Preservation, Provenance, Piracy: (Re)Framing Indigenous Art

Abstract

This essay is a critical familial biography that addresses the ongoing commodification and exploitation of Indigenous art through my mother’s private collection of original Ojibwe paintings. I explore the complexities of her decades-long relationship with Norval Morrisseau, founder of the famed Woodland Cree School, through the lens of three critical “framings”—preservation, provenance, and piracy—and the differentiated meanings and cultural power these terms signify for the artist and the curator.