Adrian Stimson's bison paintings force viewers to reckon with Canada's colonial history | CBC News

May 20, 2022

Variations of this image appear over and over again in Alberta Indigenous artist Adrian Stimson's first solo European exhibit, which opened in London, England, on May 16. .

Stimson said he hoped his collection, entitled Manifest Buffalo: A Bison Dream, would create a space for people to engage in conversations about Canada's dark history with Indigenous people. .

But that doesn't mean that we should forget what happened, because when we forget what happens … it will continue to happen," said the 58-year-old Stimson, a member of the Siksika First Nation, who spoke to CBC on the night of the opening. .

In 36 paintings created especially for the exhibition, Stimson reimagines the bison in a variety of scenes: sharing the canvas with a nuclear explosion; fenced in by a pipeline; and a calf playfully leaping through the air, an oil rig in the background.

The historical and cultural significance of the bison to First Nations is a major part of why the animal features so prominently in his dossier, Stimson said. .

"Every time I paint a bison, it's a memory of one of those slaughtered," said Stimson.

At the exhibit opening, Stimson welcomed attendees in the Blackfoot language and wore his traditional headdress as a means of bringing his ancestors and descendants into the room, he said.

Manifest Buffalo: A Bison Dream is opening the same week that other members of Stimson's nation are travelling to a museum in Exeter, in southwestern England, to repatriate several items belonging to Crowfoot, a late-nineteenth-century Blackfoot leader.

Stimson himself was invited to participate. As a former president of the First Nations Confederacy Culture Education Centres, Stimson said he "forwarded a lot of legislation" on the repatriation of historical artifacts?

The artist said that in "bringing the herd" to London, the bison has once again become a means of survival, stirring painful memories of colonization and teaching the world about the resilience of his people.