Jamie Koebel, who is fighting for an increase in gallery space for Aboriginal artwork, shows off one of her drums.
In the late 19th century, Métis leader Louis Riel said “My people will sleep for 100 years, and when they awake, it will be the artists who give them back their spirit.”
More than a century later, local Métis artist, Jaime Koebel, hopes to bring Ottawa Aboriginal artists together with the help of the city.
Later this month, Koebel will make a presentation to the city’s arts, culture and heritage advisory committee and propose the formation of a sub-committee. It would focus solely on local Aboriginals arts, culture and heritage. Among other projects, she says she hopes Ottawa may see the establishment of an Aboriginal art centre.
Koebel says there aren’t many Métis artists in Ottawa, so she is often called to do traditional dance performances or Métis beadwork. But outside of these occasional community events or exhibits, it is difficult for Aboriginal artists to showcase their work, let alone balance art with a nine-to-five job, she says.
In 2009, Koebel and 39 other Aboriginal artists held several consultations at the Saw Video gallery. They discussed what Aboriginal artists need to be better represented in Ottawa.
They came to the conclusion that Ottawa needed an independent centre, says Koebel. In this space, local Aboriginal artists could showcase their work and pass their knowledge to younger generations. All of that is necessary “to keep our art alive,” she says.
Ottawa has many national galleries that have Aboriginal art pieces: The Canada Council Art Bank, the Indian and Inuit Art Centre of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, and the National Gallery of Canada.
But they don’t always showcase emerging artists, says Steve Loft, a former Centretown resident and former Indigenous art curator at the National Gallery of Canada.
An Aboriginal art centre or organization could also create a tighter local artist community, says Koebel. It could provide a place for intellectual discussions where artists can solve issues like finding a balance between traditional art practices and contemporary art.
Koebel points to the statues across the city that reinforce antiquated and stereotypical images of Aboriginal people.
“It’s not Aboriginal art. It’s art about Aboriginal people,” says Koebel. “It sort of puts us as an item in a museum.”
“We’re not interested in dressing up our stuff in feathers and beads,” Niigonwedom James Sinclair, president of the Urban Shaman, Contemporary Aboriginal Art, located in Winnipeg, Man., said in an interview.
“We want a contemporary Aboriginal perspective.”
The first Urban Shaman gallery was created in 1996 when local visual artist Louis Ogemah realized there was no gallery to represent the local contemporary Aboriginal artists.
It later received federal and provincial funding and moved locations twice to accommodate the growing community of emerging Aboriginal artists.
The gallery has changed how residents in the city perceive present Aboriginal culture, says Sinclair.
Sinclair adds that national institutions tell a national historical narrative where Aboriginal art and history are barely mentioned.
“The national narrative is a narrative that you constantly have to fight to get relevance in,” he says. “The narrative is constantly in threat of erasing you.”
While working at the National Gallery of Canada, Loft says he could see a change taking place. The 2006 exhibit of visual Anishnaabe artist, Narval Morrisseau, drew a record number of visitors, says Loft.
“Those are huge turning points,” says Loft. “But they didn’t change the landscape.”
Galleries across the city didn’t all of a sudden begin to feature more Aboriginal artists, he says. “It’s a very, very slow process.”
Creating a new centre for Aboriginal art takes a lot of commitment, passion and the ability to articulate the importance of the project for artists and for the public, he adds.
After months of research and several meetings, Koebel says she is ready to present her idea to the advisory committee.
Incidentally, 2010, the year of the Métis, presented itself as the perfect time to try to fulfill the words of Louis Riel.