Artist Kent Monkman's all-encompassing project, Shame and Prejudice: A
Story of Resilience, takes viewers on a journey through Canada's
history, starting in the present and going back before Canadian
confederation. Throughout the book there are clever albeit controversial
commentaries told by Monkman's genderfluid, time-travelling,
supernatural alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. Her narratives takes
viewers through the history of New France and the fur trade, the
nineteenth-century dispossession of Indigenous lands through Canadian
colonial policies, the horrors of the residential school system, and
modern Indigenous experiences in urban environments. Shame and Prejudice
challenges predominant narratives of Canadian history and honours the
resilience of Indigenous peoples. This book accompanies Monkman's
largest solo exhibition to date, which is currently travelling across
Canada at venues including the Art Museum at the University of Toronto,
the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, and the Museum
of Anthropology in Vancouver. The exhibition includes the artist's own
paintings, drawings, and sculptural works, which form a dialogue with
historical artefacts and artworks borrowed from museums and private
collections across Canada. The book is trilingual with all text in
English, French and Cree.
