The Monumental Drawing is 30 feet tall and 5 feet wide. It is a testimonial to healing the relationship between Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people and has taken 16 years to complete. Bill Reid, whose Sculpture, "Spirit of Haida Gwaii," located in the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC "endorsed the drawing in principle" before he passed away.
The drawing is too large to photograph in my studio, so I shot sections of it and stitched them together into one image for my entry into this show. The concept of drawing this and how to go about it both technically and ethically originated with me.
I've included detail photos of the Monumental Drawing below as well as the stitched image of the complete drawing..
A larger view of the finished Monumental Drawing can be seen at www.budreau.wordpress.com
The portraits of Art Thompson and Chief Walter Harris are samples of other pencil work.
This is the Monumental Drawing. In 1995 I was looking at the Grizzly totem pole of Tanu in the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Vancouver. It's a beautiful silver grey weathered cedar totem that once stood on the shores of a Haida village called, Tanu. It had been cut down and cut up into four pieces so it could fit indoors and be preserved. I stood before it imagining how chopping up Haida identity felt for the Haida and I also wondered how magnificent it would have looked while still in one piece. At that time I had a burning desire to express my remorse for the atrocities that colonialism had inflicted on Aboriginal people in Canada. I had been exposed to the rampant dysfunction it was still having on thousands of families and communities. I was compelled to voice my outrage and compassion through my art as a way to draw attention that someone cares they are suffering.
And so the idea was born - to put this totem pole back together in a drawing as a symbol of healing that needs to happen; a symbol of moral support and respect that begins the release of a century worth of pain and compromised freedom. A symbol of my emotional support to their healing and recovery.
I thought if the piece was big enough, exact enough, it would draw attention and more Canadians would agree it was time to embrace Aboriginal people as the beautiful race they have come from and, to do or not do, what is needed to help them heal because this kind of support can not be delivered in the form of a government policy or money.
The drawing started in 1996, I obtained written permission from the current Haida chief, a Tanu descendant and went about planning how to do this work. When it was about 8 feet in length I had the privilege of taking it to the home of the then frail, Haida Master Artist, Bill Reid who "endorsed it in principle." For a time my marketing efforts stirred considerable public support and momentum at the grass roots level. I wanted to gift it to a public venue and my efforts failed repeatedly. Then it was accepted by the Museum in Skidegate, in Haida country, it would be a gift back to the Haida. I marketed and sold square inches of the drawing so it could be the voice of thousands of Canadians who felt as I did. After 3 years of intense work and publicity while holding down a full time job, I burned out. 17 feet of the 24 feet had been completed. I kept trying to go back to it but something had shifted in me, I still felt the compassion for The People and I saw that the institutions (public places) where I offered it as a gift was operated by people of compelling ignorance disguised as a defence against appropriation.
I didn't want to sell it and take money for it.
These issues haunted and daunted my progress. Later I learned the space that was held for it in Skidegate had been filled.
Now 13 years have gone by, and I could see it was never going to be completed. It was not going to fulfill it's purpose.
What was all that work and emotion for? Are Aboriginal people still suffering? Absolutely.
My daughter posed the question, “Are you going to writhe in the afterlife when I hold a retrospective show of your work including the unfinished Monumental Drawing?”
No. This work will be completed, not as it started and it will be born into turmoil and most likely rejection – a metaphor for the Aboriginal experience.
I impressed a some of my raw emotion that went into producing this piece on the lower 10 feet of the drawing, purely mine.
"I understand.
I've let it go."
The drawing is on a single piece of Stonehenge 100% cotton, 30 feet long and 5 feet wide.
questions? email me at budreau@shaw.ca
