Please take your Indian name: Artist explores beauty, humour, and identity politics in Montreal exhibition

Heavy drum.

White torso, brown arms.

Slowest hunter.

Tax payer.

White Indian.

These are just some of the "Indian names" emerging Atikamekw artist Meky Ottawa is asking people to take through an art installation of tearaway flyers at Montreal gallery La Guilde.

Some of the names are cheesy tropes, others are jokes or words in Atikamekw​​​​, while some touch on Indigenous identity politics.

"It's my way of decolonizing, in a funny way. It's a sensitive subject for some people but we need to talk about this," said Ottawa, who is from Manawan, Que.

"It's like a frybread fortune. I want to put people in a good mood, make them laugh."

The installation is based on Indian Names, one of 10 works on paper featured in the exhibition Nehirowisidigital. It's the 29-year-old multidisciplinary artist's first solo exhibition in Montreal and is part of this year's programming for the Montreal First Peoples Festival.

First Peoples Festival programming

The annual festival takes place Aug. 6-14. André Dudemaine is the director of Land InSights, the organization behind the the festival. 

He saw Ottawa's work at the Musée amérindien de Mashteuiatsh last summer and wanted to bring the show to Montreal. Ottawa added new pieces and worked on a new presentation — something Dudemaine said deeply reflects her Atikamekw identity.

"Atikamekw are very stubborn, forceful but never raise their voice. They're very quiet and say things very calmly," he said.

"In Meky's work, you can see all the suffering First Nations went through, but at the same time, it's a smiling and soft voice to tell those truths. The contrast is interesting."

Ottawa said her work offers a glimpse into her imagination, her community, her feminist perspective and life as an urban Indigenous woman.

"Through still or moving images, I use line, colour and also symbols to communicate what I find beautiful, funny or sensitive," said Ottawa.

"The creative process allows me to discover myself, to know myself better, but also to make a part of my cultural heritage known to others."

The self-taught multidisciplinary artist works with video, illustration and installation.

While Nehirowisidigital is Ottawa's first solo exhibition in Montreal, her work has also been featured in Working It Out Together magazine, productions by Rezolution Pictures such as the 2017 film Rumble: the Indians Who Rocked the World, and most recently designed MU's Montreal mural honouring Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, unveiled last fall.

"I just want to see more Indigenous people's work in the city, in galleries, on walls and everywhere," said Ottawa.