by Jonathan Lainey
Telling the long history and biography of objects’ lives reveals the need to acknowledge the role of material culture in Indigenous-settler relations and in our understanding of the past as well as its representation and appropriation.
In November 1824, four Wendat leaders from Lorette (now Wendake) began a seven-month voyage to London to petition the king for assistance in their land claim dispute. A lithographic print of Grand Chief Tsawenhohi presenting an important 1760s wampum belt was produced on that occasion. Intimately connected and widely known, both the wampum and the print have appeared over the past two centuries in a variety of contexts.
From close physical observations, extensive archival research as well as consideration of oral accounts, Jonathan Lainey (Curator, Indigenous Cultures, McCord Museum) and Anne Whitelaw (Art History, Concordia University) was able to reveal the mechanisms by which the narratives surrounding the symbolic status and cultural significance of these figures as well as their representation were appropriated, stereotyped, and silenced as they were deployed by successive interlocutors, ranging from settler histories of Quebec to Wendat agency and sovereignty.
The research behind this essay was performed during a five-year collaborative project involving different scholars and museums which resulted in Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America: Material Culture in Motion, c.1780-1980 (MQUP, 2021), released in January 2021. This essay is one of 12 diverse contributions in the volume which analyze material culture from northern North America and its entanglements within global, imperial, and colonial networks.
Follow this link for more information on Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America, or this link to purchase a copy.