Group of Seven recognized for breaking ground

“Take the road less traveled, follow your dreams,” said Joseph Sanchez at the New Sun Conference held at Blue Quills First Nations College at the end of May.
Sanchez is one of the Indian Group of Seven, which was honoured as part of the cultural camp, an annual weeklong celebration of Native culture, tradition, language, art and ceremony.

“(Group leader) Daphne (Odjig) encouraged us,” said Alex Janvier, also a member of the Group of Seven “Being compared to a powerful group opened doors that weren’t open before to the spiritual inside of the people.”
Odjig, characterized as strong-willed, initiated the formation of the group in Winnipeg in 1973 and their subsequent entry into the established Canadian art world as professional Native artists.

Breaking through this “cultural barrier” was the beginning of the Native peoples “recovery as a nation,” said Janvier. Together they “created a powerful movement and started to believe who they were in mind and heart.”

Janvier attended Blue Quills 42 years earlier when it was a residential school. His very large canvas on display, titled The Poisoned Apple, was commissioned as part of a curriculum development project.

Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness, Norval Morriseau and Carl Roy round out the Group of Seven and all had art exhibited at the conference. Also on display was work by aspiring artists.

“Believe in yourself for inside eons of time are the whispers of all your ancestors,” said Sanchez to the young people.

“Staging a show allowed the whole group to be there through their art, although they couldn’t be there in person,” said Sherri Chisan of Blue Quills’ Indigenous Artists Program.

As Sanchez pointed out, works of the group are characterized by “individuality of style, individuality of creativity, and connection to the landscape.”

While each artist has a distinctive style, the Native aesthetic is unique in that it comes from a connection to the earth. Sacred stories expressed in the art emerge from the experience of ceremony and are tied to nature and Mother Earth. Art is vital to a culture that is not written.

“They learned from the ancestors a responsibility to hold ceremony to keep the world in balance and to transfer and sustain knowledge,” said Chisan.

The highlight of the day, she said, was the “coming together of so many different generations and cultures, each finding their own connection. We are learning to work together.”

The event was funded through the New Sun Fund, established at the Calgary Foundation by Joy Harvie Maclaren. Maclaren’s father, Eric Harvie was honoured by the Blackfoot with the name “Old Sun.” Maclaren is “New Sun,” a name bestowed upon her by the Mohawk, Blackfoot and Anishinabe. The New Sun Fund is used to help preserve and nurture traditional Native culture across the country.