On a pizza slice-shaped corner in the North Point Douglas neighbourhood of Winnipeg is the Manitoba Indigenous Cultural Education Centre (MICEC).
Danielle Mason, from Peguis First Nation, about 180 km north of Winnipeg, is one of the newer additions to the centre’s expanding team.
Mason joined two years ago as a summer student and then moved into her current role of collections assistant and head curator of the “Where are all the Women? Celebrating Indigenous Art” exhibition.
“I always found myself asking that question because I didn’t see myself as an artist represented in a lot of sort of institutional spaces,” says Mason, who works with textiles and wearable pieces.
The exhibition, which runs until mid-September, is the second of 10 hosted by MICEC as part of a series featuring work from the thousands of informational resources in the centre’s collection, including over 15,000 books, artifacts, digital media and fine art in all mediums.
Mason said she thinks she would’ve been more motivated to create herself if she was aware of the Indigenous women contributing to the exhibition, and hopes it sparks inspiration in others.
“I wasn’t seeing Indigenous women represented really until much, much later on, when I was really, really digging for it.”
Mason says the collection at MICEC was started by Cree scholar Verna J. Kirkness, who was a leader in Indigenous language, culture and education and had a couple of books in her office that she wanted to share.
“I wanted to be able to do their work justice.” Mason says of the artists she chose to feature. “I wanted to emphasize the artists just as much as the art.”
Wants to see women portrayed in a good way
Growing up, visual artist Jackie Traverse, whose work is featured in the exhibition at MICEC, also felt the lack of female representation in cultural institutions.
“I thought being an artist was something only men did,” she told CBC Indigenous.
Traverse, who’s from Lake St. Martin First Nation, which is 225 km north west of Winnipeg, says she started drawing when she was four years old but didn’t become a full-time artist until 2009, after she graduated from the University of Manitoba.
She says she felt a lot of people would dismiss her because she’s a woman saying she’s an artist.
“It’s taken me 10 years to actually not have to struggle,” she said.
But through the highs and the lows, she says it was her three daughters and granddaughter that she did it for, because she wanted them to have a better life.
Traverse, whose work is featured around WInnipeg, often draws women and says her daughters and granddaughter are in her mind when she’s making them. She says she wants to see all Indigenous women portrayed “in a good way.”
‘Making sure the truth gets out there’
Erica Daniels, a filmmaker, CEO and executive producer of Kejic Productions, was commissioned to create a film about Indigenous women artists as part of “Where are all the Women? Celebrating Indigenous Art.”
She interviewed four artists and created a video that will be put into MICEC’s extensive archives.
“It’s so important that we as Indigenous people are telling our own stories because no one could tell them like you can and making sure that truth gets out there,” she told CBC Indigenous.
Daniels, who’s from Peguis First Nation, says that seeing female Indigenous representation in a wide variety of roles helps with strength and pride in culture and identity.
In the past, she says many women felt shame because of the stereotypes that were prevalent in the media.
Just like Traverse and Mason, Daniels has fought the battle of not only being Indigenous, but also being a woman in a male-dominated world.
“A lot of us had to do and continue to have to do, but it never holds us back,” she said of her challenges.
“It kind of just fuels us to keep going and work harder.”
