AP: “White Shame”:
In Maskegon-Iskwew’s 1992 performance the space was arranged as an installation of five small tipis bereft of covering, a metaphor of both the material poverty afflicting so many First Nations people and the naked pain of the impending ceremony. Suspended from the center of each tipi was a clutch of eagle feathers. Beginning with slide projections of the rock throwing incident at LaSalle, Maskegon-Iskwew smeared mud over the images, calling on the healing power of earth to both mend the wounds inflicted on women, children and elders and to avenge the cowardly actions of the racist mob. Finishing this he then sat in each tipi, took down a feather and sewed it to his chest, echoing the gestures of the Sundance. On completion of this ritual he offered tools to the audience, who were then taken outside to scrape a raw moose hide.
From my essay ‘New Traditions: Post-Oka Aboriginal Performance Art in Vancouver’