indigenouscontemporaryart:

Kent Monkman | Study for Black Robe. 2017

Monkman captures many scenes in his more recent work of the stories behind the abduction of Indigenous children by the Canadian Government and Christian religious leaders across Canada during the over 100 years that Canadian Indian Residential Schools were functioning, as well as the decades that saw Indigenous children removed from their homes and placed into foster programmes against the will of their parents–titled the ‘sixties scoop’.

July 1st 2017 marks the 150th birthday of Canada. It is important to think on what 150 years actually mean in this context.  What we are ‘celebrating’ and whose voices and experiences are still being denied a platform.

Canada 150 is a celebration of Indigenous Genocide, of Colonization, and of Broken Treaties and Promises.