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I’ve got an abbreviated Biidaajimowin for you today today; I’ll return at my usual length next week.
I’ve been thinking about the birth of the Indigenous arts scene in Canada — which began, in many ways, in Winnipeg.
In the 1960s, a burgeoning Potawatomi painter and sketch artist named Daphne Odjig moved to Winnipeg when her husband got a job working with the Manitoba government.
After witnessing the harm many Indigenous communities were experiencing in northern Manitoba, Odjig began focusing her art on revitalizing and re-envisioning Indigenous arts.
In 1971, she established Odjig Indian Prints in Winnipeg to distribute her drawings and support other Indigenous creators. In 1974, she expanded her shop on Broadway into what she called the New Warehouse Gallery — the first Canadian art gallery owned and operated by an Indigenous person that exclusively represented First Nations artists.
Daphne Odjig, an 82-year-old artist who has been compared to Pablo Picasso, in front of her 1991 painting Bond With The Earth. Below, her 1995 acrylic on canvas, Journey Into Time. Odjig is the subject of a new book. (CP PHOTO/ Toronto Star/ Randy Quan)
Joining with other Indigenous artists Alex Janvier and Norval Morrisseau, Odjig co-founded what became the Indian Group of Seven — also known as the Professional Native Indian Artists Association — which became arguably one of the most influential artistic movements in Canadian art history, shaping Indigenous artists, galleries and exhibits today.
Here are some great links to learn about Odjig and the Indian Group of Seven:
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