Unveiling 20 years of Indigenous photographic art
The establishment of the Hamilton-based Native Indian/Inuit Photographers Association (NIIPA) in 1985 was a landmark moment in the growth of Indigenous art in Canada and the United States.
For 20 years, NIIPA provided an important national networking tool for Indigenous artists, offering materials, training and encouragement, as well as gallery space and touring exhibitions.
Until its inception, photography had typically portrayed Indigenous life through cliched and negative stereotypes captured through white lenses. Indigenous photographers often worked in isolation on the periphery of the art world.
So, NIIPA's founding principle seemed revolutionary: to promote a positive, realistic and contemporary image of native people through the medium of photography."
It started in a basement office on James Street South, moving in the '90s to an office/gallery on Concession Street until it disbanded and closed its doors in 2006. It's first two exhibitions toured across the country and national conferences were organized in Hamilton, Thunder Bay and Lethbridge, Alta.
An ambitious new exhibition at the McMaster Museum of Art NIIPA 20/20" chronicles the group's 20-year history, featuring more than 160 photos by 50 NIIPA alumni artists from Canada and the United States. Many of the artists reached national and international recognition, including Shelley Niro, Jeff Thomas, Murray McKenzie, Jolene Rickard, and Simon Brascoupe. The exhibition runs until Sept. 3, Tuesday through Friday, and is free to the public.
Much of the credit for the exhibition goes to McMaster Indigenous art curator Rheanne Chartrand and NIIPA founding co-director Yvonne Maracle.
Chartrand had never heard of NIIPA until five years ago when she came upon a reference to it while researching another project. That discovery resulted in #nofilterneeded," an exhibition at McMaster featuring 48 works from NIIPA's early years. She found much of the material for that 2018 show in the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada archives in Gatineau, Que. After opening at McMaster, #nofilterneeded" went on tour to Lethbridge, Thunder Bay and the Indigenous Art Centre in Gatineau.
Chartrand thought her work on NIIPA was done. She was wrong. Chartrand had gotten to know Maracle through researching #nofilterneeded" and one day Maracle mentioned that there were more NIIPA photos she might want to look at.
By the time NIIPA folded in 2006, the organization had accumulated a substantial permanent collection. To prevent the photographs from being destroyed after NIIPA's dissolution, Maracle crated them up and moved them to various local Indigenous organizations willing to store them.
There were 360 photos in all and their final resting place (before McMaster) was Koo Gaa Da Win Manitou seniors' residence in downtown Hamilton. Maracle hung many of the photographs on the inner walls of the building. She took Chartrand to see them.
I walked in and realized that I was not done," Chartrand says. I had no choice. When you're handed 360 photographs, you can't just sit on them. You've got to do something with them."
About 125 of the photos that Maracle had saved are now featured in NIIPA 20/20," with many of the rest coming from the original #nofilterneeded" exhibit.
In an interview from her home in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Belleville, Maracle admitted it was a great relief to pass the 360 photos on to Chartrand.
I'm so glad that I ran into Rheanne and she was able to take this load off of me," Maracle said. She's a great saviour and the NIIPA images live on. It is history, Indigenous history, our history."
Meanwhile, Chartrand and Maracle are working on ways to make up to the resident elders of Koo Gaa Da Win Manitou for the loss of the art.
Yvonne and I are going to try to bring the elders to see the show," Chartrand says. Right now their walls are bare, and we're still thinking about how to replace the photographs."
The McMaster Museum of Art is hosting an online panel discussion focusing on NIIPA during the 1990s on Thursday, June 16, at 3 p.m. The panel will be moderated by Chartrand and feature Maracle (NIIPA co-founder and longest-serving director), Carol Hill (NIIPA's former administrative director) and Tim Johnson (founding board member and photographer). You can register for the discussion through the museum's website museum.mcmaster.ca.