First Nations: Myths and Realities

When the Vancouver Art Gallery began collecting in 1931, the art of First Nations peoples was far from the minds of the gallery Founders. The 1930s represented a time when the artistic practices of First Nations were collected by ethnographic or history museums rather than art galleries. The presence of First Nations people and culture within the collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery was through their depiction in works of art by non-Native people. The depiction of First Nations cultures has a long tradition within western and Canadian art. The earliest work in the gallery collection that depicts First Nations people is Cornelius Kreighoff's Indian Encampment of about 1860. In the following century artists and photographers such as Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith, Edward Curtis, W. Langdon Kihn, A. Y. Jackson, George Pepper, Walter J. Phillips, Jock Macdonald and, most importantly, Emily Carr turned their attention to First Nations culture as an important source of inspiration. These representations of First Nations cultures were tinged with both a hint of regret at what was believed to be the passing of these people and, often, a misunderstanding of the meaning and importance of their art forms, particularly the totemic forms of British Columbia. In the later years of the twentieth century, there was a greater degree reflection on issues of First Nations culture and identity and this is seen in work by Jeff Wall and Christos Dikeakos in particular.

It was not until the 1980s that the gallery, building on an earlier exhibition history, began to collect First Nations work with any regularity. Due to our own lack of historical material, the presence of major historical collections at the Vancouver Museum, Museum of Anthropology and Royal British Columbia Museum and the ongoing issues of repatriation, the gallery chose to collect contemporary material almost exclusively. The prints, sculpture, masks and paintings displayed within this exhibition speak of a proud history of cultural continuity, strong iconography, linguistic and cultural disparities but also convey strongly political messages which reflect the conflicts over land claims, First Nations languages, lumber and mineral rights and the friction between the desire to retain traditional ways and to find a place within an increasingly globalized world. What is clear is that the messages and the means of conveying those messages are radically different from the strategies employed by non-natives. The realities of culture, history and contemporary life are all expressed vividly within this work. Artists as disparate as Chief Henry Speck, Bill Reid, Robert Davidson, Susan Point, Mike Macdonald, Dana Claxton and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun have all made work which has made distinguished and important contributions to this complex dialogue of place and identity within society. Their work provides a vivid contrast to the often idealized and romanticized view of First Nations people and culture seen in work by artists of European ancestry.

Image: Emily Carr, Tsatsisnukomi, B.C., 1912, VAG 42.3.88