Monkman, a Queer and Two-Spirit artist from ocêkwi sîpiy / Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 territory, Manitoba, renders in his work Indigenous histories and realities that honour multiple genders, affirm expansive kinship and accept multiple sexualities.
Indigenous societies in Turtle Island (North America) have embraced gender, sexual and kinship fluidity as central to their worlds for millennia. Regularly suppressed by colonial powers, these realities became less visible for several generations.
Two-Spirit is an inclusive term adopted by Indigenous peoples on gender and sexuality spectrums that stands in for their own communities’ historic words lost to time through settler colonialism. Monkman’s work honours and celebrates these lifeways as historical, valid for today and vital for tomorrow.
The abbreviation 2SLGBTQIA+ is used here in place of many genders, sexualities and kinship structures spanning Indigenous Confederacies and Nations of North America: Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Agender and More.
Kent Monkman (1965-), Saturnalia, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 213.4 x 320 cm. Collection of Alfredo and Moira Romano. © and image courtesy Kent Monkman
Saturnalia explores the history of relationships that predate westward expansion, when Indigenous and non-Indigenous “mountain men” came together to trade and celebrate spring.
Monkman suggests that away from the puritanical views of settler towns, these gatherings embraced diverse sexual, gender and kinship practices, creating fuller expressions of who the men were and what they enjoyed.
Such scenes support his aim to normalize a much fuller spectrum of love, affinity and intimacy that has always existed.
The Far Reach of Colonialisms
The attempted dehumanization of Indigenous peoples through centuries of colonial expansion arose from European religion, statecraft and race hierarchy. The devastating effects still deeply impact Indigenous realities to this day.
Settlers spread deadly diseases such as smallpox and committed massacres to remove Indigenous peoples from their long-cared-for territories and forced survivors onto reservations that were often far from their ancestral territories, which settlers severely reduced.
Before colonial expansion, many earlier relationships included nation-to-nation alliances and treaties. But most of these covenants were not respected by settler colonists, despite still being viable blueprints for cohesive cohabitation of peoples and places.
View of the exhibition Kent Monkman: History Is Painted by the Victors. © Kent Monkman. Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière
