Being Legendary
Royal Ontario Museum
October 8, 2022 - April 16, 2023
In Being Legendary, Kent Monkman displayed original artworks alongside objects curated from the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum to challenge colonial narratives of history. With exhibition text written by Gisèle Gordon from the perspective of Monkman’s alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, Being Legendary involved consultation with Indigenous knowledge keepers including Cree Elder Pauline Shirt, Cree star lore expert Wilfred Buck, Cree-Métis historian and scholar Keith Goulet, Cree-Métis archaeologist Paulette Steeves, and settler historian of ancient science and classical folklorist Adrienne Mayor. Being Legendary frames the damage wrought during the colonial period as devastating and profound, but also as a relatively short blip in the long timeline of Indigenous presence on Turtle Island. While acknowledging the deep intergenerational impacts of colonialism, particularly that of the residential school system, the exhibition emphasizes the resilience of Indigenous peoples in keeping many cultures, histories, and knowledge systems intact.
Exhibition installation photography by ROM