So, again we have Tanya Talaga, the half-Polish (yes, sorry), half-native journalist raised on the desolate, rough-scrabble reserve of middle-class Toronto, and thus an expert on everything Indigenous, blathering on about the truly-talented painter, Kent Monkman. Monkman, a Nehiyaw (Cree) artist, has had his work politically and philosophically coopted by Talaga who tars everything with her infernal "colonialism" blame game.
"Indigenous peoples and settlers experience and see history differently because, until very recently, the so-called victor has been the only one telling the tale, setting out racist policies to violently remove Indigenous peoples from the land and then using public institutions -- including residential schools, universities and museums -- to reinforce and carry on the narrative. This is how we get erased," writes Tanya in an epic, run-on tirade that tries to jam everything that's ever happened in this country into one sentence.
Whew!
She claims native museum pieces and artifacts in the Monkman retrospective were "heisted and placed in museum collections where they waited to be rediscovered and heard". Actually, Tanya, many native pieces in museums were gifted to explorers by the people who made them. They were proud and honourable gifts, but now, according to Ms. Talaga, they were criminally ripped away and stolen.
Monkman is to be congratulated for the beautiful exhibit and collection the Royal Ontario Museum has put together. Ms. Talaga should leave it alone, admire it and let it speak for itself.
But she won't.
Why am I the only one who calls her out? Me, whenever I read anything she moans about:
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