Indigenous artwork has been around for a long time, they use artwork to share teaching/stories. Indigenous tell their important cultural stories through the generations it is portrayed by symbols/icons in their artwork. Norval Morrisseau was an Anishinaabe Aboriginal Canadian Artist. Norval was best known for his paintings of mythical tableaux. His narrative works of figures and animals were painted in vibrant, fluorescent colors featuring thick black outlines akin to stained glass windows or woodcuts. When Norval Morrisseau first started to paint, he intended to re-introduce the Anishinaabe worldview into the contemporary consciousness. The Ojibwa culture had been made invisible by the imposition of external governance and the influence of Christian churches. Norval Morrisseau was an Anishinaabe artist born in 1931. He was born at a time when Indigenous peoples in Canada were confined to reserves, were forced to attend residential schools, and were also banned from practicing traditional ceremonial activities. Morrisseau's artwork was regularly shown in various Canadian galleries, until his death on December 4, 2007. His work can still be seen and purchased today in those many galleries that it was shown in before his death. When Morrisseau was nineteen he became sick. His family arranged a healing ceremony, during the ceremony Morrisseau received the name “Miskwaabik Animiiki” which meant Copper Thunderbird. He then claimed that this name was “a very powerful new name” and it had saved him. When Morrisseau was about twenty-three, he had become sick with tuberculosis and was then sent to a sanatorium in Fort William. When he was there, he met Harriet Kakegamic, who was a patient from the northern Cree Community of the Sandy Lake reserve. Later the two got married and lived in Beardmore, where Morrisseau focused more on his art. He painted on birchbark baskets made by his mother-in-law, Patricia Kakegamic, and on other objects. From the beginning of Norval’s career, he had featured strong Anishinaabe and Christian themes in his art, and then in the mid-1970s, he began to display a more personal hybrid spirituality.
Norval Morrisseau had many famous paintings, some can stuff be purchased today, and they are all around Canadian galleries. Untitled (Thunderbird Transformation) is one of Norval’s earlier paintings. This painting was created during a period of experimentation in which Norval was linking ideas and traditions of Anishinaabe art with his own emerging artistic vision. It brings together an important and influential spiritual figure (Thunderbird), a cultural belief (transformation), and a traditional Anishinaabe artistic medium (birchbark). In northwestern Ontario, birchbark has been used by Anishinaabe artists for making various things for quite a long time. Thunderbird appears a lot in Norval’s paintings and this work prefigures similar concepts masterfully painted in Man Changing into Thunderbird, another one of Norval’s famous paintings. Man Changing into Thunderbird is a six-panel masterpiece that is a very colorful design and leaves viewers breathless. This painting examines Norval Morrisseau’s life up to 1977. The painting Self-Portrait Devoured by Demons was painted two years after his gallery debut at the Pollock Gallery in Toronto. This painting was to represent Norval’s struggle in the art world. Seven snakes surround the artist, snakes could sometimes be seen as evil, but as early twentieth-century ethnomusicologist Frances Densmore noted in her field research of the Anishinaabe, snakes also have the power to heal the sick and were used in mide rites of the Midewiwin religion. Within the seven snakes, the number seven is significant. In Christianity, the number seven signifies spiritual perfection and completeness. Morrisseau's Bound by Seven Snakes, these snakes may represent the uncertainty he had as an emerging artist. The painting Indian Jesus Christ was made famous in the 1974 National Film Board Documentary The Paradox of Norval Morrisseau, in this documentary the artist states that, “Jesus died for the white man, not for Indians”. Norval experienced sexual harassment at a Catholic Residential School as a young boy, so these comments he made weren’t surprising. He had also painted another piece where he was Christ in the painting. This was posted in the Toronto Star with an article saying that he was “torn between two cultures”. These two cultures were Christian and Anishinaabe, but this conflict caused little stir. Indian Jesus Christ illustrates the complex colonial landscape where Morrisseau was living. The painting The Gift is described as a politically charged painting that exhibits Morrisseau’s understanding of colonialism and also challenges the inaccurate assumption that he is simply “a painter of legends”. This painting of a shaman meeting a missionary directly confronts the role that Christianity has played in the settling of Canada.
Save your time!
We can take care of your essay
- Proper editing and formatting
- Free revision, title page, and bibliography
- Flexible prices and money-back guarantee
I believe cultural appropriation to be people taking things from other cultures and making them their own. When you are taking or using things from another culture you need to ensure you are attempting to let that culture know you understand and respect them. Cultural appropriation is people making use of cultural forms, practices, ideas, etc. without the consent of the culture they are taking it from. This is like theft when you are taking something that doesn’t belong to you without consent. It is the taking of cultural aspects from unrepresented groups of people and offering nothing in return and expecting to receive gratitude for it. People often took Norval Morrisseau’s paintings and interpreted them for themselves. This is an example of cultural appropriation, people who don’t know or understand the story are trying to understand it themselves. They are putting their own story into an indigenous painting. Cultural appropriation has been a hot topic for a while now, and many big names are being accused of it. Sometimes when people take bits from other cultures it can be seen as cultures being exploited by others and being used to make money, which will get some people very upset. But sometimes cultural appropriation can be a good thing. It can be very creative, in history there have been some very creative things that were created by cultural appropriation, as long as the people using it ensure it is ok with the culture, they are using it from. It is also a way to keep cultures in communication. People can learn about the preconceptions and ways of thinking about a different culture through their art and other appropriate forms. Cultural appropriation can also help people in third-world countries become noticed for things that they do, and they will be appreciated. If Westerners are going to use cultural properties, they need to ensure they are receiving consent before any actions are taken and they are given credit where credit is due. They also need to ensure they are keeping the culture intact. It could make people outraged if their culture is taken and someone doesn’t represent it how it should be.
There are many examples all over that show cultural appropriation, but there is one particular that relates to Norval Morrisseau. There was an article posted in the Toronto Star about a Toronto painter, Amanda PL. Her paintings are infused with bright colors and bold outlines which is often associated with an indigenous art style, this is how Norval’s paintings were described as well. She said that her inspiration came from the Woodland School of Art and she acknowledged that there is a similarity to the work of Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau. There was a lot of outrage over this and caused a debate about who has the right to use and profit from specific customs. There was a Toronto gallery that was supposed to exhibit Amanda’s work, but they quickly canceled the exhibit when two complaints came in that her paintings were offensive toward indigenous culture. The problem that many people are having with this issue is that Amanda is white and seems to have made no effort to talk to the Anishinaabe community even after there have been complaints and protests. “It becomes a problem when things are borrowed or taken and they’re used out of context or they’re misunderstood, they’re not understood and they’re unknowingly or purposefully used inappropriately” (Greg Hill, 2017). Indigenous people are attached to their stories, and their art is how they share these stories. When these stories are not used appropriately and aren’t shared by the indigenous themselves it is hurtful to them.
The medicine wheel is an example of the steps we can take to make cultural appropriation acceptable. The people who want to use things from other cultures need to recognize what they are doing. They need to understand that these are pieces of a culture, they need to recognize that they are taking something that is not theirs and using it like it is. They need to then take responsibility for their actions. If they know what they are doing is not right they then need to make it right with the culture they took it from. If they did not receive consent from the culture before taking it then they need to take responsibility for that. The next step is reciprocity, which means that if someone is taking things from another culture, they need to make sure it benefits both sides equally. The culture that is giving consent for others to use their culture and their work needs to be given credit for it. The last part of the medicine wheel is relationships. Relationships need to be built with these cultures. Cultural appropriation builds these relationships, when people are asking whether or not they can use things from a culture them a culture they need to ask them, which then creates communication between two cultures. If you are being respectful and polite by asking for consent, then these other cultures will be more giving to allow you to engage in using their cultural practices.
A decolonizing world requires everyone to be collectively involved and responsible. Decolonization is the process of deconstructing colonial ideologies of the superiority and privilege of Western thought and approaches. We should be incorporating indigenous ways into our everyday lifestyle. For non-Indigenous people, decolonization is the process of examining your beliefs about Indigenous Peoples and their culture by learning about yourself in relationship to the communities your life has revolved around, like where you live and with whom you interact every day. In a decolonizing society, it is my place to recognize all of the factors around me that have influenced my life. I need to re-examine my beliefs about Indigenous people and look at what those beliefs have done to get me to where I am today. I am not Indigenous, but I believe that we should be incorporating Indigenous ways into our daily lives, they are the founders of our land and we need to respect that. To realize your place in this world you should be looking back and understand where you come from. I have indigenous roots from very distant relatives but the line of Indigenous declined and no longer exists when it got to me. Other people may not understand that their relatives were Indigenous, and they haven’t further explored that Indigenous side. The painting Indian Jesus Christ spoke to me when I saw it and read about it. Indians shouldn’t feel as if Jesus isn’t there for them like he is for everyone else, when Norval said that “Jesus died for the white man, not for Indians” to me it seemed as if Indians thought Jesus put one culture in precedent over another which shouldn’t be the way anyone is thinking.
When we look at Indigenous art, we may not get a good understanding of what is happening in the art. The artwork that Indigenous people paint helps create a narrative for future generations. It tells stories that only indigenous descendants can understand. The use of symbols is seen as an alternative way to write down stories of cultural significance, teaching survival and use of the land. Every piece of art that Indigenous people create has a significant story to go along with it. The Indigenous have many stories that we don’t know about and they convey those stories through many different types of ways, but only those of Indigenous descent can tell those stories. Norval told many stories through his art and each piece is special and significant in its way. By looking at Norval’s paintings we may not get an accurate understanding of what it is about or what story it is telling. It is not up to us to try and interpret what Norval was trying to say through his paintings, but by reading about them we can try to get a glimpse into his thoughts while he was creating those pieces. The piece of art that spoke to me, as I mentioned before, was The Indian Jesus. Norval was a residential school survivor and to me listening to what those children went through had a lasting impact on me. When I try to understand this painting, I see Norval trying to capture how he felt about Jesus while he was being forced to convert, by being placed in a residential school. Through his paintings, he could paint a picture of the traumas he experienced by forced conversion and the lasting impact that Residential schools had on his life. Many of Norval’s paintings were done with a Christian thought process.
None of Norval’s paintings come without a story, he uses his paintings to explain his life and his emotions. Everyone must understand and learn about Indigenous cultures and stories so that they don’t need to interpret these paintings for themselves. Norval’s paintings are famous and can be seen and purchased at various art galleries across Canada. By engaging and learning about these historical stories we can get a better understanding of the Indigenous life and we can attempt to incorporate that into our everyday life. Cultural appropriation is a very important thing to understand today, we need to realize that their cultural practices are not ours to be taken without consent from the culture they came from. We need to be respectful of their stories and their way of life and not use them for our gain. We can see the steps that we need to take to gain and rebuild trust between cultures by looking at the medicine wheel and the four sections. The Indigenous very much value their culture and everything that is associated with it and it is very disrespectful for us to think we can take and do whatever we want with it. Cultural appropriation applies to not only artwork but anything relating to cultures. Norval experienced his issue of cultural appropriation, after he had already passed away when a girl from Toronto started painting and selling her artwork that was inspired by the Woodland School of Art but acknowledged that her artwork was very similar to Norval’s. In many ways, it is ok to use other cultures as inspiration for artwork or other things, but you need to gain consent before doing so.
References
- Art Canada Institute - Institut de l’art. (n.d.). Norval Morrisseau. Retrieved from https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/norval-morrisseau/biography
- Norval Morrisseau. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.artnet.com/artists/norval-morrisseau/
- Press, T. C. (2017, May 08). Toronto gallery cancels exhibit of white artist's paintings over complaints of cultural appropriation. Retrieved from https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/toronto-gallery-cancels-exhibit-of-white-artists-paintings-over-complaints-of-cultural-appropriation
- Woodland art symbolism interpreted.. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.native-art-in-canada.com/woodland-art-symbolism.html
Stuck on your essay?
