Nadia Myre | Indian Act. 1999 and 2002
Nadia Myre’s ‘Indian Act’ addresses the realities of colonization and the broken promises and contracts made between the Indigenous people and the Settlers.
'Indian Act’ is made up of all 56 pages of the Federal Government’s Indian Act mounted on cloth and sewn over with red and white glass beads. Each word is replaced with white beads sewn into the document; the red beads replace the negative space.
Edgar Heap of Birds | Don’t Want Indians. 1982
Edgar Heap of Bird’s ‘Don’t Want Indians’ is a conceptual piece dealing with concepts of land sovereignty and Indigenous agency in the contemporary sphere.
Heap of Bird’s work is a truthful statement on the placement of Indigenous peoples. The fetishization from the Colonial Gaze and the interest in the idea of ‘the Indian’ and not the actual experience. The final statement ‘LIVING PEOPLE’ demands a recognition that not only are Indigenous people and cultures being appropriated and mistreated, but that they are in fact REAL and ALIVE, two truths that are often ignored.
Thankful for Decolonizing strategies and methods towards bringing back Indigenous sovereignty and agency.
