First Nations artists remove work from University of Calgary gallery over residential-schools debate event
seth cardinal dodginghorse and Glenna Cardinal pull seven pieces after Sept. 29 campus event invited students to debate whether residential schools were genocide.
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Two First Nations artists have withdrawn their work from the University of Calgary's Nickle Galleries in protest over a controversial event held on campus in late September.
On Sept. 29, the day before the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Canadian Students for Free Speech — a group launched this summer that advocates for open debate on campuses — set up a table inviting students to debate whether residential schools were an act of genocide. University of Calgary professor emeritus Tom Flanagan and Rebel News reporter Drea Humphrey facilitated the event, which Flanagan described as a "Charlie Kirk format" debate.
The artists, seth cardinal dodginghorse and their mother Glenna Cardinal, collaborated as the artist duo tīná gúyáńí (Deer Road in Tsuut'ina). They had seven pieces displayed at the gallery — some individual works, some collaborative.
Cardinal dodginghorse did not learn of the Sept. 29 event until after delivering an artists' talk on campus on Oct. 1. "To have people use the topic of residential schools and use it as a way to debate — like we have family that went missing in these schools," cardinal dodginghorse said to CBC. "To have people debate that any type of genocide took place and occurred from these schools — it's being wilfully ignorant."
After discussing the situation, the two decided to remove their artwork. "I didn't feel safe. I didn't feel our work was safe at the university, and I felt like we had to go and bring it home," said Cardinal, a University of Calgary alumnus.
In its place, they left a letter to the school and sage for smudging. Their letter expressed support for a demand made by student protesters: removal of Flanagan's professor emeritus title. "Someone like that shouldn't be celebrated in a school that is meant to inspire and also meant to educate others," cardinal dodginghorse said.
The gallery's response to the removal was positive, as was reaction online from other artists. During the Sept. 29 event, one student was caught on camera pouring water on Flanagan. Calgary police questioned the person but did not lay charges. Flanagan later filed a complaint against two students with the university, describing the discussions during the first hour and a half of the event as "calm and respectful on both sides" before "the mob showed up."
