Photo by Alisa Layne
Claiming Space: Voices for Urban Aboriginal Youth, a new art exhibit at the UBC Museum of Anthropology (MOA), showcases the work of young, indigenous artists who bravely seek not only to tell the truth about Canadian history, but to reassert their collective identities as indigenous peoples.
Curated by Pamela Brown, the exhibit contains five areas of focus: The Indigenous Sprawl, We Are Culture, Adapting Our Traditions, The Gaze and The Keepers.
“These themes came about after working with the pieces and out of our experience working with urban youth,” says Brown, who has formed a partnership with the Urban Native Youth Association (UNYA), and has led the Indigenous Youth Program at MOA for 20 years.
Asserting identity
Birch Baskets: One of the many artworks on display. | Photo by Alisa Layne
The exhibit displays a variety of artworks, materials and colors that create a fusion of traditional and contemporary concepts and designs. It is enough to tantalize an audience for hours. According to Brown, however, the most poignant aspect of the exhibit is its exploration and assertion of identity.
“What you experience in Claiming Space is an honest and unapologetic exploration of the multiple dimensions of identity. Some questions are resolved in the art, only to have new questions emerge. All of these artists represent the intersection of multiple identities and cultural influences,” says Brown.
The significance of the artworks, along with the courage and tenacity with which these young artists have chosen to express themselves, cannot be fully appreciated without the historical context from which these works emerge. Canada has historically had a complex and sometimes hostile relationship with indigenous peoples. In response to the Indian Status Card, for example, Sarah Yankoo plays on the absurdities of legislated identity and dismantles the notion that people can collectively be categorized into specific, isolated descriptions. Her work, titled Certificate of Virtual Indian Status, presents a modification of the status card, describing the cardholder as “at least one fortieth Indian, two parts water, the rest unknown.”
Ellena Neel, inspired by the discussions surrounding the popular use of the indigenous headdresses – most notably in the Coachella music festival –
confronts the issue of Hollywood’s native imagery. In an untitled work, she demonstrates that cheap costumes are not as nice or honouring as people try to make them seem, while defending against arguments of cultural appropriation and stereotyping. In a photograph of herself with the names of Indian costumes written on her body, she challenges an audience that might otherwise over-intellectualize the debate, if not for the penetrative, and fierce human emotion expressed in the photograph.
“Words do not mean anything when coming from a face on the internet. [When they see] a face and a body, a person would realize that these ideas and actions do hurt real people, and people should face that,” says Neel.
Pushing boundaries
Claiming Space: Voices for Urban Aboriginal Youth is a celebration of the resilience of indigenous peoples, and an examination of indigenous culture as it exists today. By blending traditional and contemporary materials, techniques and concepts, artists affirm that culture is a living, fluid thing. Aboriginal art has always celebrated and pushed the boundaries of ‘tradition’ in this way.
“This is what we do as indigenous people,” explains Dana Claxton, another artist featured in the exhibit, in a blog post on the MOA website.
