Brian Jungen: Inspiring a Practice of Indigenous Art / Brian Jungen : inspirer une pratique de l’art autochtone

Brian Jungen is a new kind of Indigenous contemporary artist, one whose work and practice are as comfortable in the art gallery or museum as they are in an Indigenous community context.T rough a practice of redefning, he places reserve (rural) and art gallery (urban) spaces into co-existence.In this meditation, I focus on a 2012 f lm-work called Modest Livelihood, in which Jungen collaborates with fellow artist Duane Linklater.He and Jungen are counted among a growing number of Indigenous artists whose decolonial actions redefne what Indigenous contemporary art can be.T e f lm documents the two artists on a moose hunt on Dane-zaa treaty lands, in northern British Columbia (BC).Beginning with the hunt, we move from the reserve to a sophisticated art gallery, where the f lm, Modest Livelihood, would later be shown for the viewer.T is processual action reveals the interconnected realities present in the work of art.I would like to posit that the depiction of the hunt is a reformulation of the creative act, wherein the making of a work of art for an art gallery is only a small part of the greater whole.Starting from Fort St. John on a backcountry vehicle, then later on foot, the two artists travel through stunning northern landscapes.Before they eventually locate the moose they seek, they make their way through areas that have been impacted by industrialization.Jungen's uncle, Elder Jack Askoty, accompanies the duo and shares his knowledge and the history of the land.To appreciate the signifcance of this f lm, it is worth taking a moment to examine the context in which it is set -historically, culturally, and geographically.To begin with, the work takes its title from a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that reasserted treaty rights for First Nations to hunt only for the purpose of a "moderate livelihood, " and not for wealth accumulation.Since the ruling, the rights protected under the Constitution of Canada include activities, practices, and traditions that are fundamental to the distinctive cultures of Indigenous Peoples.While treaty rights may be more commonly associated with traditional practices such as hunting or fshing, it is arguable that making art, or the creative use of traditional or Indigenous knowledge in a visual format, is also a demonstration of one's rights.T ese inherent rights are based on traditional activities that were practised well before contact with Europeans, yet they can be carried out using modern methods.For example, if hunting used to be done using a bow and arrow and it is now done with a rife and ammunition, the right to hunt does not change.Conversely, we may apply this same rationale to the production of artworks using traditional knowledge through new media and technologies.With Modest Livelihood, we can understand Jungen and Linklater's collaboration as an urgent decolonial act -a reclamation and reassertion of their treaty rights amid a renegotiation of attachments to a sense of shared experience and place.Further to this notion of collaboration, the presence of Jungen's uncle as both guide and mentor speaks to the passage of Indigenous knowledge across generations.Te idea for this collaborative work was born out of informal conversations between the two artists, who, afer speaking over cofee during Linklater's residency at the Banf Centre, recognized similarities in how they had grown up, the kinds of geography 28 2023

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