Anishinaabe

ignored. Other rhetoric produced from a privileged stance does not address others which creates the need for another type of literacy. A literacy of struggle offers a place in which those who have struggled can have a voice. Gerald Vizenor, an Anishinaabe scholar and writer, in his book Survivance: Narratives of Native Presence, writes of survivance stories which encompasses the idea of a literacy of struggle is a “heritable right of succession or reversion of an estate and, in the course of…

The Cree is one of the largest of the largest groups in North America, with over 200,000 members and counting. Canada has over 135 registered bands. Intertribal marriage is to be blamed for such a large population. The language they speak is known as Algonquian, a subfamily of Native American languages. The Cree are tied together through their culture and that is of great significance to them and has survived through many years and hardships. At a time, the Cree were also found in the United…

The book, “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, reinforces the role of humanity and the gratitude we should express towards nature. Moreover, my work makes reference to several of the stories she retells about herself, Native American folklore/culture, and how they connect to science, despite the ways colonization tries to sever it with objectivity and how nature is regarded. My piece begins with a microscope in the center of my work, a reference to a painting in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s…

I decided that I would explore the Native American way of healing and their relations with the indigenous beliefs (religion). We first need to discuss about the difference between the terms illness and disease. According to Arthur Kleinman, the term disease is defined as the specific diagnose ailment while the term illness is the side effects of the disease treatment and impact on one’s sense of being.15 This is specifically important in Native American culture since they treat illness and…

Room for a Truthful Story: Critiquing Toronto 's Reconciliation Methodology as Appropriation Canada 's existence as a colonized nation in a post-colonial environment requires its citizens and its institutions to have an understanding of decolonization and reconciliation methods. As a majour city within the established nation, Toronto has employed a simple method of acknowledging Canada 's history by naming streets after people that the nation believes to be worth honouring. Yet these surface…

When Columbus invaded America in the late 1400s, there were thousands of vital communities speaking their own languages and practicing their own cultures already here. That fateful day marked the beginning of a tragic decline in Native American cultures through the introduction of disease, systematic genocide and government efforts to subjugate and even eradicate the indigenous peoples in this country. These actions were largely motivated by the greed and religious fervor of the invaders, and…

In this essay, I will examine the role of contemporary art practice in presenting the world in an altered light so that we engage in the represented events and situations in more critical and perhaps experimental ways. In addressing this question, I shall concentrate on politically engaged artistic practice in the form of photography, street art, and installation art. It is the artistic techniques that these artists behold and present to us that makes us react and respond to them and what they…