The works in this section depict many of the harrowing, traumatic experiences of the attempted genocide of Indigenous peoples of North America. Monkman centres Indigenous matriarchal values and narrative sovereignty in truth-telling as a necessary step toward healing and recovery.
Indigenous languages, cultural practices and intergenerational mentorship were banned through the Indian Act in Canada (1876) and the Indian Removal Act in the United States (1830). Multiple generations of Indigenous children were, as recently as the late 1990s, forcefully removed from their homes and interned in residential schools, designed to “remove the Indian from the child.” Wanton violence accompanied severe religious and supremacist instruction.
The Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2007–15), formed to create a historical record of these events, deemed the policy a form of cultural genocide. Monkman’s family members are survivors of this widespread policy.
Since the Indigenous rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s, many Indigenous peoples have successfully resisted containment policies, returning temporarily or permanently to ancestral lands and waters, and expressing Indigenous resurgence in renewed use and maintenance of languages, artforms and ecologies.
Kent Monkman (1965-), The Deluge, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 304.8 x 259 cm. Private collection, Canada. © and image courtesy Kent Monkman
The Deluge speaks directly to those who have experienced the residential and boarding school systems, and recognizes their pain. With the help of Ancestors, Miss Chief lifts up Indigenous children from the allegorical flood of displacement by settler cultures, and returns them to their families.
It is a testament to the courageous leadership of those who fought for the children’s return and continue the fight to uncover the true extent of the atrocities experienced and return the protection of children to the authority of Indigenous nations.
This unapologetic painting recognizes the detrimental impacts of colonial violence and lends a voice to those who often go unheard.
The naked Cubist female form on the suburban street is but one part of the scenery reflecting the insidious layers of gendered violence that Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit relatives perpetually face: they have been discarded, hypersexualized and deemed lesser than.
Kent Monkman (1965-), Death of the Female, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 213.4 x 320 cm. Tia Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico. © and image courtesy Kent Monkman
Kent Monkman (1965-), Constellation of Knowledge, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 236.2 x 315 cm. Collection of Pierre Lassonde. © and image courtesy Kent Monkman
In this scene, multiple generations of Ancestors gather in the spirit world. Miss Chief, holding a sacred eagle feather, reminds us of the time-bending, relational and intergenerational nature of our connections within kinship constellations.
Miss Chief offers this teaching: “Remember that you are of this world, of the stars, rocks, water, earth and sky. You are also of many other worlds, worlds of expansiveness and beauty which you cannot imagine. You are the medicine you need.”
To all those who were lost, to those who were broken, to those who never returned—there will always be empty spaces where you should have been. The unspeakable loss is forever wrapped around our hearts.
—Miss Chief Eagle Testickle
View of the exhibition Kent Monkman: History Is Painted by the Victors. © Kent Monkman. Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière
