First Nations, Métis, and Inuit leaders have asked for their cultural heritage to be returned ahead of the pope’s visit to Canada.
First Nations
Posted inNews
Baby Mammoth, Buried for 30,000 Years, Unearthed Largely Intact in Canada
Nun cho ga, meaning “big baby animal” in the Hän language, is “the most complete mummified mammoth found in North America.
Posted inFilm
Three Films to Stream for Indigenous Peoples’ Day
These films tell stories of resistance, trauma, and healing without relying on tired stereotypes.
Posted inNews
Donation Returns Over 200 Indigenous Art Objects to British Columbia
The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia has received an anonymous donation of First Nations art and artifacts worth $7 million, a major return of indigenous heritage to the area.
Posted inArt
Seven First Nations Artists Who Fought for a Place in the Canadian Canon
KLEINBURG, Ontario — People often generalize indigenous art, confining it to images of totem poles, bears, and eagles.
Posted inBooks
Haida Master Carver Charles Edenshaw Finally Gets His Due
With incredible precision through a diversity of materials, Charles Edenshaw evoked the beauty of traditional Haida art at a time when this First Nations culture was on the precipice of disappearing.
Posted inArt
The Violent History of Kent Monkman
In Kent Monkman’s first New York solo show, which closes this weekend at Sargent’s Daughters, art history commingles with cultural mythology in a passion play about masculinity and belonging.
Posted inOpinion
First Western Painting of Native Americans Discovered at the Vatican
During the recent restoration of Pinturicchio’s Resurrection fresco (1494) on the wall of the Hall of Mysteries in the Borgia Apartment at the Vatican has revealed what may be the first images of Native Americans in European art.
Posted inArt
Reclaiming Tonto and Appropriating Jay-Z
TORONTO — Appropriation and amalgamation take center stage at “Beat Nation,” organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and currently on view at The Power Plant in Toronto, a show focusing on the influence of hip hop culture in Aboriginal contemporary art.
Posted inNews
Indigenous Action Highlights British Museum’s Role in Colonialism
Last Friday, January 11, Idle No More London staged a UK solidarity action in London’s British Museum. Standing in solidarity with the Idle No More movement, which originated last November with the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities in Canada, members of Idle No More London chose the museum that is widely believed to be the largest repository of colonial artifacts in the world as the site for their protest action.
Posted inArt
Engaging Turbulence at One of New York’s Only Smithsonian Institutions
The Carl Beam retrospective now at the National Museum of the American Indian Heye Center in Lower Manhattan could be a response to the museum itself. Located in the imposing Alexander Hamilton US Custom House, a monolithic reminder that New York City was originally built on European immigration, the museum presents artifacts and art by North America’s first people. Beam’s work likewise was always aimed at juxtaposing the modern culture of North America, a transformation of the country that he marked with the arrival of Columbus, with the traditional imagery of the American Indians. Neither the museum nor the influential Canadian artist’s work offers much harmony between these two clashing worlds, but in the resulting collage of Beam’s work is an engaging sort of turbulence.