An Interview with Rebecca Belmore
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Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society Vol. 3, No. 1, 2014, pp. 213-217 An interview with Rebecca Belmore Wanda Nanibush Wanda Nanibush: When did you first immediate families livelihood back then. think about art and becoming an artist? Shortly after returning in the fall to Toronto, I decided I should go home and make art. Rebecca Belmore: It was in the early 80's. At Become one, an artist. the time I was living in Thunder Bay and began meeting artists and visiting their I think sometimes it is the culture of art studios. These experiences of seeing artists and its class that can exclude too. Your go to their studio everyday made me inclusion was unique then? understand that art is a profession, something that I thought I could do too. I eventually The late 80's and early 90's, contemporary art ended up at the Ontario College of Art in was wrestling with issues of appropriation Toronto, where I lasted two years. and the authentic voice. The generation of artists before me was the one who actively Why did you leave art school? busted open the gallery door. I happened on the scene at an interesting time, I walked in. For many reasons, personal and professional. That was twenty years ago. I am not sure I had a comment in my second year-end where we are at now, but we do have Tribe in critique that I think was racist, or maybe I Saskatoon and Urban Shaman in Winnipeg should say misguided. The instructor, in and a lot of young artists making strong looking at my work, asked me if I thought work. Who knows, maybe one day soon we my “Indian-ness” would get in the way of will have our own national museum of art. making art. It made me speechless - and then angry. I went home and spent the summer When did you come to performance art as working at a sawmill in Upsala, the town of a specific art form? my birthplace. Physical labour has a way of clearing the mind and turning trees into I began in my first year at art school, before I lumber was very much a part of my knew what performance art was. After ©2014 W. Nanibush This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 214 W. Nanibush leaving school to return home I began replaying colonial history complete with participating within the social/cultural space birchbark canoes and a fake fort. This was at the Thunder Bay Friendship Centre, in incredibly absurd to me. What to wear for talent shows to be precise. I wanted to see if such an absurd occasion? The dress now my own people got anything out of it. They resides in the collection of the Art Gallery of accepted my work and I was scheduled in Ontario. with everyone else, mostly musicians and some writers. What was it like travelling around with your exhibit, Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama- In retrospect, this community context where mowan: Speaking to Their Mother (1991)? my way of working was accepted was the What did you learn from the process? affirmation I needed. They did not know that it was called performance art and it really did Michael Beynon and Florene Belmore were not matter. project assistants for the touring of this artwork in 1992, which was two years after Is there one event that stands out? the Oka Crisis and 500 years since the landing of Columbus. We purchased a used I think one of my early works from 1987, cargo van to transport the object of art, Rising to the Occasion, was key to building a commonly referred to as “the megaphone,” foundation for my performance art practice. directly to the people. Working outside the That summer the royal newlyweds, Prince gallery system and directly within First Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, paid a royal Nation communities located on reserve land, visit to a reconstructed fur-trading fort, Old towns, cities, and an active logging blockade Fort William. They were driven to and strengthened my understanding of the role of dropped off somewhere upstream, on the the artist. The “artist”, the maker, the Kaministiquia River, where they boarded a visionary has always been a part of who we birch bark canoe and were paddled are. People readily embraced the idea of downriver to the thousands of curious speaking directly to the earth through this onlookers and royal fans who were waiting to strange object that had come to them. see them. Simultaneously, in the quiet and Ironically, or perhaps humorously, many empty streets of downtown Port Arthur, a admired the physical beauty of this group of women marched in silent protest, instrument and remarked that it should be wearing garments created specifically for this displayed in a museum. historic event. This performance art parade, titled Twelve Angry Crinolines, was the work You have called this exhibit a politics as of Lynne Sharman. My contribution to the poetic action? Why did you choose that procession was Rising to the Occasion, a strategy? dress that was part “Victorian” ball gown and part beaver dam. The royals came to our city Poetic because we were speaking directly to for a handful of hours as performers, the land. Political because of the long history An interview with Rebecca Belmore 215 of others working to silence the sound of our thoughts on this? Do you see a thread voice echoing off of this land. The through these works? megaphone was created as a response to the “Oka Crisis.” My strategy was simple, bring I am both Anishinaabe and artist at once. a conceptual artwork in the form of a There is no struggle within; that takes place functional tool to the people and ask them to on the outside. Mixed Blessing wears the speak directly to the issue, to the land itself, words “FUCKEN INDIAN” and “FUCKEN as we have always done. ARTIST” in the form of a cross. artist wears an “X” and stands on a plinth-like box. I AM Your photograph, White Thread, was WORTH MORE THAN ONE MILLION addressing the Iraq war and seems to be DOLLARS TO MY PEOPLE was a sign of about a commitment to struggling and the protest. Creation or Death, We will Win was capacity for that in a people against a the body gagged and bound, but never stronger force, in this case the USA. Is that silenced. The thread that runs through those a fair assessment of the work? It also works is me – Anishinaabe (kwe) Artist. seems to relate to Indigenous issues, with the red and white - a single white thread. What do you think of the idea of art for What is the symbolism of that for you? Is art sake? there a relation between Iraq and Indigenous nations? Oh for Christ sake! Yes, that is a fair assessment. Women and You seem to like to work with space, children bear the trauma of war. I was especially public space, as a material that thinking about the will and strength that they you interact with and feed off of and would have to possess in order to survive transform - is that accurate? such violence. Regarding the symbolic use of red cloth sewn with white thread, we too Long ago, James Luna once said, “The Land have survived invasion in our history and we are standing on; It's all Indian land.” I now live within Canada, under a flag of red read it in one of his catalogues, I liked seeing and white. it as a line, written. Public space as a material is a good way of seeing my approach to A few of your works - artist; Mixed making work, especially performance works. Blessing; I AM WORTH MORE THAN A I take off my shoes, stand, and momentarily MILLION DOLLARS TO MY PEOPLE; imagine how it must have been before and, Creation or Death, We will Win – seem Europeans made it theirs. My physical being to deal with the struggle of being an artist becomes conceptually grounded, my female and how you identify as one, as well as the Indian-ness unquestionable. From this place I relationship between being both can address what is immediate and know that Anishinaabe and artist. What are your I am one in a long line of Indigenous artists. 216 W. Nanibush This knowledge makes me happy, that is changing attitudes and actions from ones what feeds me. that further colonial rule to ones that work towards independence; changing our sense In the photographic installation sister you of our inferiority; thinking and acting as if were located on the Downtown East Side, our philosophies, cultures, and practices Vancouver (DTES) and the work interacts matter; acting as if being Indigenous is with that site. You have made other works, important to who we are; ending violence, like the performance, Vigil, in the same etc., etc. area. Are these works related in terms of how Indigenous women live and are seen Maybe it could be considered a form of in that hood? One seems to deal with decolonization, but that is not for me to say. criminalization of the body and the other My job is to make art. That's what I have seems to deal with lack of being seen or trained myself to do.