NEW COLUMN ALERT: BREAKING DOWN "BREAKING THE GLASS CASE"

Breaking the Glass Case | Alexandra Forand

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Aniin, tansi, and hello! Welcome to the inaugural blog post of “Breaking the Glass Case.” I should mention that I am not originally from Toronto, but hail from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When I first arrived in Toronto (like a true museum studies student) I went to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). The first gallery I visited was the Daphne Cockwell Gallery Dedicated to the First Peoples Art and Culture, mostly because it is free (like a true broke graduate student). As I walked the airy open hall I noticed the glass cases filled with Indigenous artifacts.

Daphne Cockwell Gallery Dedicated to the First Peoples Art and Culture on a Friday afternoon. Photo courtesy of Alexandra Forand 

Some of these objects were contemporary such as the Jane Ash Poitras paintings, others were older and more sacred such as the regalia of different Indigenous communities across Canada. One particular case jumped out at me right away. This case was entitled “Living Cultures,” and this specific case is concerned with telling the stories of Indigenous people today. At the far end of the case there is the Mohawk Family Life Group Diorama.

This diorama was created by Ulrich Dunbar and installed in the ROM in 1917. While this diorama was meant to showcase domestic activities it omits spiritual and intellectual life, presents a static picture of Mohawk life, and gives viewers a “cringeworthy” image of Indigenous people.

Picture of the original Mohawk Family Life Group Diorama. Photo Courtesy of Alexandra Forand. 

When the Daphne Cockwell Gallery reopened in 2017 the Mohawk Family Life diorama had undergone a renovation. The stone tools were replaced with modern technology such as iPods, power drills, and camera. The most notable intervention is the Great Seal of the Haudenosaunee which represents forms of Iroquoian government and social organization.

Update version of the Mohawk Family Life Group Diorama. Photo Courtesy of Alexandra Forand. 

The diorama is surrounded by a large wooden frame, which has a small golden plaque that says:

“You have a phrase called “Golden Age.” We do not want to be depicted the way we were, when we were first discovered in our homeland in North America. We do not want museums to continue to present us as something from the past. We believe we are very, very much here now, and we are going to be very important in the future.”
-- Georges Erasmus, Chief Assembly of First Nations, 1992

What do you guys think? Does the newly made over diorama represent modern Indigenous life? Or is the diorama another example of mishandled history? If it were up to you, what would you have done differently?

Senator Murray Sinclair said “reconciliation is not a spectator sport,” and I hope this blog can create a dialogue about the role of cultural heritage organizations and their participation in reconciliation. Beyond that, I want to hear from you, the readers, about what steps you see that are being taken (or you are taking) in the spirit of reconciliation. I want to learn from you, because I am in no means an expert on this topic and also journeying on this path of learning, understanding, and reconciliation. Please do not hesitate to contact me at allyforand@gmail.com or if twitter and instagram is more your speed my handle is @Ally_but_online. 

Breaking the Glass Case: Recent publications, such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (2007) and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Calls to Actions (2015), ask cultural heritage organizations to participate in national reconciliation and public education. These actions join the long history of indigenous people requests to redefine their place in cultural heritage organizations. This column is dedicated to exploring the history, development, and relationships between indigenous individuals, communities, and cultural heritage organizations.

RESPONSE, REJECTION, RECONCILIATION: EXHIBITING CANADA 150

GREATEST HITS

BY: AMY INTRATOR

Welcome back to the final edition of Greatest Hits 2017! Writing for this column has allowed me to look to the recent past to make sense of developments in the museum world today. With the end of the year quickly approaching, I thought it would be fitting to turn to the very recent past to make sense of the year-long “celebration” that’s about to end: Canada 150.

Official logo for Canada 150. Source. 

The Government of Canada has been planning Canada 150 for years as a celebration of the 150-year anniversary of Canadian confederation. From the very beginning of this project, however, many communities in Canada have rejected this celebratory narrative of Canadian history. The Government of Canada includes reconciliation with Indigenous peoples as one of the themes of Canada 150, but the celebration of Confederation is at odds with most Indigenous peoples’ experience. Indigenous peoples have lived in “Canada” for hundreds of years, so this year marks 150 years of colonial persecution, not nationhood.

Tweet from the artist who designed Colonialism 150 logo, a response to Canada 150. Source.

Where do museums fit into this Canada 150 narrative? Over the past year museums across the country have hosted exhibits that critically reflect on Canada 150. For many curators, artists, and creators, museums have provided a space to stage a counter-narrative and incorporate non-celebratory perspectives on the 150-year anniversary of Confederation. Since there have been so many fantastic exhibits that reflect on Canada 150, for my last Greatest Hits post I have included not one, but three Musings posts, all of which reflect on exhibits that challenge Canada’s sesquicentennial celebration.


Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience 

Miss Chief Eagle Testickle in front of the Fathers of Confederation. The Daddies, Kent Monkman, 2016. Collection of Christine Armstrong and Irfhan Rawji. Photo courtesy of Sadie MacDonald. Source.

In February, Sadie MacDonald reviewed the Art Museum at University of Toronto’s exhibit Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience. The exhibit was on display at the Art Museum from January until March 2017 and is slated to tour museums throughout Canada until 2020. Kent Monkman organized the exhibit, which spanned 300 years and included hundreds of works. I used the word “organized” because Monkman played the role of creator, artist, and curator in this exhibit as several of his own paintings, dioramas, and other pieces were included, but he also put these objects in dialogue with pieces from museums across Canada. I had to visit the exhibit four times to completely take in the exhibit’s objects and text. Sadie’s review of the exhibit immediately picks up on the fact that Monkman organized a narrative that responds to Canada 150 by exploring the Indigenous experience with colonizers that began long before 1867. Even the timeline in the exhibit is a commentary on Canada 150, as Monkman cleverly begins his narrative 150 years before confederation in 1717. Monkman uses the museum as a stage for his narrative that contests Confederation as the beginning of life in Canada.


Jane Ash Poitras: New Acquisitions of Contemporary First Nations Art

Buffalo Seed by Jane Ash Poitras. Photo courtesy of Natania Sherman. Source.

In March, former Musings Editor-in-Chief Natania Sherman reviewed a display at the ROM entitled Jane Ash Poitras: New Acquisitions of Contemporary First Nations Art. Unlike Monkman’s exhibit which spanned centuries and included numerous works, the display Natania reviewed was extremely small in scale. The display included four new acquisitions by the Indigenous artist, Jane Ash Poitras, and while this form of display is common, Natania examined how the works were positioned to stage an anti-colonial dialogue. Poitras paintings feature colonial symbols, like the Hudson’s Bay stripes, in dialogue with symbols of traditional Indigenous knowledge. The paintings themselves were staged next to objects like a school desk and a basket to gather herbs to create a dialogue between the art and the ethnographic objects in the ROM collection. Natania’s thoughtful review of a small exhibit proves that there are many ways to challenge Canada 150 narratives in museums.


Witness Blanket

An unknown boy in from of the Chesterfield Inlet Residential School (top). Photo courtesy of Sadie MacDonald. Source.

For the final exhibit review I’m including in my Canada 150 retrospective, we’re returning to Sadie but leaving Toronto. In June, Sadie reviewed Witness Blanket after visiting the exhibit at Museum London. The exhibit has been touring Canada since 2015, and currently the exhibit is slated to continue touring the country until 2021. The exhibit is composed of 887 artifacts from residential school survivors, which were collected by Carey Newman, a Kwagiulth sculptor and carver. Together, the hundreds of pieces create a patchwork of lost narratives from survivors of the schools, and in the process hundreds of narratives of loss and pain emerge. Sadie’s review examines the power of these objects curated together, both as a way for residential school survivors to heal and remember, but she also examines the power of this exhibit for the non-Indigenous population of Canada. The exhibit may have begun touring two years before Canada 150 celebrations began, but the powerful counter-narratives take on another layer of significance when remembering confederation. 

I tried to provide a brief snapshot of some of the important, challenging, and brave exhibits that have responded to Canada 150. If you have the time please read the amazing reviews of each exhibit! The exhibits take different approaches to staging a counter-narrative in the museum, from a small display of new acquisitions, to creating a dialogue between artifacts and contemporary art, to creating a collage of objects of trauma. These counter-narratives in museums are likely to continue for years to come, especially with many of these exhibits touring years into the future. Museums may help shift the legacy of Canada 150 from a celebration of nationhood to a rejection of colonial glory.