Essay by Jim Logan*

s Woman with a Gun, Roger Simon, 1992. Oil on paper.

Because of the conversion from Mother Tongue to English and, to an extent, traditionalism to Catholicism, the governing society assumes homogeneity, yet that implication is still quite distant from the truth.

sUntitled,Charles Doucette, 2000

Re-claiming History at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia from 17 June to 17 September, 2000 was an exhibition which attempted to bring to light some of the ignored history of the First Nations by focusing on identity marks, art style, and spirituality in the work of nine First Nations artists, most of whom have work within the permanent collection of the AGNS.

Historic photographs were used to assist in the process of identifying the link between contemporary Aboriginal artists and their past iconography.

Examples of work by Allen Angeconeb, Arlene Christmas, Charles Doucette, Margaret Johnson, Lawrence Paul Yuxwelupton, Luke Simon, Roger Simon, Alan Syliboy and Norval Morrisseau formed the basis for the exhibition.

s Luke Simon, Untitled, 1992. Oil on masonite

To begin to comprehend the diversity of so many civilizations and to categorize cultural and spiritual artistic similarities and differences would indeed be a task much more complicated than its European counterpart. However, either because of this complexity or because of European ego, Aboriginal art is not thought of as art to the same context as European art. It has been exhaustively studied but never added to the art text books as a prerequisite for North American art students.

This is where the problem of historical bias raises its ugly head. The European settlers only thought of North America as becoming totally identical to their European homeland. With the religious and political systems they imported, anything Aboriginal, be it a club or a mask, became another item to abolish in order for the North America to Europe transformation to be completed. Today we teach our children the art history from another

continent to claim it as our own while refusing to recognize the wonder and masterful works of North American Aboriginal art. The immigrant population remains foreign to this day and North America has never really had the chance to be North American since Geronimo put down his rifle.

Evidence for such remarks can be realized in the collections of public art galleries across North America. Aboriginal art is not generally collected except in specified galleries where the word ‘museum' is carved above the door. Since 1928 the National Gallery of Canada has only collected 39 pieces of First Nations art in a permanent collection that numbers nearly 50,000 pieces of art.(3) The interest in Aboriginal art by museums dates back to the early twentieth century when the thought was that the Aboriginal race in North America was only a few years from total extinction, and the prevalent attitude was that anything Aboriginal was primitive and not part of the contemporary or new world.

To wipe away the art history of every nation from Abenaki to Zuni would be a tragic loss to human history. It is ironic that the culture which was responsible for the demise of Aboriginal North America is also the culture that has preserved it through collections of artifacts and curios in museums. The problem now is that since Aboriginal art is established in the Museum, contemporary Aboriginal artists cannot shake off the anthropological myth attached to their work. The art produced by Aboriginal artists today is viewed more for its anthropological significance than its artistic significance. The reason for this has many levels of ideologies but the main reason can be found in the lack of knowledge by the curators of our public institutions regarding Aboriginal art and its history. From a perspective of an Aboriginal curator and artist, it seems that if Aboriginal art today describes the path of our coming to terms with the governing culture, then it should be expected the governing culture should come to terms with Aboriginal art. This process is currently in process.

In the past decade there has been an increase of Aboriginal art acquired for collections of public art galleries and in the inclusion of exhibitions of contemporary Aboriginal art in exhibition programs. However, is the collection of contemporary Aboriginal only an effort to become politically correct or is the art actually being collected for its intellectual and critical substance? Is the mode of acceptance of "Indian Art", in public art institutions influenced by the cultural cognition the art displays? In other words, pieces of art that are executed totally within an Aboriginal cultural context are ignored, while those that display a contemporary western art influence are accepted. Although more and more public art galleries are starting to exhibit Aboriginal art, the art being exhibited and from which purchases are made for their respective collections, are works that are contemporary western in their influence. An example can be seen in the collective practices of the National Gallery of Canada. Although the collection at the National Gallery is young and still growing, of the twenty three Aboriginal art works purchased by the National Gallery of Canada, only two of those could be viewed as ‘traditional'. (4) Such observations are not mine alone. Aboriginal artists recognize this trend and are hungry for acceptance; the tragic result of such perversion is that much of our traditional methods of art and art-making is being left behind for the more contemporary, westernized art practices.

s Arlene Christmas, ‘Dozay' Glooscap's Return, 2000. Oil on canvas

Norval Morrisseau, Embryo, 1975 Acrylic on board. Gift of John de Witt

s Charles Doucette, untitled, 1992. Detail

Welded Steel, gypsum, fused metal filings

s Charles Doucette, untitled, 2000. Detail, top view
Gypsum, metal, paint on wood supported drywall

s Lawrence Paul Yuxwelupton, Clear Cut to the Last Tree.
Serigraph on paper, 1993. Gift of Jack Adelaar

The issue of historical Aboriginal art is still in the early process of recognition. Such pieces of art-making include work that would not generally fit the common mode of European art practice, such as garments, baskets and implements. But art should not be based on the European barometer of acceptance. The term ‘art' is relatively new in the description of human-fashioned objects, only coming into existence about the same time as Columbus. "Nobody on the whole planet called such objects made by human beings ‘art' before about 150 years ago, (if my English knowledge of art history serves me correctly), when the discipline came into its own as an academic exercise but also as a way to catalogue and classify objects according to the best knowledge of the time.(5) The issue regarding Aboriginal art history is just being raised and, at present, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia does not have any historical pieces of Aboriginal art within its collection.

Jim Logan is First Nations Curatorial Resident at the Art Galley of Nova Scotia, Halifax. This essay introduced the exhibit, Re-claiming History, at the AGNS. Images courtesy Jim Logan and the AGNS

Notes