Exhibit

The Joy, Humor and Dignity of Native Life

The Indigenous Archival Photo Project has collected thousands of images of Native peoples across Canada and the U.S., rescuing these images from anonymity and connecting people with their heritage and loved ones.

Nov. 25, 2022
Tap story

The Indigenous Archival Photo Project began in 2015, when the Willow Cree writer Paul Seesequasis had a conversation with his mother about the way First Nations, or Native, peoples were depicted in Canadian media.

“She made a comment to me that what was missing in all of the [coverage] was that we were more than victims."

"The strength of family and culture that has kept our traditions alive is so strong, and we weren't seeing any images of that in mainstream media at that time.”

Paul Seesequasis started to look in government archives and museum collections for images that showed the joy, humor and dignity of Native life.

The result was the Indigenous Archival Photo Project, which has grown into a collection of thousands of images of “First Nations, Metis and Inuit individuals and communities, from the turn of the [20th] century through to the late 1970s,” throughout Canada and the U.S.

When Paul Seesequasis began to post photos on social media,

many people reached out to identify themselves or their family members and offer the story behind the image.

Now he regularly receives photos from private collections, including some that have never been on display. “It’s nice to rescue them from this anonymity that they would be relegated to otherwise,” he says.

This photo shows Malaya Bishop in front of a photo of her grandmother, Mary Peter, in 1960.

Ms. Peter played an important role in the communities of Niaqunngut and Iqaluit in Nunavut. Ms. Bishop shares their culture through throat singing as well in her job as an underwater archaeology research technician.

This 1975 photo shows Karonhianoron Ann Jock and daughter Patricia Ann-Barnes at the Indian Ways School in Akwesasne, N.Y.

Photos: Rosemary Gilliat Eaton/Library and Archives Canada (2); Horace Poolaw/Linda Poolaw/National Museum of the American Indian; Rosemary Gilliat Eaton/Library and Archives Canada; Montana State University Northern Archives; Beinecke Library, Yale University; Indigenous Archival Photo Project; Malaya Bishop; Beinecke Library, Yale University.

Produced by Pia Peterson Haggarty

 See more