“Scary”

Today's blog is a response to this article and the Facebook commentary underneath it. The blog is in the Facebook comments now as well

https://www.facebook.com/163612520408823/posts/2488559911247394/?d=n

I feel a need to respond here. A bit of background. I am an indigenous person. I am an artist. I live in the Kootenays and love the community for the most part. 

But this article and the bulk of the comments being negative pisses me off. 

First off, praise is warranted the arts council in finding indigenous artists with ancestral roots to the land here.  As an act of restitution and reconciliation, this is to be lauded. They have Ktunaxa, Okanagan, and Sinixt representation this year as I understand it and that in itself is amazing!

Second, art will always have a sense of taste and preference, it will always be individual. It also is influenced and biased by your culture, your upbringing, your exposures. Part of the essence of being creative and consuming creativity is exposure to different styles and representations. Art is not always going to appeal. It may be provocative. It may be emotional. It may spark conversation. This is also part of the the vehicle towards reconciliation, equity and equality.  And it’s why art is so important. It’s another voice. 

Third, Ric Gendron’s art is fantastic. Artists draft ideas differently, there is a working and reworking that occurs, and the beginning, middle, and sometimes even the end aren’t that great. But to judge this piece based on a draft is faulty and ignorant. 

Fourth, the tone of this article seems to suggest a discontent with the mural, but it sounds like city council largely supports it. Why the negative spin?  Why the community pushback?  What’s so scary about this piece?  

I have some thoughts here.  Ric has decided to include design elements that look like crosses, that have a horned humanoid, perhaps a stained glass component, and lightning.  Maybe Ric’s angry at the devastating effects religion has caused in First Nations communities. Maybe Ric’s ancestry has some myth and story about such figures. Maybe Ric has a personal story or statement he’s trying to relay. Maybe, just maybe, he’s pissed/angry/grief filled that his people were removed forcefully from this area by colonizing forces so much so that the local First Nations communities are almost extinct and the community that exists today is predominantly white. Maybe it’s all these things. Maybe it’s none of them. To have the arrogance to suppose one knows what he’s trying to say is incredibly frustrating. I’m saying this as a First Nations artist in Canada. I’m saying this as a First Nations person in Canada. 

And let’s get real for a moment here. If you’re offended because he’s bringing aspects of religion into his art that don’t feel nice, those religions are responsible for the mass abduction and most evil abuse imaginable towards First Nations people and especially their children,across the continent, and on the most terrifying and horrific scale. This was beyond not nice or “scary”. This was genocide. 

Face it. Acknowledge it. We First Nations peoples live with this reality and all it’s negative repercussions daily. Reconciliation is overdue. And art is a part of that dialogue.