The seminal Denesuline artist Alex Janvier merged swirling abstractions of natural forms with Indigenous iconography to create an art that was both unprecedented and hugely influential. A member of Cold Lake First Nations in Alberta and the collective nicknamed the “Indian Group of Seven,” Mr. Janvier died Wednesday at age 89. His death was announced at the annual general meeting of the Assembly of First Nations in Montreal, where a moment of silence was observed.

A survivor of the residential school system and a full-time professional artist for most of his long career, Mr. Janvier was recognized for his distinctive painterly style influenced by European abstract art but incorporating an Indigenous understanding of nature, the animal world and the cosmos. He was especially well known as a muralist, creating impressive frescoes in public buildings across Canada including his largest, the Morning Star ceiling in the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.

Alex Janvier was born Feb. 28, 1935, in the Le Goff section of the Cold Lake First Nations reserve near Bonnyville, Alta., one of Marie and Harry Janvier’s 10 children. His father was the last hereditary chief of the Cold Lake First Nations, before the federal government imposed an elected band council.

The family lived simply in a small house heated with a wood stove. Light was provided by coal lamps and babies were diapered with moss. The Janviers raised cattle, chicken and pigs but also trapped coyote, fox, mink and muskrat to sell the fur. Marie Janvier produced handicrafts including birch bark baskets and traditional beadwork, both of which would inspire her son’s art.

Young Alex was artistic as a child, often observed drawing in the dirt with a stick, but was only seven when he and his five-year-old sister, Elsie, were taken from their parents to attend the Blue Quills Residential School near St. Paul, 150 kilometres away.

It was one of 20 residential schools in Alberta, part of a notorious national system established in the 1880s that attempted to force assimilation on First Nations children, ultimately leading to the formation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2008. Mr. Janvier served on the commission, and in a 2018 interview with The Globe, described the school experience as traumatizing. He said that the nuns who had come to collect them appeared very gentle to his parents but changed personality as soon as they were alone with the children. Throughout his life, Mr. Janvier suffered from hearing loss in one ear where a nun had struck him.

“I am still trying to grow up,” he said in 2018. “They removed me from my family as a child, removed my spirituality, and tried to remove my language.

“I would like to say today that they have failed.”

The school did provide Mr. Janvier with access to drawing materials and he escaped the brutal regime through his art. By his final years, he was being tutored by Carlo Altenberg, an art professor at the University of Alberta, who introduced him to reproductions of European abstractionists including Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Joan Miro.

After high school, he applied to various art schools but told a documentary crew in 2020 that he was discouraged from enrolling by the Indian agent on the reserve. Eventually he studied at Alberta’s Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, in Calgary, now the Alberta University of the Arts.

“I don’t remember what they taught me but I remember what I taught them,” Mr. Janvier said in a 2017 interview with the National Gallery of Canada. “It became a way for me to be a self starter: You begin things, you create things.”

On graduation, he initially worked as an art teacher at the University of Alberta, and later consulted on both the collection of the federal Department of Indian Affairs and on the Indigenous art included in the Canada Pavilion at Expo 67. In 1968, he married Jacqueline Wolowski, who was to provide crucial help as the manager of his career. The couple had six children and were married for 56 years.

Making a career as a contemporary Indigenous artist in Canada in the 1960s was no easy feat: The white establishment tended to view First Nations art as either something historical or mere handicraft, leaving the artists without access to the gallery system, grants, and critical and academic consideration. Mr. Janvier would soon join with others who shared his frustrations about the condescension and lack of professional opportunities.

In the late 1960s, Winnipeg artists Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness and Joseph Sánchez had been meeting at the Donald Street print shop and gallery run by Daphne Odjig to compare notes on their progress. When the four artists put out a call for others to join them in a new national organization devoted to the advancement of Indigenous art, Carl Ray, Norval Morrisseau and Mr. Janvier responded. In 1972, they founded the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc., (PNIAI) one of the first Indigenous cultural advocacy groups in Canada. Because there were seven members, an article in the Winnipeg Free Press dubbed the collective the “Indian Group of Seven,” and for a while that name stuck.

The group showed together successfully on several occasions and did get its members’ art into commercial galleries, but it disbanded in 1975 without achieving many of its larger goals. Its importance lay in the example it set for the next generation of Indigenous artists in seeking professional recognition within the art establishment while simultaneously furthering Indigenous cultural and social traditions. (Today, the only surviving member is Mr. Sánchez, an American artist, curator and museum director of Puebloan and European ancestry, who returned to the United States in the mid-1970s.)

“Alex’s contributions are significant,” said Michelle LaVallee, director of Indigenous Ways at the National Gallery. “He once told me, in reference to the efforts he and his peers put toward breaking through barriers and biases, that ‘We set out to change the world, the art world.’”

Several of the artists of the PNIAI worked in the style that became known as the Woodland School, established by Mr. Morrisseau’s brightly coloured X-ray paintings of mythic animals and shamans. Mr. Janvier’s art was significantly different and looked like nobody else’s. Familiar with the work of early European abstractionists such as Kandinsky and Miro and the Canadian painter Jock Macdonald, he was already developing by the 1970s what would become his idiosyncratic style. He used a semi-abstract iconography that made reference to both biological and celestial forms, creating paintings full of circular motifs, swooping shapes and calligraphic lines in a palette that was colourful but refreshingly light. Recognizable animals did reappear in his work over the years but mainly he stuck with abstractions that evoked Indigenous iconography without quoting it directly. In the 2017 National Gallery interview, he said he mainly sought inspiration by being in nature.

Even when considering dark subjects such as the Oka crisis and the treatment of the Lubicon First Nation, Mr. Janvier’s abstraction remained delicate. For example, Indian Residential – The Way of the Cross – English vs. French, a 2014 watercolour in the National Gallery collection, directly addresses the damage inflicted on Indigenous peoples by the Church – it features a coffin marked with a cross sitting at the centre of ruptured shapes – yet retains the airy quality so typical of his work. The overall effect of Mr. Janvier’s art, which may explain its great popularity, is one of spiritual uplift.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Janvier would become renowned not only for his paintings but for his large-scale public projects, culminating in the ceiling at the Museum of History in 1993. With the help of his son Dean, he painted Morning Star-Gambeh Then’, a 418-square-metre mural on the dome of the museum’s Haida Gwaii Salon. Divided into four sections, of white, yellow, blue and red, the painting evokes a history of the land from a Denesuline perspective. To reach the ceiling, seven stories above the ground, Mr. Janvier would lie on his back on scaffolding in a position that recalled Michelangelo working on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

In 2003, Mr. Janvier and his family established a gallery on the Cold Lake First Nations to sell his art and maintain firm control of his legacy, conscious of the issues of authenticity that had plagued the estate of his colleague Mr. Morrisseau.

Mr. Janvier continued to paint into his last years and in 2016, he designed another massive piece, Tsa Tsa Ke K’e (Iron Foot Place), a 15-metre-wide circular mosaic on the floor of Rogers Place in Edmonton, home of the Edmonton Oilers. The mosaic, with large passages of white, pale blue and light turquoise bisected by strong lines of red and yellow, is intended to evoke the beauty of the land. In 2017, the National Gallery circulated a major retrospective of his art.

Mr. Janvier leaves his wife, Jacqueline; six children, Dean, Tricia, Duane, Kyle, Jill and Brett; and several grandchildren. Those who knew him describe someone approachable, honest and humble, but Mr. Janvier was well aware of his legacy.

“I don’t need to be remembered,” he said in the 2018 interview. “It is my paintings that are going to do that.”

You can find more obituaries from The Globe and Mail here.

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A federal judge in Juneau on Monday sentenced two members of a Washington state family who sold over 1 million dollars of fake Alaska Native art in Ketchikan. The judge gave the mother and son five years of probation, a few months of home confinement, and a couple hundred hours of community service.

46-year-old Glenda Rodrigo and 24-year-old Christian Rodrigo pled guilty last month to violating the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act. They were part of a scheme to pass off fake stone carvings and wood totem poles as traditional art made by local Tlingít and Haida artisans.

Cristobal Rodrigo, Glenda’s husband and Christian’s father, was sentenced in 2023 to two years in prison for his role in the scheme. Its still the longest sentence a defendant has received for any similar violation in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

The Rodrigo family ran two storefronts in downtown Ketchikan – Alaska Stone Arts and Rail Creek. They were living in Washington state at the time. Rail Creek sold mostly wooden totem poles and Alaska Stone Art sold stone carvings. Both though were advertised as being made by Alaska Native master carvers and artisans. 

But they were actually sourced from a business in the Philippines called Rodrigo Creative Crafts. The company in the Philippines was owned by Glenda Rodrigo. Its sole purpose was to use Philippine labor to make knock-off Alaska Native designs. 

They were then shipped to the U.S. and the Rodrigo’s Ketchikan storefronts. The family even hired Alaska Native people to sell the art as their own. Federal prosecutors found that the workers told customers they were all one big family and made everything from locally sourced materials. 

The stores operated from 2016 to 2021. In 2019 alone, after they’d unknowingly drawn the attention of federal agents, they sold nearly $1 million of the fake art. 

Cristobal Rodrigo worked in the tourist trade for over 20 years before the family started Rail Creek and Alaska Stone Works. According to the Department of Justice, he went to the Philippines in the late 90s to teach the Filipino employees of his wife’s company how to imitate Alaska Native styles. He also handled most of the day-to-day operations in Ketchikan.

Glenda oversaw the Philippines operation from afar, and the affairs at both stores – though she only co-owned one of them with her husband. Cristobal was the sole owner of Rail Creek. 

As for Christian, he worked as a salesperson and helped operate the stores. 

Meridith Stanton is the Director of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. In a written statement, she said that she hopes the sentences will send a strong message to those who may prey on real Alaska Native artists and vulnerable consumers.

She said: “Fakes and counterfeits, such as those marketed for huge sums of money by the Rodrigos, tear at the very fabric of Alaska Native culture, Native livelihoods, and Native communities.”

Glenda Rodrigo was sentenced to up to six months of home confinement and 240 hours of community service, and Christian Rodrigo was sentenced to up to three months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service. Plus, both defendants are required to serve five years of probation and write a letter of apology to be published in the local newspaper. The whole family is required to pay a little over $54,000 in restitution.

Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names and images of people who have died. 

When times are tough, music has the power to lift us up, dust us off, and point us back on our path with purpose. Even when the flames can feel feeble, a good song can get your fires burning again.

The theme for this year’s NAIDOC Week — the annual celebration of the music, history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people — is Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud.

So, to celebrate, Double J spoke to some excellent First Nations artists and asked them to share the songs that keep their fire burning.

Kaiit, DOBBY, Radical Son, Jada Weazal, Shellie Morris and Andrew Gurruwiwi came back with music that embodies the NAIDOC spirit of ‘Blak, Loud and Proud’, ranging from legends like Yothu Yindi and Warumpi Band, through to newer voices continuing vital songlines, like Miiesha, Barkaa and Miss Kaninna.

Kaiit

The first song that came to mind for Kaiit when hearing this year’s NAIDOC theme was ‘Change Has To Come’ by Mo’Ju.

“Keep singing, screaming the reminders. The fire of reminders that Mo’Ju has written in their music, driven with love and positivity,” says the neo-soul favourite, who recently released their comeback single ‘Space”.

“That’s the main thing that I’m trying to feel in my life and express in my music: positivity and a want for change and moving to a better place.”

Another song filled with fiery reminders for Kaiit comes from Barkaa.

“What an iconic sister we have, expressing so beautifully and so staunch,” they say of the Malyangapa, Barkindji woman and her banger ‘Bow Down’.

“I love Barkaa so much. I really love this song and always makes me feel super powerful bumping it.

“The coloniser will love to keep you distracted and keep you in this colonised mentality and coloniser rules, but we need to break from those.”

DOBBY

Murrawarri and Filipino artist DOBBY has just released WARRANGU; River Story, the composer, producer, rapper and drummer’s stunning debut full-length record (and Double J Feature Album) that’s been five years in the making.

The song that lights a fire under DOBBY is the debut single from Miss Kaninna, the uncompromising ‘Blak Britney’.

“She came out swinging!” DOBBY tells Zan Rowe for Take 5.

“I’ve seen her perform a couple of times now and what amazes me is how she is so versatile with this song.

“[It’s] a club banger that goes off at any party… but then you hear her perform it, it’s another thing: Rage Against The Machine-esque, amazingly energetic.”

Miss Kaninna wrote ‘Blak Britney’ as an anti-establishment anthem to amplify the voices of Blak women.

For DOBBY, it “instils pride and a feeling of resistance. 

A “timeless” anthem that has inspired DOBBY throughout his career is ‘We Have Survived’, the signature protest song by pioneering reggae-rock band No Fixed Address.

“Absolute trailblazers, and they’ve set such an influence in the hip hop space,” Dobby says.

“[This song] has a very permanent place in my heart with how it makes me feel as a blackfella surviving a white man’s world.

“It’s amazing how powerful it is in its simplicity, and I mean that in the best way possible.”

DOBBY covered the 1981 song for the 2019 compilation Deadly Hearts 2, remixing elements and adding new verses. It even got the tick of approval from No Fixed Address songwriter Bart Willoughby.

“That was very special and something I’ll never forget,” he recalls.

“A big shout out to Uncle Kutcha Edwards who gave me that opportunity to play the drums for ‘We Have Survived’ with Uncle Bart playing and singing.

“It kind of makes you feel like time doesn’t go from left to right, but rather from upwards, on top of each other because we’re still here and we’re on the same soil.”

That powerful message of resilience through decades of dispossession and discrimination resonates in ‘RED FUTURE’ by Snotty Nose Rez Kids, a First Nations duo out of British Columbia.

“I love them so much. I actually had the chance to see them perform in 2020, right before COVID, at the Indigenous Music Summit in New Orleans,” DOBBY says.

The track is a collaboration with Australia’s own Eurovision reps, Electric Fields. “I’m a massive fan — [they] have the Midas touch.”

“The video is incredible as well because they’re imagining, or should I say manifesting, that red future, that native future, this Indigenous black future,” DOBBY continues.

“I’ve always been an advocate for when indigeneity is globalized, and how we can set an example by unifying all our global indigeneity together. I think that’s the most powerful thing we can do.

Radical Son

Radical Son is the stage name of Kamilaroi and Tongan man David Leha, whose powerful voice (and even stronger stage presence) first got noticed in 2004 with his song ‘Black Baptism’.

“It started off as a spoken-word piece and became a song [that] started my singing career,” he explains. “In short, it’s a song talking about a way to reset, something you can believe in, talking about something that is ours.”

Since then, Radical Son has released a string of acclaimed releases and collaborations. That includes his link-up ‘I Can’ with The Last Kinection, a mid-2000s Indigenous hip hop group from Newcastle.

“To me these fellas were champions on the field and off the field. I was impressed with the brother Joel Wenitong. He went from being an MC, rapping words, to become a doctor. We call that not just talking the talk but walking the walk.”

Radical Son’s other pick comes from “the late Lawrence John Hill of Narrabri, better known as L.J. Hill”, a singer-songwriter who drew from his Kamilaroi, Cherokee and Irish heritage.

‘The Pretty Bird Tree’ is the centrepiece of his under-appreciated 2009 album Namoi Blood, a song that has even been covered by Paul Kelly.

“He sings of a sacred place,” Leha says. “He evokes a place on the banks of the Namoi River where many days passed, where they would come to drink and spin yarns.”

Jada Weazel

She might be turning ears with her velvety R&B and neo-soul, but Jada Weazel still has love for the classics. Namely, Australian music legends Yothu Yindi, who she calls “synonymous and well-known across all our Indigenous communities in Australia”.

“The song ‘Freedom’ has a melody that invokes such pure freedom. Lyrically, speaks about how all it takes is a little understanding, keeps the fire burning and reminds us that we are black, loud and proud.”

Jada credits her family for inspiring her music career.

“My aunty always had a strong influence of music in our family as a female singer in bands. [She] was actually the first person to pull me up onto a stage and sing in front of a crowd. I was about eight or nine years old.”

Weazel is also cousins with the ARIA-winning vocal wonder from Woorabinda, Miiesha, and shouted out her “very, very special” tune ‘Self-Care’.

“I picked this song in particular because of my favourite lyric, where she sings ‘I’m still here because of this pride within in my skin’. That to me speaks so much power, so much resilience.”

Shellie Morris

A living legend who writes and sings music in around 17 Aboriginal languages, Dr Shellie Morris is a two-time National Indigenous Music Awards Female Artist of the Year recipient. She knows talent when she hears it.

Such is the case with Emily Wurramara, a “beautiful singer all the way from Groote Eyelandt,” says Morris.

“Emily did her first gig with me and the Borroloola Cultural Songwomen when she was 14 years old at Woodford [Folk Festival],” she adds. She’s a big fan of ‘Midnight Blues’, which was released in April ahead of Wurramara’s new album NARA, which is out in August.

Andrew Gurruwiwi

A blind, keytar-wielding force of funk, Yolngu elder Andrew Gurruwiwi‘s eponymous Andrew Gurruwiwi Band recently released their long-awaited debut album, Sing Your Own Song. Bursting with the eight-piece ensemble’s infectious rhythms, the record opens with a dose of bush reggae titled ‘Wata Mäwi’.

“This is our way to keep the fire burning, to share to Yolngu people: to our land, to our community, to our people, and also, nature,” explains Gurruwiwi. “To make them happy. Yolngu way of life, Yolngu way of giving special to the land, to make us proud.”

Gurruwiwi also gave props to fellow Arnhem Land group, Bärra West Wind, and the track ‘Bärra Part II (Biḻma ga Yiḏaki)’ from their 2018 album Djoŋgirriny.

Featuring the sounds of traditional instruments bilma (clapsticks) and yidaki (didgeridoo), “it talks about the songline Bärra came from, the west wind. This is for my tribe, Galpu,” says Gurruwiri.

Hear these songs and more on a special NAIDOC Week episode of Double J’s Artist In Residence. Hear it right here.