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Aiyyana Maracle[edit]

Aiyyana Maracle
BornNovember 25, 1950
Six Nations, Ontario, Canada
DiedApril 24, 2016
NationalityMohawk, Haudenosaunee (Canadian)
EducationGoddard College (MFA)
Known forPerformance art, installation art, theatre director, curator, scholar
AwardsCanada Council John Hirsch Prize, 1997

Aiyyana Maracle (25 November 1950 – 24 April 2016) was a Haudenosaunee performance artist, activist, theatre director, scholar, educator, and great-grandmother.[1] With her work, she sought to dismantle the Eurocentric view of gender and sexuality while highlighting the experiences of trans* Indigenous individuals in Canada.[2] She participated in numerous art festivals and exhibitions, both domestic and international, including the Queer Arts Festival in Vancouver and the Second International Transgender Art Festival in London, England.

Maracle was a sovereign Mohawk woman of the North American Haudenosaunee Confederacy.[3] During her career, she made notable contributions to the Indigenous performance art community, working alongside many prominent artists and writers in the 1990s and early 2000s.[4]

In 1997, she was the first Indigenous recipient of Canada Council’s esteemed John Hirsch Prize for emerging theatre directors.[1]

Life[edit]

Maracle was born on November 25, 1950 in Six Nations, a First Nations reserve situated on the Grand River in Southern Ontario.[5] She spent the first seven years of her life living with her grandmother and five siblings.[6][7] Her parents, Leonard and Cordelia (Kitty) Maracle, were active in several Indigenous organizations in Canada including the British Columbia Association of Non-Status Indians. Kitty was highly involved in women’s organizations and was the president of both the British Columbia Native Women's Society and the Native Women's Association of Canada.[8]

When her father was denied official status under the Indian Act, her family was forced to leave Six Nations and assimilate into urban society. They moved frequently over the next ten years and lived in cities such as Rochester and Buffalo, New York.[6][7] After graduating high school in 1968, she took a trip to Vancouver and ended up staying there for 35 years. [7]

Maracle was assigned male at birth and began her gender transformation journey at age 40. During her transformation, she rejected the rigid binary model of gender, embracing a fluid gender expression. [1] In her influential essay titled “A Journey in Gender,” she referred to herself as a “transformed woman who loves women” [9] and argued that the European concepts of transsexuality and binary gender did not align with most Indigenous cultures. On her transformation, she wrote:

“Though I may fit the definition of the European concept of transsexuality, as far as I am concerned, my being and transformation are based in the historical cultural continuum of North America's Indigenous people. I feel my choice of ‘transformed woman’ to be a more appropriate term in that it follows the logic and structure of Indigenous languages.”[9]

Maracle lived and worked in various Canadian cities such as Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. She also spent time performing on traditional Chippewa (Ojibwe) territory. Before her transformation, she had two marriages and raised multiple children. By the end of her life, she had six grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.[6]

In 2010, she moved back to Six Nations with one of her sons and became an outspoken advocate for trans* and gender nonconforming youth. In 2012, she co-founded Gender Journey, a peer support group out of Grand River Community Health Centre in Brantford, Ontario.[10]

Maracle died on April 24, 2016 surrounded by her friends and family.[5]

Education and teaching[edit]

Maracle completed one year of a Bachelor of Architecture at Pennsylvania State University in 1969. She completed university transfer courses (including physics, chemistry, math, English and Spanish) in 1984 at Vancouver Community College, Langara campus. In 2006, she received a Master of Fine Arts (with a specialization in interdisciplinary media) from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont.[6]

Between 2002 and 2007, she taught at various Canadian universities. She gave guest lectures at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver and taught Native Literature at Concordia University in Montreal.[6] In 2006, she accepted an unpaid visiting scholar position at McGill University.[1]

In 2013, Maracle performed the opening acknowledgements for a panel discussion hosted by Maggie’s Sex Workers Action Project in Toronto. In 2014, she delivered a speech titled “Ruminations on The Tangled Roots of Today’s Garden of Gender Multiplicity” at the University of Winnipeg’s Writing Trans Genres Conference. Her speech advocated for the recognition of trans* women within the world of queer art.[7]

Career[edit]

Maracle was best known for her performance and installation art pieces including Gender Möbius (1995) and Death in the Shadow of the Umbrella (2015). Throughout her artistic career, she explored various other mediums such as painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, and collage. She also handmade numerous garments and accessories such as fur headpieces, masks, dresses, robes, skirts, jackets, jewelry, and metal nipples to wear during performances.[6]

Performance art[edit]

In the 1990s, a number of contemporary Indigenous artists began adopting performance art as a strategy for cultural continuance in a colonized society.[11] Maracle drew inspiration from her own understandings of Indigenous culture, combining traditional Ogwehoweh art with aspects of European theatre.[11] She was part of a flourishing contemporary Indigenous art community in Vancouver in the 1990s.[1] During this time, her involvement at the artist-run centre known as Grunt Gallery helped facilitate her success as a performance artist and curator. She performed in, and co-curated, multiple programs at Grunt Gallery such as First Nations Performance Series (1992), Play Performance Series (1994), and Halfbred (1995).

First Nations Performance Series, 1992[edit]

Co-curated by Maracle and Glenn Alteen, First Nations Performance Series was the third annual performance series organized at Grunt Gallery. It consisted of a cabaret followed by a sequence of solo performances by contemporary Indigenous artists over the course of ten evenings.[12] The series explored Indigenous identity as it intersected with themes of race, gender, and sexuality.[13] Performances included: Dana Claxton’s Tree of Consumption: A Performance in the Round; Marie Humber’s Age of Iron – A Loss of Way; Zachery Longboy’s Re-Creation of a Dream; and Margo Kane’s I Walk, I Remember.[11]

Halfbred, 1995[edit]

Halfbred was a multidisciplinary project consisting of performances, cabarets, exhibitions and screenings. It was curated by Maracle, Alteen, Andrea Fatona and Haruko Okano in collaboration with VIVO Media Arts Centre and Pitt Gallery. The project centred around the experiences of mixed-raced, bisexual, and trans* individuals who did not conform to conventional binary systems.[14] Maracle performed Gender Möbius as part of the series. Her thirty minute performance focused on the decolonization gender in response to the heteronormative constraints of Canadian society.[7]

NDN Wars Are Alive, and … Well?, 2006 - 2010[edit]

Maracle performed multiple versions of NDN Wars Are Alive, and … Well? including one at Trinity Bellwoods Park (2006) in Toronto and another at Gallery Lambton (2010) in Sarnia.

The Toronto version was performed as part of the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art. It featured a looped video projected onto a hillside. The video depicted the turbulent relationship between Indigenous peoples and colonial rule in Canada. Silhouettes of Maracle’s body could be seen dancing across the hillside showing, “a pointed assertion of Indigenous presence on contested land.” [1]

The Sarnia version of NDN Wars Are Alive, and … Well? was performed outside Gallery Lambton as part of Present Response. During the performance, a looped video was projected onto an exterior wall of the gallery. Maracle stood on a patch of grass dotted with miniature flags representing the six Haudenosaunee nations (known as the Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Mohawk and Tuscarora). During the performance, the flags were gradually crushed as a metaphor for the desecration of sacred Indigenous land by white colonizers. The performance was a response to the history of colonization in Canada, drawing focus to Sarnia's situation on traditional Chippewa (Ojibwe) territory.[1]

Death in the Shadow of the Umbrella, 2015[edit]

Maracle premiered Death Under the Shadow of the Umbrella at the 2015 Queer Arts Festival. It was a performance piece exploring gender politics and the invisibility of trans* Indigenous women in popular culture. During the performance, Maracle painted herself red and wore a coyote skin hat. She invited strangers to draw on her body using an eagle feather dipped in white paint.[7] On the ground behind her, the outline of a body labelled “transgender woman” alluded to the underrepresentation of trans* Indigenous women. The “transgender umbrella” above her head referred to the umbrella term used to group various gender identities into one category.[7] She wore a pair of metal nipples which she sculpted out of copper wire. The metal nipples, known together as Love Potion, were worn to represent the empowerment of trans* Indigenous women.[4]

Maracle was in numerous other performances throughout her artistic career including: First Woman (Iroquois Creation story) (1992) at the Vancouver Children’s Festival; N Flux (1993) at Vancouver East Cultural Centre; Two Spirit Cabaret (1993) at Grunt Gallery; Strange Fruit (1994) from Play Performance Series at Grunt Gallery; Colonization / Decolonization (1994) at Vancouver's Western Front Artist-Run Centre; Untitled (1999) from LIVE at the End of the Century at Vancouver's Vogue Theatre; and CatWalk Envy (2001) from LIVE Biennial of Performance Art at Western Front.

Exhibitions and festivals[edit]

Maracle began curating festivals and exhibitions in 1992. Some examples include the Queer Series/Two Spirit Festival (1993) at Grunt Gallery and Women @ the Front (2003) at Western Front Artist-Run Centre.[6] Her work was displayed at the Vancouver Queer Arts Festival numerous times; she was in an exhibition titled Queering the International (2013) and a performance titled Death in the Shadow of the Umbrella (2015).[2]

Throughout the 1990s, she worked as a co-curator at Grunt Gallery where she produced shows such as Abstracted On the Line (in collaboration with Teresa Marshall) and Perfect Bound (in collaboration with Glenn Alteen and Merle Addison). Abstracted On the Line (1995) was a group show starring four Indigenous artists: three painters and one fabric artist. The show centred around the use of abstraction to create a bridge between European and Indigenous art. In 1998, she contributed performance and installation pieces to the Second International Transgender Art Festival in London, England.[5]

In 2002, she was part of the INDIANacts Aboriginal Performance Art Conference in Vancouver. The conference was curated by Glenn Alteen and presented by Tribe Performing Arts Group (based out of Saskatoon). It brought together prominent Indigenous artists from across North America including: Rebecca Belmore, Lori Blondeau, Reona Brass, Dana Claxton, Marie Clements, Thirza Cuthand, Cheryl L'Hirondelle, James Luna, Âhasiw Maskêgon-Iskwêw, Shelley Niro, Edward Poitras, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Bently Spang, Daina Warren, and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun.[15]

Maracle's work has been displayed posthumously at exhibitions such as Unsettled (curated by Adrian Stimson for the 2017 Queer Arts Festival), and Her Words Are Not Vanishing as She Leaves Her Howl Inside Us (curated by Anne Riley in 2020 for Artspeak Gallery in Vancouver).

Literary works[edit]

In 2000, Maracle wrote the influential essay titled “A Journey in Gender.” It was published in the second volume of Torquere: Journal of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Studies Association.

In 1999, she wrote the article “Performance Art and the Native Artist: an rEvolutionary Mix?” for LIVE: At the End of the Century. The article was later republished in the 2015 publication of Disgruntled: Other Art.

She is the author of the unpublished book, Chronicle of a Transformed Woman (2000), in which she described the traditional Indigenous medicine rituals she used throughout her gender transformation journey.[5]

Curatorial credits[edit]

  • Women @ the Front, 2003, co-curator, Western Front, Vancouver
  • Self Expressions: Out On Screen, 2001, Queer Film Festival, Vancouver
  • Here and Now: First People’s Perspectives 1964-1997, 1998, First Nations Alumni Exhibition, co-curator, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver
  • Abstracted On the Line, 1995, group show, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
  • Unbound: The Book as Art, The Book as Object, 1995, group show, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
  • Perfect Bound, 1995, co-curator, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
  • Fastforward; Rewind; Play, 1994, 10th Anniversary Exhibition and Performance Series, co-curator, Grunt Gallery
  • The Queer Series / Two Spirit Festival, 1993, co-curator and editor, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
  • First Nations Performance Series, 1992, co-curator, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
  • Koochie’s Greatest, 1992, solo show

Directorial credits[edit]

  • Six Nations Pageant, 2008, Six Nations, Ontario
  • Janis / Janus, 2004, LaKudelka Productions, Firehall Arts Centre / Waterfront Theatre, Vancouver
  • Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, 1995, Arts Club Theatre Company, Vancouver
  • R. & D. #27 – Sticks and Bones, 1994, Theatre Centre, Vancouver
  • Two Row Wampum, 1994, Dufferin Players Theatre, Brantford
  • Kafka’s Chimp, 1994, Project for a Twentieth Century Opera, Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff
  • Wapoogooneeya (Fireweed), 1994, Fireweed Productions, Vancouver East Cultural Centre, Vancouver
  • Age of Iron, 1993, Firehall Arts Centre, Vancouver
  • The Proposal, 1993, Firehall Arts Centre, Vancouver
  • Race with the System, 1990, International Conference on Indigenous Education, Hamilton, New Zealand

Awards and juries[edit]

In 1997, Maracle received Canada Council’s prestigious John Hirsch Prize for being the, “most artistically exciting new director in the country.”[16] In 2003, she received an award from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (now known as Indspire) to help her pursue a Master of Fine Arts at Goddard College.[6] She also attended an artist residency at the Banff Indigenous Arts Centre in Banff, Alberta.[6]

She received three grants in 1997: Canada Council's Professional Development Grant (to study opera stage direction); Canada Council's Theatre Production Grant (for the production of Gender Möbius); and a writing grant from British Columbia Arts Council.

From 1997 to 1998, Maracle was a member of the Native Advisory Committee at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. From 1996 to 1998, she was a member of both the Advisory Committee and Interview Panel at the Vancouver Opera. From 1993 to 2000, Maracle was a member of Canada Council's jury for grants in theatre and visual arts.

Reception[edit]

"Aiyyana was both a keeper and a maker of culture, asserting her own voice and place within contemporary North America through her art practice, and facilitating the voices of others through her curatorial, directorial and activist roles and projects" [1] – Paul Couillard, 2016

"Maracle’s contributions to Indigenous art and the lives of trans women in so-called Canada have been largely downplayed, which was disheartening, but not surprising, to witness. Any form of canonization, including Indigenous art canonization, is complexly coded with power differentiation that marginalizes trans women. Maracle’s archive shows that, for decades, trans women have not been afforded space within fields such as Indigenous art, literature, academia, and feminist and lesbian communities" [4] – Ariel Twist, 2020

"No one knew what to do with a Haudenosaunee transsexual artist – not only did [Maracle] have to convince people that her work was important, she often had to do the extra work of creating the venues and events for it to appear in. All of this effort would pay off, leading her work to be featured in galleries and art festivals across the country" [7] – Morgan M. Page, 2016

Selected exhibitions and festivals[edit]

  • Her Words Are Not Vanishing as She Leaves Her Howl Inside Us, 2020, exhibition, Artspeak Gallery, Vancouver
  • Unsettled, 2017, exhibition, Queer Arts Festival, Vancouver
  • Queer Arts Festival, 2015, Vancouver
  • Queering the International, 2013, exhibition, Queer Arts Festival, Vancouver
  • INDIANacts Aboriginal Performance Art Conference, 2002, Vancouver
  • Live: Biennial of Performance Art, 2001, Western Front, Vancouver
  • Powell Street Festival, 2001, Vancouver
  • Queer Film Festival, 2001, Vancouver
  • LIVE at the end of the century, 1999, Vogue Theatre, Vancouver
  • Here and Now, 1998, exhibition, First Nations Alumni Exhibition, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver
  • Second International Transgender Art Festival, 1998, London, UK
  • Fourth International Contemporary Artist’s Conference, 1997, Vancouver
  • The Queer Series / Two Spirit Festival, 1993, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
  • Vancouver Children’s Festival, 1992, Vancouver

List of performances[edit]

  • Death in the Shadow of the Umbrella, 2015, Queer Arts Festival, Vancouver
  • NDN Wars Are Alive, and … Well?, 2006, Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto
  • NDN Wars Are Alive, and … Well?, 2010, Gallery Lambton, Sarnia
  • Peace Piece 3, 2003, Hearts on the Ground, Sakekewak, Regina
  • Peace Piece 2, 2003, Visualeyze 53, Edmonton
  • Untitled, 2002, Queer City Cinema, Regina
  • A Peace Piece, 2002, {B}ORDERS, Vancouver
  • Indian Acts Cabaret, 2002, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
  • CatWalk Envy, 2001, Live: Biennial of Performance Art, Western Front, Vancouver
  • Otem -1’, 2001, Powell Street Festival, Vancouver
  • Untitled, 1999, Live at the End of the Century, Vogue Theatre, Vancouver
  • Counting Past 2, 1999, Toronto
  • Untitled, 1999, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY
  • Re-inventing the Diva, 1998, Performance Festival, Western Front, Vancouver
  • Untitled, 1998, Second International Transgender Art Festival, London, UK
  • Witch Hunts and Trials of the New Millennium, 1997, Fourth International Contemporary Artist’s Conference, Vancouver
  • Now I Lay Myself to Rest…, 1996, Pride Day Benefit, Vancouver
  • Blue Lights - Red Sun, 1996, Vancouver Community College Native Awareness Days, Vancouver
  • Gender Möbius, Halfbred, 1995, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
  • Facets of Human Sexuality, 1993-5, Grunt Gallery
  • Strange Fruit, Play Performance Series, 1994, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
  • Colonization / Decolonization, 1994, Western Front, Vancouver
  • Out of the Wood(s), Queer Series, 1993, Grunt Gallery / Pitt Gallery, Vancouver
  • Two Spirit Cabaret, 1993, Grunt Gallery
  • N Flux, 1993, Wireless Graffiti, Vancouver East Cultural Centre, Vancouver
  • First Woman (Iroquois Creation story), 1992, Vancouver Children’s Festival, Vancouver

List of installations[edit]

  • At the Altar of Our Discontent, 1998, mixed media and papier maché installation, Second International Transgender Art Festival, London, UK
  • Ancient Memories Through Women’s Art, 1998, installation, Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre, Vancouver
  • Gender Möbius, Halfbred Series, 1995, installation, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
  • Strange Fruit, 1994, installation, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
  • Untitled, 1993, mixed media sculpture, Artropolis, Vancouver
  • Paradise and the Wasteland, 1993, storefront installations, Tamanhous Theatre, Vancouver
  • Untitled, 1992, mixed media sculptural wall hanging, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver

Selected bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Couillard, Paul (September 28, 2016). "In Memoriam: Aiyyana Maracle". 7A*11D. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  2. ^ a b Riley, Anne. "Her words are Not Vanishing as she leaves her howl inside us". Artspeak. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  3. ^ Dowel, Kristin (2006). "Honoring stories: Aboriginal media, art, and activism in Vancouver". New York University. PhD diss. – via ProQuest (3234129).
  4. ^ a b c Twist, Arielle (April 14, 2020). "Trancestry". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  5. ^ a b c d "Aiyyana Maracle". University of Victoria Transgender Archives. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i University of Victoria Special Collections (n.d.). "Aiyyana Maracle fonds" (PDF). Victoria, BC: University of Victoria. Accession No. 2020-010.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Page, Morgan M. "Aiyyana Maracle". The Queer Bible. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  8. ^ University of British Columbia Library Rare Books and Special Collections (2016). "Finding Aid: Leonard and Kitty Maracle fonds" (PDF). Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia. (RBSC-ARC-1351).
  9. ^ a b Maracle, Aiyyana (2000). "A Journey in Gender". Torquere: Journal of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Studies Association. Vol. 2. doi:10.25071/1488-5182.36587. ISSN 1488-5182. {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  10. ^ Toms, Colleen (January 19, 2015). "Six Nations woman shares her transgender experience". YorkRegion.com. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  11. ^ a b c Maracle, Aiyyana (2015). "Performance Art and the Native Artist: an rEvolutionary Mix?". Disgruntled: Other Art – via Vancouver: Grunt Gallery.
  12. ^ "First Nations Performance Series | The Activation Map". Grunt Archives. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  13. ^ Stoddard, Christine (2012). "Essay: (Queer) Intersections: Performance at Grunt in the 1990s". Grunt Archives. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  14. ^ Cowan, T.L. (2012). "Essay: Cabaret at Grunt: Up Your Community". Grunt Archives. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  15. ^ Alteen, Glenn (2003). "Testimony of Actions, Actions of Testimony". Blackflash. Vol. 21/1: 44–49. {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  16. ^ Aiyyana Maracle. Interview on Tranzister Radio 29. CKUT 90.3 FM. October 9, 2014.
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