Post by Okwes on May 1, 2006 18:20:35 GMT -5
Toulouse Shingwaak heals through her art
Toulouse Shingwaak heals through her art Posted: April 26, 2006
by: Brenda Norrell <http://indiancountry.com/author.cfm?id=448> /
Indian Country Today
indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412891
<http://indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412891>
Click to Enlarge <http://indiancountry.com/pix/1096412891_large.jpg>
<http://indiancountry.com/pix/1096412891_large.jpg> Photo courtesy
Janice Toulouse Shingwaak -- Native painter Janice Toulouse Shingwaak,
from Vancouver, British Columbia, with artist Lloyd Oxendine at her show
opening at the American Indian Community House Gallery in New York City.
Through her art, Shingwaak has rediscovered the mystery of painting as
healing. NORTHERN ONTARIO - The north woods grew dark, and Janice
Toulouse Shingwaak, Ojibwe/Anishinabe Kwe, paused after teaching art
history of the First Nations. She considered her 20-minute walk home
through the woods in the night.
''I hope the bears don't smell my two bags of groceries. I'm Bear Clan,
so they shouldn't bother me - they are my brothers,'' Shingwaak said.
This moment is like so many others in her life: struggling and taking
risks to stay true to her life's work.
Shingwaak's journey in art took her to France, where she spent several
years and which later inspired the Traveling Alter Native Medicine Show,
a mixed-media documentation of her 4,000-mile road trip and revision of
history from an aboriginal perspective.
Shingwaak's art also captured her an acclaimed artist in residency
fellowship at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York
City in 2002. Her most recent show of paintings was in 2006, ''From
Manhattan to Menatay,'' a two-person show with Star WallowingBull at the
American Indian Community House Gallery in New York.
But her most potent realizations have been within: the rediscovery of
her ancestors' gift of medicine and the mystery of painting as healing.
She was born on Serpent River Reserve at Lake Huron, where she grew up.
She is a descendant of Grand Chief Shingwaukonse and Ojema Kwe of Garden
River and Senator Chief William Meawasige of Serpent River.
Art and the original energies inherent in creating have become her
medium for healing. ''It is really powerful. It is not about promoting
myself as an artist; I have always done the work of the ancestors. They
are doing it along with me. I listen to them. The important part is the
healing.
''The spirit made in the painting is to remind the people to follow
their traditions and to have a healthy way of living.''
Shingwaak's life has been one of struggle and gifts, stemming from
inspiration. For her, it began as a teenager when she felt the urge to
move as far south of Toronto as possible. Warm San Diego was her
destination and after she arrived there, at age 18, co-workers
recognized her talent.
''I didn't realize I had talent. I was working at the San Diego Indian
Center in the early 1970s and the people at the center asked me to draw
some graphics. They told me I had talent, and I kept drawing.''
After attending San Diego City College, she applied to study art at the
Vancouver School of Art in British Columbia. ''I was very nervous and
shy, but I just knew that I had this passion that was growing.'' Her
first paintings were inspired by the beauty and grace of a Grass dancer,
which she has photographed and painted many times.
''Once that inspiration gets into your head, you want to do it all the
time. I wanted to create what I didn't see of the Ojibwe. I didn't see a
lot of Native artwork in those days. I thought, 'There's something
more.'''
She became increasingly interested in spiritual reality. As she created
experimental paintings, she moved more toward her own history as an
aboriginal person.
''It was the beginning of the renaissance of First Nations art. We had
to struggle to see work like that.'' She fought the stereotypes of what
Ojibwe and Indian art was supposed to be. The galleries told her she
didn't paint like other Natives.
''I said, 'I paint like Janice Toulouse Shingwaak.' They just wouldn't
take my work.'' She continued to struggle to give her art a presence.
After receiving an art degree in Vancouver, she received a Master in
Fine Arts degree at Concordia University in Montreal.
''It takes a lot of determination, and seeing your vision and never
giving up. You need a lot of courage because it is not a readily
accessible means of employment.''
Shingwaak's life journey has also led her to new realizations.
''Native people have learned the white man's ways; now they have to
learn ours.'' She said non-Natives must heal from their routine of
domination and their ways of domination over Indian people. They must
heal from paternalism.
Shingwaak said she is concerned that many Native young people do not
know their own peoples' histories, including the forced removal to
residential schools and the abuse aboriginal people suffered. Many young
people, she said, do not know that this abuse resulted in alcohol and
drug abuse in those children and, later, their own children. ''We are
all suffering from the effects of cultural genocide. What is going on
now is the process of healing.''
Healing was the focus of her residency in New York, where she learned
from the Lenape (Delaware) people. She discovered they were linked to
the Ojibwe, as both are Algonquin-speaking peoples. She researched
Lenape culture with the goal of assisting them with the repatriation of
their homelands and encouraged them to have their own voice in
repatriation.
Shingwaak said everywhere these days there is talk of programs, but she
added, ''We need to be deprogrammed.
''Speaking the truth from the heart - that is what is important.''
Toulouse Shingwaak heals through her art Posted: April 26, 2006
by: Brenda Norrell <http://indiancountry.com/author.cfm?id=448> /
Indian Country Today
indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412891
<http://indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412891>
Click to Enlarge <http://indiancountry.com/pix/1096412891_large.jpg>
<http://indiancountry.com/pix/1096412891_large.jpg> Photo courtesy
Janice Toulouse Shingwaak -- Native painter Janice Toulouse Shingwaak,
from Vancouver, British Columbia, with artist Lloyd Oxendine at her show
opening at the American Indian Community House Gallery in New York City.
Through her art, Shingwaak has rediscovered the mystery of painting as
healing. NORTHERN ONTARIO - The north woods grew dark, and Janice
Toulouse Shingwaak, Ojibwe/Anishinabe Kwe, paused after teaching art
history of the First Nations. She considered her 20-minute walk home
through the woods in the night.
''I hope the bears don't smell my two bags of groceries. I'm Bear Clan,
so they shouldn't bother me - they are my brothers,'' Shingwaak said.
This moment is like so many others in her life: struggling and taking
risks to stay true to her life's work.
Shingwaak's journey in art took her to France, where she spent several
years and which later inspired the Traveling Alter Native Medicine Show,
a mixed-media documentation of her 4,000-mile road trip and revision of
history from an aboriginal perspective.
Shingwaak's art also captured her an acclaimed artist in residency
fellowship at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York
City in 2002. Her most recent show of paintings was in 2006, ''From
Manhattan to Menatay,'' a two-person show with Star WallowingBull at the
American Indian Community House Gallery in New York.
But her most potent realizations have been within: the rediscovery of
her ancestors' gift of medicine and the mystery of painting as healing.
She was born on Serpent River Reserve at Lake Huron, where she grew up.
She is a descendant of Grand Chief Shingwaukonse and Ojema Kwe of Garden
River and Senator Chief William Meawasige of Serpent River.
Art and the original energies inherent in creating have become her
medium for healing. ''It is really powerful. It is not about promoting
myself as an artist; I have always done the work of the ancestors. They
are doing it along with me. I listen to them. The important part is the
healing.
''The spirit made in the painting is to remind the people to follow
their traditions and to have a healthy way of living.''
Shingwaak's life has been one of struggle and gifts, stemming from
inspiration. For her, it began as a teenager when she felt the urge to
move as far south of Toronto as possible. Warm San Diego was her
destination and after she arrived there, at age 18, co-workers
recognized her talent.
''I didn't realize I had talent. I was working at the San Diego Indian
Center in the early 1970s and the people at the center asked me to draw
some graphics. They told me I had talent, and I kept drawing.''
After attending San Diego City College, she applied to study art at the
Vancouver School of Art in British Columbia. ''I was very nervous and
shy, but I just knew that I had this passion that was growing.'' Her
first paintings were inspired by the beauty and grace of a Grass dancer,
which she has photographed and painted many times.
''Once that inspiration gets into your head, you want to do it all the
time. I wanted to create what I didn't see of the Ojibwe. I didn't see a
lot of Native artwork in those days. I thought, 'There's something
more.'''
She became increasingly interested in spiritual reality. As she created
experimental paintings, she moved more toward her own history as an
aboriginal person.
''It was the beginning of the renaissance of First Nations art. We had
to struggle to see work like that.'' She fought the stereotypes of what
Ojibwe and Indian art was supposed to be. The galleries told her she
didn't paint like other Natives.
''I said, 'I paint like Janice Toulouse Shingwaak.' They just wouldn't
take my work.'' She continued to struggle to give her art a presence.
After receiving an art degree in Vancouver, she received a Master in
Fine Arts degree at Concordia University in Montreal.
''It takes a lot of determination, and seeing your vision and never
giving up. You need a lot of courage because it is not a readily
accessible means of employment.''
Shingwaak's life journey has also led her to new realizations.
''Native people have learned the white man's ways; now they have to
learn ours.'' She said non-Natives must heal from their routine of
domination and their ways of domination over Indian people. They must
heal from paternalism.
Shingwaak said she is concerned that many Native young people do not
know their own peoples' histories, including the forced removal to
residential schools and the abuse aboriginal people suffered. Many young
people, she said, do not know that this abuse resulted in alcohol and
drug abuse in those children and, later, their own children. ''We are
all suffering from the effects of cultural genocide. What is going on
now is the process of healing.''
Healing was the focus of her residency in New York, where she learned
from the Lenape (Delaware) people. She discovered they were linked to
the Ojibwe, as both are Algonquin-speaking peoples. She researched
Lenape culture with the goal of assisting them with the repatriation of
their homelands and encouraged them to have their own voice in
repatriation.
Shingwaak said everywhere these days there is talk of programs, but she
added, ''We need to be deprogrammed.
''Speaking the truth from the heart - that is what is important.''