Art in defence of humanity

Brilliant trip to the McCord museum today. Google it. Really thought-provoking, well curated exhibitions on the theme of the ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples in both the colonial and modern eras. Native Americans were treated appallingly in Canada and the apologies and reparations are still only in their infancy.

A recurring theme is cultural expression. You can kill a people, you can starve a people, but when you deny the legitimacy of their culture and seek to erase it you have truly gone down the route of evil. Systematic, cold and heartless annihilation. Europe’s empires spread like cancer and destroyed well established and harmonious cultures, groups of people who had learned to love the lands that nurtured them and cared in return.

End of rant. I’m so glad I went.

This is a shot of TGR standing behind one of the art installations at McCord by Hannah Claus, artist in residence and of Mohawk ancestry.

As usual we also ate a lot and drank beer and coffee. And TGR and TSM got more tattoos. I would have had one but I wasn’t in the right place; the planets need to be in alignment for me to get inked.

Fab day. Again.