Tag: Indigenous

A pottery jug decorated with a horse-shaped handle. It has painted abstracted birds and geometric patterns in light brown, a deep burgundy-red, and dark brown against the cream surface. It is round and bowl-shaped at the bottom with a tall, narrow cylindrical top and narrow base.
A:Shiwi (Zuni) Clay Pitcher

A:Shiwi (Zuni) Clay Pitcher

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Artist: We’wha (it is likely We’wha’s signature on the handle)
Media: Clay and pigment
Date & Location: 1884, made on A:Shiwi (Zuni) territory in what is colonially known as ‘New Mexico.’ Currently at the Smithsonian in their Anthropology Department under Accession Number: 021664.
Image Source: Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History, Anthropology Department, Accession Number: 021664

❤️Please note: I use both she/her and they/them pronouns since these seem to be the English pronouns most respectfully used to describe We’wha, but I want to acknowledge the failing of language here since these pronouns stem from colonial binaries.

❤️TW: Mentions of colonial violence and arrest

Significance to Queer Art History

This pitcher was most likely made by the A:Shiwi (Zuni) artist We’wha who was born in 1849. We’wha was lhamana. In A:Shiwi culture, lhamana is a term used by people assigned-male-at-birth who present themselves in feminine ways and train primarily (though not exclusively) in cultural roles associated with women. Lhamana figures from history are often reclaimed today using the contemporary term ‘two-spirit.’ For example, the contemporary two-spirit photographer Shawn Johnston commissioned and photographed a beaded medallion by fellow artist Donna Noah with an image of We’wha. I also include a photograph of We’wha below that looks like it may have been the inspiration for this medallion.

A beaded medallion with a light blue background against which We'wha stands in regalia with her black hair in two buns on either side of her head. She carries a basket in her left hand and has a belt and bracelet that match the blue background. The figure does not have facial features. The border alternates light blue, dark blue, black, white, and red bands of colour.
Beaded medallion of We’wha by Donna Noah. Photographed by Shawn Johnston. Image source: CBC News.
Portrait of We’wha Holding a Clay Ceremonial Prayer-Meal Basket, c. 1849-1896. Smithsonian, National Anthropological Archives, Photo Lot 24 SPC Sw Zuni NM No # People 02440800.

During their lifetime, We’wha worked across media and has been recognized for being extremely skilled at both weaving and pottery. The media in which she worked also reflected her lhamana identity since weaving was seen as a more masculine practice and pottery as a more feminine practice.

They also played a significant role as a promoter of A:Shiwi arts and defended their community against colonial violence. We’wah was one of the first A:Shiwi artists to sell her works to settler-consumers and during a 1886 trip to Washington, D.C she met with President Grover Cleveland. That being said, such recognition by the colonial government did not extend to protecting her or respecting A:Shiwi sovereignty. In 1877, We’wah and other lhamana were imprisoned when Christian missionaries came to A:Shiwi territory. We’wah was also arrested for defending the A:Shiwi governor in 1892 from a colonial soldier who was trying to arrest the governor.*

This colonial violence did not stop We’wha, though. As described by contemporary two-spirit journalist Samuel White Swan-Perkins, “after getting out of prison, We’wha walked 40 miles back to the reservation and returned to their former life: leading ceremonies, making pottery, weaving with the women and hunting with the men.”

*I take the term ‘governor’ from Will Roscoe’s work, but would be interested if anyone had further information about which term is most appropriate for an A:Shiwi leader.

Relevant Sources:

Hannah McElhinney. Rainbow History Class: Your Guide Through Queer and Trans History. Unceded lands of the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation: Hardie Grant Books, 2023.

Levi C. R. Hord. “Between Naming and Knowing Someone: Language, Gender, and Colonial History.” Modern Art Oxford. 17 February 2021. https://www.modernartoxford.org.uk/blog/between-naming-and-knowing-someone-language-gender-and-colonial-history-by-levi-c-r-hord.

Samuel White Swan-Perkins. “5 Two-Spirit Heroes Who Paved the Way for Today’s Native LGBTQ+ Community.” KQED. Nov. 20, 2018. Accessed May 25, 2021. https://www.kqed.org/arts/13845330/5-two-spirit-heroes-who-paved-the-way-for-todays-native-lgbtq-community.

Will Roscoe. “Sexual and Gender Diversity in Native America and the Pacific Islands” in LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History. Edited by Megan E. Springate. National Park Foundation, 2016. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/lgbtqheritage/upload/lgbtqtheme-nativeamerica.pdf.*

*I have not read this source in its entirety, but based on the section on We’wah I want to flag that some of the framing and language needs revising to avoid perpetuating colonial harms and binaries. I include it here as a place to start, though, as it does have lots to offer to those seeking to do further research.

This painting shows a boat full of Indigenous people with expressions ranging from fierce resilience to joy. Some figures at the left side of the boat which faces the viewer pull people from the water. In the background four men in military uniform stand on a rock in the middle of the stormy sea waving their guns.
mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People): Resurgence of the People

mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People): Resurgence of the People

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Artist: Kent Monkman (b. 1965)
Media: Acrylic paint on canvas
Date & Location: 2019, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Significance to Queer Art History

Kent Monkman is a Cree artist who works across the media of painting, photography, performance, installation and film. He is known for his critical interventions into ‘canonical’ European and American art history that highlight colonial violence (both historical and ongoing), queer sexualities, and resilience. This painting, mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People): Resurgence of the People, shows a reinterpretation of Washington Crossing the Delaware from 1851 by Emanuel Leutze, which is also housed in the Met. Instead of George Washington, though, it is Miss Eagle Testickle at the helm.

Monkman often includes his gender-fluid, Two-Spirit persona Miss Chief Eagle Testickle in his work. In this painting we see them adorned with rainbow earrings, flowing sheer and glossy red fabric, and Lou Boutons.

“I created Miss Chief Eagle Testickle to offer an Indigenous perspective on the European settlers and to also present a very empowered point of view of Indigenous sexuality pre-contact. We had our own traditions of gender and sexuality that didn’t fit the male/female binary. Miss Chief is a legendary being, she comes from the stars.”

Kent Monkman
Miss Chief Eagle Testickle

Resource(s):

Dr. June Scudeler (Métis) who is assistant professor in Indigenous Studies at Simon Fraser University and Issaku Inami who is an MOA Volunteer, Associate Gallery Host, and queer activist discuss Monkman’s work in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCeWhcyfYxg.

Kent Monkman’s website: https://www.kentmonkman.com/.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” Accessed 2021-11-03. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11417.

Tim Barringer, “The Big Review: Kent Monkman at the Met,” in The Art Newspaper, 2020. Accessed 2021-11-03.
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2020/02/06/the-big-review-kent-monkman-at-the-met

A coloured sketch of a bare-chested Indigenous man wearing a red necklace on white paper with a white man's arm wrapping around from behind to touch his chest.
Did you meet any malagas? (book cover)

Did you meet any malagas? (book cover)

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Artist: Gary Lee
Media: Sketch on paper
Date & Location: 1993, Larrakia Territory, Darwin, Australia
Where can I see this artwork?: Book cover of Did you meet any malagas?: A homosexual history of Australia’s tropical capital by Dino Hodge

Significance to Queer Art History

‘Malagas’ means ‘men.’ Dino Hodge’s Did you meet any malagas? is a collection of oral histories intended to tell a ‘gay history’ of Larrakia territory/Darwin that recognizes local, context-specific intersections of sexuality, gender, colonialism, and race. It addresses as well the objectification of ‘blackfellas’ by ‘whitefellas’ in the local gay community. Hodge writes that “it would be the late 1980s before Aboriginal gay men felt comfortable attending Darwin Gay Society Gatherings (37).”

Gary Lee was the first Indigenous person to collaborate with the Northern Territory AIDS Council, and he is a friend and collaborator to Hodge. He is Larrakia with Chinese and Filipino heritage, and Hodge writes that Lee designed a book cover that: “honoured blackfella experiences… his interracial relationship with his partner is represented by a whitefella arm reaching across his chest and the hand resting lightly above his heart. Here the whitefella presence is subordinated to a blackfella declaration of personhood (41).”

A coloured sketch of a bare-chested Indigenous man wearing a red necklace on white paper with a white man's arm wrapping around from behind to touch his chest.

Resources and Image Credits

Dino Hodge. “Faces of Queer-Aboriginality in Australia,” in Queer Objects ed. Chris Brickell and Judith Collard. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2019.

Hodge, Dino. Colouring the Rainbow: Blak Queer and Trans Perspectives: Life Stories and Essays by First Nations People of Australia. 2015.

Paul Gauguin- The Sorcerer of Hiva Oa (1902)

Paul Gauguin- The Sorcerer of Hiva Oa (1902)

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Featured Artwork: The Sorcerer of Hiva Oa (Marquesan Man in the Red Cape)

Date & Location: 1902 in Hiva Oa, an isle in French Polynesia

Media: Oil painting

Significance to Queer Art History: This painting’s inspiration was drawn from Gauguin’s travels from France to the Polynesian Islands where Gauguin thought the lives and surroundings would be “untouched” by European influence and colonization. This painting depicts a māhū individual from Hiva Oa (not a man in a cape, as Gauguin describes the individual to his western standards of gender) who identifies with a third gender that can encompass both male and female roles, presentation, and even some spiritual aspects as māhū individuals were revered as healers as this person that Gauguin describes as a “sorcerer”.

Symbolism to note: The conversing fox and bird at the bottom right of the image are natural enemies with many differences. This is perhaps Gauguin’s way of portraying male and female genders “conversing” and getting along with one another to symbolize the māhū individual’s gender.

Editors Note: Gauguin’s view into the lives of the indigenous folks of Hiva Oa and the areas he visited in the Polynesian Islands may be untruthful and deemed offensive as he often exploited spiritual and cultural practices and added his own westernized European influences and concepts to his works while traveling to “un-touched” and un-colonized (the Polynesian Isles had already been colonized years before by the French) areas.

Resources & Further Reading:

Reed, Christopher. “Gender- Transcendant Homosexuality: Polynesia and North America.” In Art and Homosexuality: A History of Ideas. Oxford: University Press, 2011.

“The Men-women of the Pacific.” Tate. Accessed August 2017. http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/men-women-pacific.