Kelly Greene
Changing Currency: Prototype Kanata 151 $10 Bill, 2018 / Does Not Have Supernatural Power, 1994
Kelly Greene, Changing Currency: Prototype Kanata 151 $10 Bill, 2018
On August 26, 1891, eight-year-old Thomas Moore Keesick enrolled in the Regina Indian Industrial School along with his brother Samuel and his sister Julia. He was the 22nd student registered in the school, which operated from 1891 to 1910 and he became known as No. 22.
Moore was from the Muscowpetung Saulteaux First Nation, located about 45 minutes northeast of Regina and was the youngest child of Paul Desjarlais Sr. and Hannah Moore Keesick. Four years after enrolling, Moore was sent home ill with consumption, better known now as tuberculosis. He died from being at a residential school (records show 36 students died at the Regina Indian Industrial School, but the number is, perhaps, more). Propaganda like these before/after images of Indigenous children were used by the Department of Indian Affairs to justify the residential school system. Few knew that both the before and after photos were faked images with no connection to the Cree boy's real life. Thomas Moore's "before" clothing includes women's traditional attire which a male would never wear.
Moore was from the Muscowpetung Saulteaux First Nation, located about 45 minutes northeast of Regina and was the youngest child of Paul Desjarlais Sr. and Hannah Moore Keesick. Four years after enrolling, Moore was sent home ill with consumption, better known now as tuberculosis. He died from being at a residential school (records show 36 students died at the Regina Indian Industrial School, but the number is, perhaps, more). Propaganda like these before/after images of Indigenous children were used by the Department of Indian Affairs to justify the residential school system. Few knew that both the before and after photos were faked images with no connection to the Cree boy's real life. Thomas Moore's "before" clothing includes women's traditional attire which a male would never wear.
Kelly Greene, Does Not Have... side table with criminal code, 1994
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Kelly Greene, Does Not Have... money on the floor, 1994
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Whenever we visited a relative’s home during a three year span, I saw the aerosol can in her bathroom. I asked to take the product from its musty environment and reveal my visually literal interpretation. I found the imagery and text on the spray can, not to mention its content’s smell, offensive. I wanted to show the ridiculous nature of this marketing tactic which uses Indianess to sell such a product so far removed from Native culture, it’s not even funny. I turned the joke around and copied money on brightly-colored paper to litter within my small room installation. I blessed this house with money. After all, that’s what the product says it does, in addition to containing “Indian fruit oil.” What is Indian fruit? I chose plastic fruit as representation since I felt the whole concept is fake, as too was so obviously the fake copied money. But the paper bills were considered counterfeit. It was considered a crime. It’s in the criminal code. The police said so and took the fake money away. But when will the alw intercede as Native people are ripped off and copied in any way for the sake of monetary gain for others?
I redid this piece according to criminal code guidelines in order to acceptably copy the almighty buck so the dialogue might continue.
I redid this piece according to criminal code guidelines in order to acceptably copy the almighty buck so the dialogue might continue.
Does Not Have... chair, stool and lamp on side table, 1994
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Does Not Have... toy headdress and spray can, 1994
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Kelly Greene, hand-drawn drafts of counterfeit bills
Kelly Greene is a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River, of Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk), Onenio’te’a:ka (Oneida), and European (Sicilian) ancestry, and is a descendant of Turtle Clan. She is a multimedia artist whose work includes painting, sculpture, installation, and photo montage. Greene resides in London, Ontario, where she obtained a BFA from Western University after beginning her visual art studies at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She has exhibited for over thirty years in Canada and the United States. In 2021, Kelly was honoured to be selected as the inaugural Indigenous Artist-in-Residence at Western University.
