Arts and cultural staff in Canada are calling consideration to the sudden departure of Indigenous curator Wanda Nanibush from Toronto’s Artwork Gallery of Ontario (AGO). Members of the native arts group started raising suspicions final week once they seen that Nanibush, AGO’s inaugural curator of Canadian and Indigenous artwork, was not featured on the museum’s web site.
Now, an anonymously leaked complaint despatched by the group Israel Museum and Arts, Canada (IMAAC) to the AGO on October 16 has spurred issues that Nanibush’s public feedback on the Israeli occupation and bombardment of Palestine might have performed a job within the determination. Signed by the management of the Toronto-based group, together with Artwork Canada Institute Founder and Govt Director Sara Angel, the e-mail criticism alleges that Nanibush was “posting inflammatory, inaccurate rants towards Israel.” The letter, verified by Hyperallergic, decries Nanibush’s social media posts referring to Israel’s position in genocide and colonialism, actions additionally decried by a number of human rights experts and organizations. Previously generally known as Canadian Pals of the Israel Museum, the IMAAC helps Jerusalem’s Israel Museum and its programming, in line with the group’s website.
An AGO spokesperson confirmed Nanibush’s departure however didn’t present a purpose, noting solely that Nanibush’s depart was a “mutual determination” and that the museum was “deeply grateful” to her. Nanibush declined to remark, citing the phrases of her depart.
The AGO has not but responded to Hyperallergic’s inquiries about IMAAC’s electronic mail, which additionally referred to as on the museum to make “private commitments to the Jewish group” by implementing obligatory sensitivity coaching for its curatorial workers primarily based on the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. That definition has been scrutinized for linking antisemitism with anti-Zionism and criticism of the Israeli state with a view to discredit Palestinian human rights advocacy.
“It’s an appalling letter,” Ontario-based multidisciplinary artist and activist Jamelie Hassan informed Hyperallergic. A recipient of the 2001 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, Hassan identified that Nanibush’s departure now raises questions on who will proceed to guide the museum’s Indigenous artwork exhibitions.
An Anishinaabe artist from Beausoleil First Nation of Georgian Bay, Nanibush is well-known inside the Ontario group for her work as a author, educator, curator, and group organizer. Throughout her time on the museum, she organized various exhibitions highlighting Indigenous artwork and tradition, together with reveals this 12 months devoted to artists David Ruben Piqtoukun, Rosalie Favell, and Ningiukulu Teevee.
“It’s unlucky that the primary curator of Indigenous artwork on the AGO has been dismissed on this method,” Canadian visible artist Syrus Marcus Ware stated in an electronic mail, including that he was involved by the way in which the museum had “silently scrubbed” her from its web site.
Candice Hopkins, government director of the Native-led Forge Project in New York’s Hudson Valley, additionally informed Hyperallergic that she was “dismayed” by the information of Nanibush’s departure.
“On a private and knowledgeable degree, Wanda [Nanibush] has all the time raised her voice for justice within the perception that change additionally must happen structurally and that establishments might be leaders on this,” Hopkins stated. Earlier this 12 months, Nanibush and her AGO colleague Georgiana Uhlyarik gained the 2023 Toronto Book Award for his or her publication Moving the Museum: Indigenous + Canadian Art at the AGO (2023).
Hopkins famous that Nanibush has been a vocal critic of “the insidious nature of colonialism and the continuing violences of settler colonialism.”
“What her departure implies is that that is not a cushty dialog for giant establishments and that the work that many people have been doing to create extra simply establishments is now not steady and secure,” Hopkins continued. “When subjects like decolonization are rendered taboo, the long run for Native voices on this subject is bleak.”