Early Days: Indigenous Art from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection is the first survey of Canadian Indigenous art to be presented internationally. Organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in collaboration with current Indigenous stakeholders—scholars, traditional knowledge keepers, and living artists—the exhibition includes both historic and contemporary art from coast-to-coast.
Showcasing the diversity and vitality of Indigenous art in Canada, Early Days features objects ranging from eighteenth-century ceremonial regalia, to the work of the vanguard artists of the ’60s, ‘70s and ‘80s—such as Norval Morrisseau, Carl Beam and Alex Janvier— and leading contemporary Indigenous artists like Kent Monkman, Meryl McMaster and Rebecca Belmore. As the only museum in Canada devoted exclusively to Canadian art, the McMichael’s collection offers a definitive account of Indigenous art in Canada today, and the powerful tensions and continuities that exist between the present and the past. Early Days explores our relationship to the land, to our ancestors, and to each other.