Anthropology Professor Awarded $87,815 Grant
Dr. Neal Keating is awarded an $87,815 grant from the Canada Council on the Arts to support production of a documentary film and exhibition catalogue book for The Gary Miller Art Project: Artistic Response from a Mohawk Institute Survivor.
The artist Gary Miller (Mohawk) created a large series of artworks during 2003-2008, that commemorate his experience of Indian residential school. The Mohawk Institute was one of hundreds of residential schools established by Canada during the 19th and 20th century. Since 2015 it is publicly recognized that the residential school system amounted to a genocide, intended to erase Indigenous national groups and seize their lands, territories and resources. Today a complex national agenda called “truth and reconciliation” is underway in Canada.
The documentary film will be directed by Indigenous filmmaker Cher Obediah (Mohawk) and feature commentary from other Indian residential school survivors about Miller’s art. The exhibition catalogue book will include curated essays and texts by Indigenous scholars, artists, and activists. Both film and book will accompany a travelling exhibition of the art throughout Canada and the US during the next several years.
Dr. Keating (settler) is the curator and project lead of The Gary Miller Art Project, working in partnership with the artist, the Native North American Travelling College (Akwesasne Mohawk Nation Territory), the Survivors Secretariat (Six Nations Grand River Territory); and under the guidance of an all-Indigenous advisory board.