The Subjugation Of Truth Kent Monkman Essay

Presenting a perverse representation of the relationship between European colonizers and Indigenous communities of Canada, Kent Monkman’s paintings depict a revolutionary perception of Canadian history. The first half of this half essay will analyze the inverse of Said’s orientalist power dynamics by Monkman, while the second half will analyze the cultural and moral power that Monkman challenges.
To commence, most of Monkman’s paintings depict elements of an ethnic hierarchy amongst Indigenous individuals or communities and European colonizers. Monkman primarily question forms of power historically possessed by a European hegemon, such as political power, through metaphorically representing and inversing their power relationship with Indigenous communities. To draw attention to the Occidental’s perception of other cultures requiring Western intervention and leadership, with or without the consent of those who were subjugated , within his painting “The Subjugation of Truth,” Monkman demonstrates what nation building in Canada would have been like by presenting a scene with Sir John A., a few other leaders, and two Indigenous leaders. At first, it appears like

Monkman makes an important point of re-proportioning historical roles to question the political hierarchy of the Orient and Occident. For example, “The Bears of Confederation” is a painting in which European men are raped & hunted by bears and controlled by an Indigenous man. Bears have always had a significant relationship with Indigenous communities, in which they were respected. It is now an ironic twist within Monkman’s painting that the colonizers that hunted and raped are now being dominated, raped and predated by bears and an indigenous man who leads them