Shelley Niro
Buffet, 2016
Shelley Niro, Buffet, 2016
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I have been collecting Indian Head Nickels for quite a few years now. If I see one or many in a flea market or at an antique mall, I can’t resist acquiring them. The male head is attractive and looks healthy. Reading the history of these portrayals makes me sad, however. They are a culmination of four different men. I’m supposing they liked the eyes of one, the ears of another, the chin and nose from a different source, and the perfectly rounded head of another to allow the braided hair and the feather attached to the head to fall in a balanced manner. Beauty is the wanted feature here. The Indian Head Nickel was created to pay tribute to the vanishing Indian race. The sad part is that many Indigenous people were in a state of despair. Placed on Indian reservations their economic situations were controlled and limited. Often they couldn’t leave their reserves in pursuit of jobs and the jobs they did find were on a lower pay scale.
On the flip side of the coin, there is the buffalo. This is an appropriate feature as the buffalo had been decimated in the 19th century, leaving the majority of Native people with no food to hunt or depend on. Starvation was a key factor in controlling the reservation’s inhabitants. I’ve studied these small remnants of the history of the United States and appreciate the scratches and scars each one of them have. I wonder what their own history is. Where have they been and the stories they could tell. Time has moved on and, gradually, the Native/Indigenous population is increasing once again. Behind the head, I’ve placed words that say “money” in different languages. It feels like North America has been a place where every country in the world has come to take part in the stripping down and the consumption of resources that this continent has to offer. Much like a buffet, the gates have been open for the taking away and the taking away. Will it ever stop? They are now exploring the moon for water. |
Shelley Niro is a member of the Turtle Clan of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Nation, from the Six Nations of the Grand River territory. Her visual art and film works have been featured across Canada and internationally. In 2019, Niro received an honorary doctorate from the Ontario College of Art and Design, where she completed her undergraduate studies; she was also the 2019 Laureate of the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Photography. In 2017, Niro received both the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and the Scotiabank Photography Award, two preeminent contemporary art awards in Canada. In 2023, 500 Year Itch, the first major retrospective exhibition of Shelley Niro’s work opened at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York, NY, in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Hamilton and continues to tour across Canada into 2025.
