartrand has curated an exhibition that links conversations within the communities of these artists, such as those of self-determination, language, environmental stewardship, family, storytelling and identity, to the world beyond.
The strength of these Indigenous women artists leads us toward the promise of the fortified spirit of Indigenous peoples.