View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by OCAD University Open Research Repository OCAD University Open Research Repository Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences 2017 Presence and Absence redux: Indian Art in the 1990s Rice, Ryan Suggested citation: Rice, Ryan (2017) Presence and Absence redux: Indian Art in the 1990s. RACAR: revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review, 42 (2). pp. 42-53. ISSN 0315-9906 Available at http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/2402/ Open Research is a publicly accessible, curated repository for the preservation and dissemination of scholarly and creative output of the OCAD University community. Material in Open Research is open access and made available via the consent of the author and/or rights holder on a non-exclusive basis. Presence and Absence !edux : Indian Art in the 1990s Ryan Rice Les années !990 sont une décen- “Presence and Absence : Indian Art in the 1990s” was a paper I originally pre- nie cruciale pour l’avancement et le positionnement de l’art et de sented and published as part of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal’s l’autonomie autochtones dans (macm) colloquium Mondialisation et postcolonialisme : Définitions de la culture les récits dominants des états ayant subi la colonisation. Cet visuelle !, held October 5–6, 2001.¹ In the atershock of the 9/11 atacks, which article reprend l’exposé des faits shook the world just weeks before, the colloquium’s discourse quickly shited. de cete période avec des détails fort nécessaires. Pensé comme With this catastrophe clearly weighing heavily on their minds, keynote speak- une historiographie, il propose er Homi K. Bhabha and fellow presenter Coco Fusco focused on the unfore- d’explorer chronologiquement comment les conservateurs et seeable effects the atermath of this event would have on their communities, les artistes autochtones, et leurs but especially on people of colour. Although Bhabha addressed the subject of alliés, ont répondu et réagi à des moments clés des mesures colonization and globalization in the Americas, he did so through a narrow coloniales et les interventions lens focused mainly on the history of African enslavement. His biased per- qu’elles ont suscitées du point de vue politique, artistique, muséo- spective on colonization acknowledged neither Onkwehón :we² presence and logique et du commissariat d’ex- colonial displacement, nor our continued relevance to local, national, and positions. À la lumière du !50e anniversaire de la Confédération global histories and post-colonial theories. His presentation thus brought canadienne, et quinze ans après to the fore ongoing questions about whose art histories, politics, and cul- la présentation de la commu- nication originale au colloque, ture mater. In response, my presentation sought to address the rhetoric Mondialisation et postcolonialisme : of Indigenous erasure in the history of the Americas. Only a decade earlier, Définitions de la culture visuelle v, du Musée d’art contemporain both Canada and the US had enthusiastically celebrated the 500th anniver- de Montréal, il reste urgent de sary of the “discovery” of North America, with many galleries and institutions faire une analyse critique des préoccupations contemporaines mounting exhibitions and celebratory projects to mark the quincentennial. plus vastes, relatives à la mise en At the same time, however, Onkwehón :we from across Turtle Island were contexte et à la réconciliation de l’histoire de l’art autochtone advancing a counter-narrative, proactively fostering activist curatorial and art- sous-représentée. istic practices that contested this monolithic narrative. Ryan Rice, Kanien’kehá :ka of The redux version of my paper emphasizes the significance of Kahnawà :ke, is a curator and Onkwehón :we art produced in Canada throughout the 1990s, thus re-centring Delaney Chair in Indigenous Visual Culture at OCAD University this influential period and emphasizing its continued relevance to the cur- (Toronto, on) rent moment. Fiteen years ater hearing Bhabha speak at macm, and a quar- — [email protected] ter century ater the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s voyages, there is still an urgent need to critically engage with the theoretical questions of globaliza- tion and post-colonialism ; this is how we measure the longstanding frame- work of prejudice and exclusion that obscures the presence and contributions of Onkwehón :we across a shiting global art and cultural discourse. In light 1. Ryan Rice, “Presence and 150 Absence : Indian Art in the 1990s,” of the current celebrations surrounding the th anniversary of Canadian Mondialisation et postcolonialisme : Défi- Confederation, as well as the underlying national objective of reconciliation, nitions de la Culture Visuelle v, conf. pro- ceedings (Montreal : Musée d’art it is imperative that we take another look at where Onkwehón :we have been, contemporain de Montreal, 2002). as our past informs our future. 42 Ryan Rice Presence and Absence redu%: Indian Art in the 1990s The 1990s remain a pivotal decade for the advancement and position- ing of Onkwehón :we art, which has steadily grown and expanded into the twenty-first century. The reiteration and recollection of this period con- firms its significance as an era of developing agency among Onkwehón :we artists, curators, and scholars, whose works compensated for prior absence by foregrounding our histories and centering Indigeneity. At that time, a national apology for the Indian Residential School System was not on the horizon, to say nothing of a national framework for truth and reconcilia- tion. And yet, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was realized, a national art policy assessment completed,³ and “Indigenization” was initi- ated as a self-determined form of resistance and resurgence. It was a decade that framed Onkwehón :we art and culture in terms of accomplishment and arrival — the results of a blueprint mapped decades earlier at Expo 67’s Indians of Canada Pavilion, where the ground-breaking and strategic efforts of Onkwehón :we artists and activists legitimized our creative agency and econ- omies across the “institution of art” and on a world stage. Today, in the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and its ninety-four calls to action, Canadian governments, both Federal and Provincial, have put forward targeted art and research funding as a form of restitution. As this con- tradicts the spirit of Canada 150 celebrations, which have further disrupted Onkwehón :we-Canada relations, its success will have to be assessed in the years to follow. The essay that follows is an abridged version of the original, lightly edit- ed to reflect upon and address the underpinning of my work as a curator and artist both then and now. The decade upon which it focuses (1990–2000) wit- nessed the efforts of many Onkwehón :we artists and curators to name our 2. Onkwehón :we, pronounced own practice and envision our future, while also claiming space in our own oon-gway-hoon-way, is a Kan- communities and in the art world. ien’kéha word that means means “original people.” I use it through- out the text to indicate First Na- !edux : Onkwehón:we Art in the 1990s tions, Métis, and Inuit peoples who are also sometimes referred In the context of Onkwehón :we art in Canada, red was a signifier of absence. to collectively as Indian, Aborig- As an artist, curator, and founding member of an arts collective in the inal, Indigenous, or Native. There 1990 ⁴ are 630 different Onkwehón :we s, I witnessed firsthand the leaps and bounds made in that decade by nations in Canada with distinct lan- Onkwehón :we art as an “institution.” And yet, it was from this same van- guages ; they may prefer different terminology. tage point that I also witnessed the short shelf life our art had in many major, 3. The Canada Council for the mainstream art institutions. It was as if we still hadn’t arrived on their terms Arts funded the independent as- sessment, “The Politics of Inclusion or by their standards. Even so, Onkwehón :we artists were beginning to receive and Exclusion : Contemporary Na- public and critical atention and acclaim. Our work both challenged and tive Art and Public Art Museums in Canada,” writen by Lee Ann Martin aligned us with a global audience. By speaking beyond the boundaries of our (Otawa : Canada Council for the community, many of us felt that we had arrived, to borrow an expression Arts, 1990). 4. Fiteen years later, I’m work- from contemporary Mohawk photographer Greg Staats, “at a more perfect ing from an expanded perspective, form of communication.”⁵ which includes helping to found 1990 the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective Indications of that arrival abounded during the s. Our many voices, and my experiences as an educator, once silenced, exuded strength and diversity. Fine examples of art in all disci- professor, research chair, activist, t and mentor. plines were created and exhibited, and the public began to gain a be er 5. Audra Simpson, “Renewal in understanding and appreciation of our communities, cultures, and struggles. New Works From Greg Staats,” exh. brochure (Gatineau : Indian Art Cen- Our arts strengthened our identity as well as Canada’s. However, we were still tre, 2000). marginalized as “Others” : not Western, not Canadian, not American, simply racar 42 (2017) 2 : 42–53 43 not. Our marginalization, which relegated us to the periphery of the art world, indicted that our work was not comprehensible, not up to their standards, or not aesthetically pleasing or valid to those who judged and occupied pos- itions of power. By examining the 1990s in cultural, economic, and political terms, we see that much of our relationship as Onkwehón :we with the Canadian nation state, and thus with its major art institutions, was still dominated by col- onial systems and Western categories of art and culture.