Abstract
In this chapter, I propose that indigenous graffiti and street art are interconnected with the political mobilization of indigenous groups who actively oppose the structural and systemic histories of violence suffered by indigenous people under settler colonialism. Indigenous graffiti and street art work to destabilize colonial occupations of indigenous territory, by drawing attention to the ways that the existence of settler colonial infrastructure and architecture operates as material evidence of indigenous suffering. By attempting to reclaim the constructed spaces of colonialism through modes of socio-aesthetic intervention, I maintain that the work produced by indigenous graffiti writers and street artists unfold productive strategies of decolonization. My analysis raises questions about the radical potential of indigenous graffiti and street art to delegitimize oppressive social conditions inflicted upon indigenous people by colonial powers.
and we can all move on we can be reconciled except, i am graffiti. except, mistakes were made.
– Leanne Simpson, i am graffiti (excerpt), 2015
The author asks the reader to observe that he is of Euro-Canadian descent.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Notes
- 1.
For more on the relationship between colonialism and the violence inflicted on indigenous women and girls, see: Native Women’s Association of Canada , “Fact Sheet: Root Causes of Violence Against Aboriginal Women and the Impact of Colonization,” ( Ottawa: Native Women’s Association of Canada, 2015), http://www.nwac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Fact_Sheet_Root_Causes_of_Violence_Against_Aboriginal_Women.pdf (accessed 26 May, 2016).
- 2.
The title of Robert Reisner’s book Graffiti: Two Thousand Years of Wall Writing implies that graffiti emerged in Ancient Rome and Greece, overlooking the notion that occurrences of “wall writing” in the forms of petroglyphs and pictographs far exceed 2000 years of age.
- 3.
For more on the re-embedding of Indigenous presence back onto the land as witnessed in the work of Nicholas Galanin, see: David P. Ball, “‘Beat Nation’ Brings Skateboard and Hip Hop Culture to the Vancouver Art Gallery,” Indian Country Today Media Network (26 May, 2012): http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/05/26/beat-nation-brings-skateboard-and-hip-hop-culture-vancouver-art-gallery-115120 (accessed 17 May, 2016).
- 4.
See: Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Choosing Life: Special Report on Suicide Among Aboriginal People (Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada, 1995, p. 24).
- 5.
The critical success of the travelling exhibition “Beat Nation: Hip Hop as Indigenous Culture,” organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery in co-operation with grunt gallery, illustrates the conceptual, aesthetic , and political relationship between hip hop and Indigenous cultures.
- 6.
In Canada , the RestART community mural painting program in Vancouver , the Graffiti Art Programming not-for-profit community arts initiative for youth in Winnipeg, the Saskatoon Community Youth Arts Programming (SCYAP) art and culture program for youth-at-risk, and the 7th Generation Image Makers art and mural program for Indigenous youth in Toronto, provide Indigenous youth the means to develop friendships and create sanctioned graffiti in positive and safe spaces.
- 7.
Digital apps such as FirstVoices Chat make use of Indigenous writing systems to communicate in over 100 Indigenous languages. See: http://www.firstvoices.com/en/apps
- 8.
Ironically, Daschuk’s book was awarded the 2014 Sir John A. MacDonald prize for the best academic book based on a subject in Canadian history.
- 9.
For more on the relationship between the physical body and the site of graffiti inscription, see: Matthew Ryan Smith, “Tell-Tale Signs: Unsanctioned Graffiti and Street Art in Post-Apartheid Johannesburg,” Bronze Warriors and Plastic Presidents: Public Art in South Africa, 1999–2015 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, forthcoming, 2017).
- 10.
For more on the controversy surrounding expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline, see: The Globe and Mail, Digging In: A Deeper Look at the Keystone XL Pipeline (Bloomington, IN: Booktango, 2013).
- 11.
For Roger Moody, “Underscoring virtually every contemporary struggle by indigenous peoples—be it against specific damage, or for culture or political self-determination—is the demand for land rights.” Quoted in Gail Guthrie Valaskakis (2005). Indian Country: Essays on Contemporary Native Culture. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, p. 93.
- 12.
I thank Dylan A. T. Miner for reminding me of this example in our conversation.
- 13.
I thank Hoka Skenandore for assisting me with the tags of indigenous freight and commuter train writers.
References
Ball, D. P. (2012, May 26). ‘Beat nation’ brings skateboard and hip hop culture to the vancouver art gallery. Indian Country Today Media Network. Retrieved from http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/05/26/beat-nation-brings-skateboard-and-hip-hop-culture-vancouver-art-gallery-115120
Bernstein, B. (2012). Expected evolution: The changing continuum. In K. K. Russell (Ed.), Shapeshifting: Transformations in native American art. Exhibition Catalogue. New Haven and London: Peabody Essex Museum and Yale University Press.
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. New York and London: Routledge.
Bulpitt, C. (2015). Salmonhead/LIFE. Sticker.
Chmielewska, E. (2009). Framing temporality: Montreal graffiti in photography. In A. Gérin & J. S. McLean (Eds.), Public art in Canada: Critical perspectives. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Cruikshank, J. (1998). The social life of stories. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Cruikshank, J. (2005). Do glaciers listen? Local knowledge, colonial encounters, and social imagination. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Daschuk, J. (2013). Clearing the plains: Disease, politics of starvation, and the loss of aboriginal life. Regina: University of Regina Press.
Decolonize Street Art. (2015). About. Retrieved from https://decolonizingstreetart.com/about/
Farmer, L., & Milos, R. (2012, Spring). Graffiti: Giving voice to the indigenous. DePaul Journal for Social Justice, 5(2), 409–419.
Francis, D. (1992). The imaginary Indian: The image of the Indian in canadian culture. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press.
Galanin, N. (2012). Indian petroglyph. Inscribed Rock.
Goar, C. (2014, June 25). Canada starved aboriginal people into submission. Toronto Star. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/06/10/canada_starved_aboriginal_people_into_submission_goar.html
Hall, S. (1994). Encoding, decoding. In S. During (Ed.), The cultural studies reader. London and New York: Routledge.
Ignace, M. (2011). Why is my people sleeping?—First nations hip hop between the rez and the city. In H. H. Howard & C. Proulx (Eds.), Aboriginal peoples in Canadian cities: Transformations and continuity. Waterloo: Laurier University Press.
Ignace, M., & Ignace, G. (2005). Tagging, rapping, and the voices of the ancestors: Expressing aboriginal identity between the small city and the rez. In W. F. Garrett-Petts (Ed.), The small cities book: On the cultural future of small cities. Vancouver: New Star Books.
Kermoal, N. (2010). The nationalist gaze of an aboriginal artist. In B. Hokowhitu, N. Kermoal, C. Anderson, A. Peterson, M. Reilly, I. Altimarino-Jiménez, & P. Rewi (Eds.), Indigenous identity and resistance: Researching the diversity of knowledge. Dunedin, NZ: Otago University Press.
Lauzon, C. (2011). Monumental interventions: Jeff Thomas seizes commemorative space. In J. K. Cronin & K. Robertson (Eds.), Imagining resistance: Visual culture and activism in Canada. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press.
Martín, F. (2016). American Indian graffiti. In J. I. Ross (Ed.), Routledge handebook of graffiti and street art. New York: Routledge.
McCormick, C. (2011). The writing on the wall. In I. Deitch, J. Gastman, & A. Rose (Eds.), Art in the streets (pp. 19–24). New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications, Inc.
Miner, D. A. T. (2015). In N. Brown & S. Kanouse (Eds.), Re-collecting Black Hawk: Landscape, memory, and power in the American Midwest. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Native Women’s Association of Canada. (2015). Fact sheet: Root causes of violence against aboriginal women and the impact of colonization. Ottawa: Native Women’s Association of Canada.
Nicolson, M. (1998). Cliff painting. Pictograph.
Rancière, J. (2010). Dissensus: On politics and aesthetics (S. Corcoran, Ed. and Trans.). London: Continuum Press.
Reisner, R. (1971). Graffiti: Two thousand years of wall writing. Spokane: Cowles Book Company.
Ritter, K. V., & Willard, T. (2012). Beat nation: Art, hip hop and aboriginal culture. Exhibition Catalogue. Vancouver: Art Gallery of Vancouver.
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. (1995). Choosing life: Special report on suicide among aboriginal people. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada.
Ryan, A. J. (1999). The trickster shift: Humour and irony in contemporary native art. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Sassen, S. (2011, October). The global street: Making the political. Globalizations, 8(5), 573–579.
Skenandore, H. (2016, May 5). E-mail communication with the author.
Smith, M. R. (2016). Dzawada’enuxw interdisciplinary artist and educator Marianne Nicolson. PhD. First American Art Magazine, 64–71.
Smith, M. R. (2015/2016). March of the land writers: Unsanctioned indigenous street art interventions. First American Art Magazine, 22–27.
Smith, M. R. (2017). Telltale signs: Unsanctioned graffiti interventions in post-apartheid South Africa. In K. Miller & B. Schmahmann (Eds.), Bronze warriors and plastic presidents: Public art in South Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Soja, E. W. (2000). Postmetropolis: Critical studies of cities and regions. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Spivak, G. C. (1994). Can the subaltern speak? In P. Williams & L. Chrisman (Eds.), Colonial discourse and post-colonial theory: A reader. New York: Harvester and Wheatsheaf.
The Globe and Mail. (2013). Digging in: A deeper look at the keystone XL pipeline. Bloomington, IN: Booktango.
Tuck, E., & Wayne Yang, K. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1(1). Retrieved from http://decolonization.org/index.php/des/article/view/18630
Turions, C. (2016, March 23). Decolonization, reconciliation, and the extra-rational potential of the arts. ArtsEverywhere. Retrieved from http://artseverywhere.ca/2016/03/23/1218/
Valaskakis, G. G. (2005). Indian country: Essays on contemporary native culture. Waterloo: Laurier University Press.
Waclawek, A. A. (2011). Graffiti and street art. New York: Thames and Hudson.
Whitehead, J. L. (2004, November). Graffiti: The use of the familiar. Art Education, 57(6), 25–32.
Wollan, M. (2012, December 24). Antigovernment graffiti restored, courtesy of government. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/us/alcatraz-american-indian-occupation-graffiti-preserved.html
Žižek, S. (2012). Mapping ideology (S. Žižek, Ed.). New York: Verso Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Smith, M.R. (2017). Indigenous Graffiti and Street Art as Resistance. In: Awad, S., Wagoner, B. (eds) Street Art of Resistance. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63330-5_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63330-5_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63329-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63330-5
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)