A dream of Tivi Etook

1974

Inscription: I am now relating something that actually happened to me. When I was a boy, during the darkness of night when all around me slept, I was very badly frightened. My heart and my breath stopped. I tried very hard to really wake up but found it very difficult. From my blanket on the floor, I could see a great evil spirit trying to get at me. I hid myself in my blankets and kept very quiet and still and with one hand managed to strike at this evil thing and hit it between its great ugly breasts. I felt the shock and heard the blow as my hand hit something solid, then it left me and I was happy to have overcome it.

Stonecut

53.3 × 73.7 cm

COURTESY ART GALLERY OF GUELPH

NOTES ¹ All quotes from Tivi Etok taken from Marybelle Myers ed., Tivi Etook: Whispering in My Ears and Mingling with My Dreams (Montreal: La Fédération des cooperatives du Nouveau-Québec, 1975), 6–9.