Kent Monkman (Cree member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba)), Study for Section 69 of the Indian Act, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 24 × 18 in.
In Section 69 of the Indian Act, Miss Chief has a heated exchange with a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a square-jawed, rock-solid symbol of the Canadian settler state.
Since the establishment of this police force by John A. Macdonald in the 1870s, Mounties have strong-armed Indigenous people into unbalanced treaty agreements and forced them onto reservations and into jails.
Here, nestled into the long grass and wild flowers of Turtle Island, Miss Chief uses a firm grip to take power – and land – back into her own hands. Decolonization may be a tough concept for settlers to swallow, but all must learn the nature of true reciprocation, and what it really means to give back.
More works by Kent Monkman (Cree member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba))
Kent Monkman (Cree member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba))
Compositional Study for The Examination, 2021
Kent Monkman (Cree member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba))
Máh-To-Tó-Pah (Four Bears) with Indian Dandy 19, 233, 2008
Kent Monkman (Cree member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba))
The Pariah, 2020
Kent Monkman (Cree member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba))
Compositional Study for Song of the Hunt, 2022
Kent Monkman (Cree member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba))
Study for They Walk Softly on this Earth, 2022
Kent Monkman (Cree member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba))
Die Indianer, 2014
Kent Monkman (Cree member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba))
Watercolor Study for Miss Chief's Tipi Dress, 2019
