First Peoples' Photographic Perspectives
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14 emergence from the shadow: first Peoples’ Photographic Perspectives Jeff Thomas As a guest curator for the exhibition Emergence from the Shadow: First Peoples’ Photographic Perspectives, shown at the Canadian Museum of Civilization from 23 October 1999 to 2 January 2001, I wanted to challenge notions of Aboriginal peoples prevalent in popular culture as dis- seminated through decades of anthropological research.1 Cigar-store icons, television, and the Hollywood Western – among other popular forms – have played major roles in creating and ingraining stereotypical images of the North American Indian. Emerging from the shadow cast by this popularized notion of Indian life, I organized the show along two perspectives to explore themes of community and continuity and how the past influences the present in both cultural and art- istic terms. The works representing the first perspective, “Through the Anthropologist’s Camera,” were situated on one side of the gallery (Fig. 14.1) and comprised his- torical photographs by four anthropologists – Charles Marius Barbeau (1883–1969), Harlan Smith (1872–1940), Francis Knowles (1886–1953), and Frederick Wilkerson Waugh (1872–1924) – who studied First Peoples for the Geological Survey of Canada (gsc) during the early twentieth century. The works that expressed the second perspective, “Perspectives from the Urban Frontier,” were installed on the opposite side of the gallery, facing the historical photographs (Fig. 14.2). These were the photographs of contemporary Aboriginal artists Shelley Niro, Greg Staats, Mary Anne Barkhouse, Rosalie Favell, and Greg Hill, and an installation piece by Barry Ace. Each contemporary artist was paired with a historical photographic portrait positioned to face his or her par- ticular section. payne-kunard.indd 212 06/04/11 12:50 PM Thomas: First People’s Photographic Perspectives 213 The photographs in “Through the the typical dispassionate studies of First Figure 14.1 Anthropologist’s Camera” were culled Nations people and culture. The second Installation shot, Emergence from thousands of fieldwork photographs consisted of more portrait-like photo- from the Shadow: First in the archive of the Canadian Museum graphs. This latter group intrigued me Peoples’ Photographic of Civilization (cmc). The archive con- and inspired the exhibition. Perspectives. Courtesy of the Canadian Museum of stitutes an astonishing record that rep- In the fieldwork portraiture, the images Civilization, Gatineau, qc. resents a new genre that I call “fieldwork appear to serve a purpose outside of the portraiture.” In my initial research into anthropological imperative; there are no the cmc archive, I began to see a pat- feathers or beadwork-laced clothing, no tern in the approach anthropologists ceremonies or tepees in sight. Fieldwork took to their subjects. Two categories of portraits simply and elegantly show the photographs emerged. The first included humanity of the people. While reading payne-kunard.indd 213 06/04/11 12:50 PM 214 Remembering and Forgetting Figure 14.2 the anthropologists’ field notes and cor- munity. Demonstrating the control First Installation shot, Emergence respondence, I began to see where these Peoples often exerted over the photo- from the Shadow: First portraits may have originated. Unlike graphic process, these images bear witness Peoples’ Photographic the stereotypical scenario of anthropolo- to the sitters’ world and are left as a gift to Perspectives. Courtesy of gists coming into contact with a so-called the future. the Canadian Museum of primitive people, these anthropologists In the second facet of the exhibition – Civilization, Gatineau, qc. encountered a people who exerted control “Perspectives from the Urban Frontier” – I over what was taking place. The anthro- showcased the work of six contemporary pologists had to meet the approval of the First Peoples artists. Their various photo- community members before they could based works speak to self-determination, begin their work. It thus appears reason- to the reality of today’s urban First able to think that the portrait served as Peoples, and to the deep bond that exists currency for gaining entry into the com- between modern First Peoples and their payne-kunard.indd 214 06/04/11 12:50 PM Thomas: First People’s Photographic Perspectives 215 ancestors. Through a juxtaposition of historical photo- the present world. I presented the images many times graphs with photo-based works by today’s First Peoples to the artists to see whether or not they were comfort- artists, I wanted to demonstrate the idea that time trav- able working with them. In terms of the use of the space els through us, creating links between past and present. in the Museum of Civilization, I originally wanted to work with the idea of centrifugal force, of creating a Theory and Research: space where there is movement taking place. I wanted Seeking Aboriginal History in Photography people to come into the exhibition space and actually feel that they want to continue to move throughout the This exhibition, in effect, “emerged” from my own exhibition area. The idea of movement was also a way to photographic practice. Over the years, many photo- break the dividing line between the past and the present graphs I have taken in Ottawa have been of monuments and address the question of how to get people think- and various Indian figures that are on the grounds ing about the ways history is connected to the present. of Parliament, the National Capital Commission What I was also interested in was not anthropology, but (including Nepean Point), or the Department of the communication of ideas and the expansion of the Justice. I think about the impact that those depictions original documents. I felt that the photograph was a of Aboriginal people have on tourists and those who catalyst, a point of departure. From a curatorial point of work and live here. This experience has been the view, working largely from negatives and contact prints, basis of my investigation. I turned first to Library and I had the opportunity to determine the final size of the Archives Canada as a source of material to start me exhibition photograph, to think about the information thinking about who we as Aboriginal people look to as contained in it, and to decide what needed to be brought inspirational and important figures in our own history. out and how to achieve that result effectively in a final Certainly history has suffered, and in the breakup of image. I also wanted to look at the photograph not as a continuity that took place, I was curious about how document that exists in stasis, but rather as one that has one might regenerate an interest in Aboriginal history. the capacity to expand. I think it is important to com- Going through material at Library and Archives Canada municate the idea that history is an evolving and con- and the Canadian Museum of Civilization archives, I stantly changing entity, and that we have an impact on it came across an element waiting to be discovered, one as well. I was also thinking about future generations and that would affect us today as people and as artists. This what we want to leave for them. was the reason I wanted to invite the six artists to be An interesting aspect of the process was my discovery in this exhibition – to develop a dialogue around this that to be a photographer I had to try to understand idea. I found that so much of our history is voiceless in photographs and what both the anthropologists and the sense that we find it by looking at photographs of the sitters were thinking when those photographs were monuments or at history books. We wonder where our taken so long ago, a line of inquiry that eventually led to history is – why isn’t it here? Why are we portrayed in an my curating this exhibition. But what I realized at a cer- unrecognizable way? These questions were important to tain point, given the history and the relations between me and, as I found out, important to the artists as well. I Aboriginal people and the dominant society as they think we have a responsibility to our own communities are now, is that much of the history was being wiped to investigate these ideas, these issues, these questions, away. When anthropologists visited the Aboriginal and ensure that this information goes back to the peoples at that time, around the turn of the twentieth generations that come. century, their purposes were clear, and the community Emergence from the Shadow is based on a dialogue that knew what they were because their cultures were being exists between past and present. The use of historical attacked; languages were disappearing, as well as cere- photographs opened up a window, or a possibility, to monies. When I was a young boy, the reality of loss was payne-kunard.indd 215 06/04/11 12:50 PM 216 Remembering and Forgetting always impressed on my mind; so-and-so passed away do we get the information and ideas that we generate and had died with the information that he had and had out to the public, how do we communicate what it is not passed it on because nobody was around to take it that we want to say, what we feel should be understood? on. From what I understand, when these photographs I think that it is a growing process, it is an emerging were taken, the people did not have access to photog- process. Emergence from the Shadow was seen by viewers raphy themselves, for the most part. from all over the world. I was curious to see how effect- So I thought, well, how did they view being photo- ively an exhibition like this could change perceptions graphed? The natural assumption is they assumed the about Aboriginal peoples.