FROM THUNDER BAY ART GALLERY’S COLLECTION
Artist: Francis Kagige
Title: The Spirit of the Maize
Date: 1994
Medium: Acrylic on canvas board
Dimensions: 60 x 50 cm
Gift of L. Bruce Pierce, Norflex Limited
Spirit of the Maize by Anishinaabe artist Francis Kagige (1929–2014) celebrates the bounty of summer. In bold lines and colours of the new Woodland style, Kagige’s works honour the Three Sisters as sacred crops. Maize (corn), winter squash, and climbing beans are the three main agricultural crops of various Indigenous groups across North America. Maize, as Kagige pictures it, is at the very heart of our shared human story. It is life.
Today, the Three Sisters teach us a lot about spiritual ecology, plant-based knowledge, and food security. Variations of Three Sisters gardens represent 5,000 to 6,000 years of agricultural knowledge (squash was first domesticated over 8,000 to 10,000 years ago!) Known today as “companion planting,” crops are planted close together to benefit each other. As a tall sturdy structure, maize provides a pole for the beans to climb. Beans add nitrogen to the soil to help the other plants grow strong.
Squash spreads naturally along the ground, blocking the sunlight and reducing weeds. The squash leaves also break down to create nutrient-rich soil that retains its moisture. Prickly hairs of the squash vines deter pests. Delicious and nutritious, and super smart.
Spirit of the Maize is one of five works by Kagige in our permanent collection. Kagige was born in Wiikwemikoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island. He is a selftrained artist who is considered part of the first generation of the Woodland style. His art reflects his love of nature and interest in Anishinaabe way of life and legends. Kagige's work has been exhibited with other members of the Woodland School of Art, and has been displayed in the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, the Canada House Gallery in London, England, the Gallery Prist Noi in Vienna, Austria, and at Expo ‘67, among others.
What pairings of plants and flowers in your own garden might inspire art like Kagige’s?