“On Looking and Reading” from Early Days: Indigenous Art at the McMichael
The Anishinaabe artist and scholar Bonnie Devine won the 2024 Galeries Ontario Galleries (GOG) Award for Curatorial Writing for her lead essay, “On Looking and Reading,” in our landmark publication Early Days: Indigenous Art at the McMichael. Devine was the book’s co-editor, overseeing the project by assigning essays on our holdings to some sixty Indigenous authors. The result is a monumental testament to the power of Indigenous vision and voices. The following is an excerpt from her text:
Bonnie DevineThe process of looking at art is complicated. Because you don’t only look at art, you read it. And you don’t read it the same way you read a book. There is no standard alphabet or grammar. There is no page one. That is its beauty, of course, and its magic.
The process of looking at art is complicated. Because you don’t only look at art, you read it. And you don’t read it the same way you read a book. There is no standard alphabet or grammar. There is no page one. That is its beauty, of course, and its magic. [. . .]
Who made these objects, for one thing. And where? For what purpose? And when? [. . .]
For us, the invited lookers and readers, entire bodies of knowledge lie beyond these questions, each a prerequisite to the task of reading. Unaccompanied objects that lack essential collection notes or contemporary commentary are often almost illegible. We may recognize their general area of origin and date of fabrication. We may know several of the common glyphs stitched into their surfaces and identify with some certainty the local vernacular of colour and beadwork the maker employed.
Through these observations we may surmise the materials and tools used, and sometimes the methods of making. But deeper into the stories they contain we cannot go. It is as if, tender and fragile as these objects are, they resist our inquiry. They remain, above all, objects to be admired for their exoticism and beauty, not read.
Early Days: Indigenous Art at the McMichael
On view through MAR 29, 2026
Discover more than one hundred works that tell the story of Indigenous art in Canada
Early Days: Indigenous Art at the McMichael
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