| Summary: | xi, 161 leaves 29 cm. In the past few decades, Indian art has been available to the mainstream under the supervision of Western science and art history. For the sake of cultural survival and identity, countless Native artists, curators, critics, and writers have objected to these often wrongful and discriminating art histories and scientific classifications. Indian artists are re-writing their history from Native perspective, and as a result, the misrepresentation of Indian art has begun to be recognized by those working in contemporary art galleries and museums. Today many contemporary spaces support and give control of exhibitions to those who share in the Native perspective. However, these changes did not take place overnight; this was an exhausting battle for many contemporary First Nations artists and curators. Native reality is best understood through the trickster, who has always been known to First Nations people through oral traditions, and who is best described as a creator that is constantly transforming and shape-shifting. In using trickster strategies, Native artists are able to deconstruct and reconstruct ideas about Native people and their culture. According to many Native artists, this new discourse, called the “trickster shift,” has been around since the beginning, seeded in oral traditions, and it requires the Native perspective to decode these trickster undertakings properly.
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