JANE ASH POITRAS, C.M., R.C.A. (1951-) CREE

In Hayoka Feathers, Jane Ash Poitras mixes her media in a tempestuous structure of purples, pinks, reds, and blues, painting and collaging an evocative array of images and text to her canvas. In large, stenciled letters in the top register, Poitras identifies the subject as “SITTING BULL.” Poitras’s gel transfer is based on the 1885 photograph by David Francis Barry, which has been widely reproduced. Above Sitting Bull is a stock photo of a wildly galloping group of horses, perhaps a reference to Chief Crazy Horse. The top register of the canvas is a squall of turbulent colours that suggest an approaching storm, a possible reference to Chief Rain-in-the-Face. Taken all together, the Poirtas’s canvas can be read as an allusion to the three “Heyoka Chiefs" who fought at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

Likewise, these generic or stock photos, when taken together, can be understood as a reference to the assimilation and commodification of Indigenous peoples and culture. By adding a feather of heyoka (heyókȟa), a trickster figure in Sioux culture, and the cruciform or star shapes found in traditional Lakota design, Poritas is attempting not only to demystify the images but to renegotiate them as well. She literally reframes the transfers with tangible links to Indigenous culture.

At the bottom of the canvas, Poitras includes a 32¢ stamp from the Canada Series. Commissioned by Canada Post in 1984 from Jean Paul Lemieux, the image shows three of the fathers of Confederation in front of the Province House in Charlottetown, PEI. Next to the stamp is a partial quotation, attributed to Sitting Bull, which reads, “GOD MADE AN INDIAN.” Not reproduced is the second line of this now immortal statement of defiance, “but not a reservation Indian.” The implication of the stark contrast reads clear: a subversive nod to the Indigenous title of territory.