Kitty H.

Indigenous Art : Painting Canada’s Identity

Kitty H.
Richmond Regional Heritage Fair
Richmond, BC

Starting this project was like a hike in the woods, sometimes you stumble across beautiful views while other times you are lost, but on every walk you take you always know where to start. At the beginning of the project I knew I wanted to pursue the topic of Indigenous peoples because I had a solid base knowledge about them. The art portion came to me when I pondered on what I love to do, not something that’s gonna force me but instead willingly wanting me to do this. Indigenous peoples have played a huge part in this topic, they were the ones that created the roots of these masterpieces. Without them we wouldn’t be seeing the different famous artworks inspired by Indigenous art. Indigenous art is an important piece of Canada and I would love to share that with everyone the backstory of it. When you walk through the different places in Canada you can see that Indigenous art is everywhere, Letting Canadians know about this beautiful part of our heritage.

What sources and evidence did you consult for your project? What different perspectives did they provide on your topic?

When doing this project I use a generous amount of websites, with each providing me with information that was used for my board. Websites include: The Canadian Encyclopedia, where I used a various amount of articles and pulled out the key info I needed into my work. Another good website I used was Sealaska, where there was a textbook that was mainly for teachers to use to teacher student about formalize designs and all the different traditional Indigenous shapes.Formatted so there are pictures that go with the words, it was a easy textbook to understand and got me tons of information on one thing that definitely made my life way easier, so I don’t have to go onto other websites to find to remaining info I need. 

What is the historical significance of your topic?

Indigenous art has come a long way since it first started during the last ice age (which was estimated to be 12,000-80,000 years ago.) From the 16th century, Indigenous people have started making engravings on rocks, caves, wood, and stone. Which later developed into carving full out sculptures that were put into museums. During the 16th century painting was also a challenge for Indigenous painters, there were limited to only the colour red and only using their fingers to paint. Then the 19th century came, as well as the European traders. During this time trader has introduce them to more colours to work with, expanding their palates choices and leaving a big room for more improvement to come. Now Indigenous modern day paintings still capture the traditional touch of Indigenous styles. Such as; traditional shapes and lines, bold colours, and the stories behind each and every art piece. Indigenous art has made huge impact into our history, it changed the minds of artist to share their stories with everyone through a single piece of art. 

Why did you choose this topic? 

Art is one of my favourite subject to do in school and occasionally do at home as well, this project let me have the excuse to do art instead of other topics that will just lead to me sitting in front of a computer for hours looking for info, even if sometimes I can’t fully escape that part of doing a huge project I can be excused to it partly. I was able to make my entire board background into an Indigenous inspired dot art painting and multiple other people from other styles that include: painting, beadwork and carving (which I altered into wood burning.)