Yuxweluptun, Nicolson and Assu: Land, Environment and Activist Art in British Columbia

Abstract

Land rights and environmental issues have long been the cause of fiercely intense and heated disputes between the Canadian government and Aboriginal communities in British Columbia. This thesis focuses on the representation of land loss and environmental issues in British Columbia through the work of contemporary Cowichan Coast Salish and Okanagan artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun and Kwakwaka’wakw artists Marianne Nicolson and Sonny Assu. The objective is to bring a fresh perspective to understanding the politicized artistic practice of these three artists by considering their work as a form of environmental activism. I examine the relationships between the three artists while contextualizing their work within twentieth-century developments in Northwest Coast art. This research is informed by first hand interviews with the artists themselves conducted in January 2016, as well as the work of scholars Gerald Vizenor, Philip J. Deloria and James Clifford among others.