Conceived for The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Great Hall, Monkman’s mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People) comprises two monumental paintings that feature many references to European and American works
in The Met collection. The title includes the Cree word for the French, which Monkman uses here to refer to all Europeans who colonized Turtle Island, an Indigenous name for North America. Both compositions evoke the relationship between people native to Turtle Island and newcomers to their lands. At the center of each work is the larger-than-life figure of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, Monkman’s shape-shifting, time-traveling alter ego, who embodies inclusive gender and sexual identities within a Cree worldview.
Welcoming the Newcomers
Kent Monkman
2019
132" x 264"
Acrylic on canvas
Resurgence of the People
Kent Monkman
2019
132" x 264"
Acrylic on canvas
