Insurgent Message for Canada was part of a series of works produced for grunt gallery (a Vancouver artist-run centre) and Nuit Blanche (Toronto). It was originally installed on billboards and bus stops throughout Vancouver and Toronto. Recognizing Canada’s role as a perpetrator of imperial violence, the large-blocked text is meant to directly confront and critique the legitimacy of Canadian statehood and settlement, while similarly calling into question colonially imposed regulators of Indigenous identity.
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, Insurgent Message for Canada, 2006. Digital print on paper. SFU Art Collection. Purchase, 2008.
Title
Insurgent Message for Canada
Artist
Edgar Heap of Birds
Year
2006
Medium
Digital print on paper
Collection
SFU Art Collection
Donor
Purchase
Year Acquired
2008
Artists
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (1954–), a southern Cheyenne and Arapaho artist whose practice has focused on inspiring Indigenous resistance and cultural resurgence throughout Turtle Island, while drawing attention to ongoing colonial violence. Heap of Birds participated in the Cedar Table series panel discussions, which were held between September 2004 and February 2005 and organized by SFU students in response to the installation of the Charles Comfort mural. In 2018, he received his honourary doctorate from the California Institute of the Arts before beginning his tenure as a professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma.