Date of Award

9-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts in Art History and Visual Culture

Department

Art

Abstract

Kahnawa:ke is a First Nations reserve near Montreal in Quebec, Canada, with a rich history of creative expression. This is a Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) community, a part of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, a prominent First Peoples group of the Northeast Woodlands. Like many other Indigenous communities, Kahnawa:ke is in the process of revitalizing and renormalizing their culture after centuries of assimilation efforts and pressures to separate them from their traditions. Their creation story, known as the Sky Woman Epoch, is foundational to this culture. While there are a number of creation symbols, this study will focus on the Sky Dome, a representation of the heavens and our earthly connection to it, corn, one of the traditional dietary staples, and flowers, considered special gifts from the Creator, in works by two artists at Kahnawa:ke. Fashion designer Tammy Beauvais is from a long-established family at the reserve, while bead artist Leith Mahkewa, a member of another branch of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Oneida on the Thames, came to the community with the marriage of her mother and stepfather. An examination of the presence of the Sky Dome in Unity Sky Dome Drape Cardigan and of corn in Blue Corn Skirt by Beauvais, and the presence of flowers in Supporting Each Other and Creation and Saucy by Mahkewa, will demonstrate how, through iconography, formal qualities, and context, these First Nation artists utilize traditional creation symbols as assertions of this community’s enduring Haudenosaunee identity.

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