For this Mi'kmaw creator, art is a way to amplify activism and promote Indigenous sovereignty
Mel Beaulieu, a queer Mi’kmaw artist, says their art is often influenced by politics
When Mel Beaulieu prepared to work as the artist-in-residence at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton this winter, the world seemed ominous.
Beaulieu, a queer member of Metepenagiag First Nation, says their art is often influenced by politics and the world around them.
And this relationship only deepened in January, the month Beaulieu worked at the Beaverbrook gallery and Donald Trump was sworn in as 47th president of the United States.
On inauguration day, Trump was quick to target transgender and gender diverse people, issuing an executive order that said the U.S. government would now recognize only two sexes — male and female. A few days later, Trump issued an executive order aimed at ensuring the military does not have transgender members.
These were just two of the orders Trump has issued during his first months in power that threaten the transgender community in the U.S. and have alarmed the community in Canada as well.
"Now isn't the time for allyship that is silent or allyship that is passive … I think people, especially in Canada, think that those issues don't exist here," said Beaulieu, who grew up in Stanley and now lives in Fredericton.
As part of the transgender community, the Mi'kmaw artist has hopes that Canada will not follow in the steps of the United States. But they're also uncertain — they've seen a rise in transphobic rhetoric across social media platforms.
"I'm seeing the kind of escalating hate happening where people are more bold in the things they say to me or message me," Beaulieu said.
The work of the 29-year-old artist ranges across several disciplines: beadwork, 3D printing, virtual reality, teaching, writing and illustrating. Beaulieu wrote and illustrated the children's book Animals at Play in Mi'kma'ki.
Beaulieu's beading journey began eight years ago, and their beadwork creations have been shown in exhibitions across the U.S. and Canada.
One of Beaulieu's most recent pieces, Protect Your Heart, has the title words in bold letters that surround a white beaded heart with a golden double-curved motif in the middle.
The background of the piece is red, with barbed wire behind the heart. The double-curved motif, which has several meanings in Wabanaki nations, is associated with nature and symbolizes the interconnectedness of all things.
During their art gallery residency, Beaulieu said, they started on a work that's expected to take about seven years to complete.
"It feels like, you know, if this project's going to be here in seven years, I'm still going to be here," Beaulieu said. "In seven years, I'm still going to be making art. In seven years, queer people will still be here."
The project consists of life-size wooden church windows with Beaulieu's beaded art in each pane. The overall theme is the Doctrine of Discovery, a centuries-old legal and religious concept that was rejected by the Vatican and Pope Francis in 2023.
The doctrine provided justification for Christians to seize and inhabit land anywhere in the world that was not already inhabited by Christians. If the land was free of Christians, and was home instead to Indigenous peoples, Christian colonists could steal it and lay sovereignty over it, according to the doctrine.
The church window piece is about religion being used as a tool used to perpetrate colonialism on Indigenous peoples in Canada, and how this affects Beaulieu today.
The work in progress is currently in Beaulieu's shared studio, the Collective, a queer Indigenous-owned art studio that has a tattoo artist, a multidisciplinary fabric artist and group beading workshops, which Beaulieu instructs.
Beaulieu said the political climate of the world has heightened their drive to create art with themes of Indigenous and transgender resistance to combat rhetoric they believe is seeping across the border.
"It feels a little bit like we have limited time to say what we need to say," Beaulieu said. "Things are being censored — it feels like, you know, now's my time, and I gotta say what I gotta say."
Emma Hassencahl-Perley, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery's curator of Indigenous art, says the gallery wanted to collaborate with Beaulieu and other local Indigenous artists in the recent Radical Stitch exhibition.
"I think there's such a hunger for Indigenous art at the moment in the political climate that we're in," said Hassencahl-Perley, a member of Tobique First Nation who has worked at the gallery since 2018.
"I think that being in charge of our storytelling in our art forms, like having agency — looking at and exhibiting art through an Indigenous lens is also really important."
Radical Stitch, the largest survey of contemporary Indigenous beadwork in North America to date, was in Fredericton for for much of this winter. The colourful, bold and thought-provoking works show how art transforms Indigenous generations with themes of Indigenous resistance, decolonization and history.
The gallery exhibition included two pieces by Beaulieu: Matriarchs and Tools of the Maker.
Collaborations with artists like Beaulieu are needed to foster meaningful connections between art museums and Indigenous artists, Hassencahl-Perley said.
Beaulieu said that being contacted by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery to contribute to Radical Stitch was a highlight of their career.
"To have it come but then to also be included was like a dream come true for me — it felt like something kind of unattainable."
Beaulieu is now looking forward to their work being part of Three-eyed seeing: Indigenous Futurisms, an exhibition at the Campbell River Art Gallery in Campbell River, B.C., starting this June.
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