AbstractsHistory

This thesis is an analysis of some traditional settler art historic practices within the realm of Indigenous art history. This work concentrates on seven serigraphs by Kwakwaka'wakw artist Francis Dick, foregrounding her words about her work and life. The introduction of this thesis is meant to contextualize the process of witnessing, or listening to Francis Dick as the pivotal tool for myself, as a settler art historian, and examines how this notion has come to be vital for myself as a methodology. The first chapter, my methodology chapter, examines and critiques traditional art historical and academic protocols that are not progressive when dealing with contemporary Indigenous art history from a settler perspective. The traditional art historic and academic practices that I have chosen to critique include: the Human Subjects Committee protocol at The University of Victoria, multicultural art history, some postmodern tenants of art history, and new age art history. I then consider alternative methodology, which is used throughout the thesis. The methodology used for this thesis is based on dialogue with the artist, self-reflexivity, listening, a myriad of feminist epistomologies, the idea of marginality as a site of personal and political strength, narrative, and is broadly labeled discursive feminist ethnography. The second chapter introduces Francis Dick and examines some of the long history of colonization the Kwakw~kA'wakw Peoples and other Indigenous Northwest Coast Peoples faced, and continue to face. This chapter is a brief biography of Francis Dick, predominantly in her own words, discussing her art and life. Chapter three deals with three self-portrait serigraphs by Francis Dick, considering what they mean to her, and my own tentative analysis. Chapter four deals with three of Francis Dick's serigraphs that honor wornrnin, again, considering what they mean to her and including my own analysis. The conclusions of this thesis bring the critiques of traditional art historical methodologies full circle to exemplify how some texts use the oppressive epistomologies critiqued in chapter one. The conclusions of this thesis also recognize some very progressive Indigenous art historical texts, noting the difference in their methodological approaches, as opposed to traditional settler art historical discourse. I end this thesis with an evaluation of my methodology and the conclusion that this thesis is a site of intervention in the traditional discourse of Indigenous art history. Graduate