7.3: FNIM – First Nations, Indigenous and Metis & Artists
Excerpt from: https://opentextbc.ca/postconfederation/chapter/11-10-canada-and-the-colonized-1970-2002/
The American Indian Movement (AIM) appeared in the late 1960s in the United States. Sometimes described as Red Power (in a nod to the Afro-American Black Power movement), AIM inevitably reached across the border to Canadian First Nations with shared grievances against colonialist forces. Beginning in 1970, AIM-style demonstrations appeared in Canada including road blockades, the occupation of government offices, and attempts to seize lands that had either been unilaterally cut out of reserves or never covered by treaty. The frequency of protests increased through the decade, many of which became high profile confrontations. In the North West Territories, Dene mobilized to block the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. A Royal Commission from 1974 to 1977, chaired by Justice Thomas Berger (b. 1933), accepted much of the Dene case and called for extensive land settlement agreements before the pipeline project could proceed. Effectively, this established a moratorium on a major infrastructural development, a significant win for Aboriginal activists. Similar confrontations took place in northern Quebec over the James Bay hydroelectric development program, a process that hardened Innu and Cree sentiment against Péquiste separatism.
Salinas, E.J., & Wittstock, L. W. (n.d.). A brief history of the American Indian Movement. American Indian Movement. Retrieved from https://www.aimovement.org/ggc/history.html
The Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporation (PNIAI)
Beau Dick
Annie Pootoogook
For Further Study:
Carnahan, Alanna. From Native Modernism to Native Feminism: Understanding Contemporary Native American Praxis. , 2019. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2272213336?pq-origsite=primo
Bailey, Jann L.M. “The Spirit of a Firebrand Artist: Daphne Odjig Brought Together the Indigenous Painting Community in Canada.” Herizons, vol. 31, no. 3, winter 2018, pp. 93+. Available over Academic library systems
(2015) Unsettled borders and memories: a “local” indigenous perspective on contemporary globalization, Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 7:1, DOI: 10.3402/jac.v7.26583
