Family of Birds

Why Norval Morrisseau is mentioned in my mystery novel

I grew up in Fort William, which later became Thunder Bay, on the traditional lands of the Anishinabek Nation and the traditional territory of Fort William First Nation, signatory to the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850.

In The Book of Answers, my protagonist’s mother, a teacher at an exclusive private school in Oakville (of which there are many!) designed a course to teach critical thinking, and the history of colonization, based on the life and work of Norval Morriseau.

From Wikipedia: “At the age of six, Morrisseau was sent to a Catholic residential school, St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School in Fort William, Ontario. There, he and other students were educated in the European tradition, native culture was suppressed, and the use of native language was forbidden. After two years he returned home and started attending a local community school in Beardmore. Morrisseau left the school when he was ten, preferring to learn from elders rather than continuing his formal education. He spent much of his time listening to elders, drawing, fishing, hunting, picking berries, and trapping.”

Norval Morrisseau described himself as a "born artist" who had a compulsion to draw from his earliest memories. He was a prolific artist and published author who was also a cornerstone to the art movement considered the woodland school of art. He received international acclaim for his art and was dubbed the "Picasso of the North" by world renowned artist Marc Chagall who, together with Pablo Picasso, attended a Morrisseau exhibit in 1969.

Morrisseau was the recipient of numerous honourary degrees, a membership in the Order of Canada, a membership in the Royal Academy of Arts, the Aboriginal Lifetime Achievement Award and was the first First Nations artist to have a solo exhibit in the National Gallery of Canada which now houses a permanent collection of his art. His work was also exhibited in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. In recognition of his talents and contributions to the Aboriginal community, he was awarded a Great Eagle Feather and was appointed the Grand Shaman by the Ojibwa.

Here is an excerpt from The Book of Answers that features his work:

I limped up my front steps, which sparkled with tiny crystals. Gwen must have cleared and salted them before she turned in. I worked the door with quiet care. My housemate could already be asleep downstairs.

Gwen had left the hall light on, so I was greeted by the print I’d hung in the foyer. “Family of Birds” by Norval Morrisseau. My mom gave it to Carrie when Hope was born, and I loved coming home to it.

Bird Mother and Father stand with their offspring, all long beaks and big bright eyes looking up to the sky. They are held close in the unbroken embrace of a circle.

Morrisseau survived the Indian residential school system but it ravaged him. My mother based an upper year Canadian history course on his life and work. The course theme, and her motivation for teaching came back to me. “If we look close enough, we generally find our current problems have deep roots in the past.”