Rendezvous with the Indigenous Art Collection

How to raise a flag describes the curatorial methodologies that I employ to engage the visual sovereignty of objects as a decolonising strategy to critically address historical truths, in light of reconciliatory measures. They are mapped through raise a flag: works from the Indigenous Art Collection (2000–2015) – an unexpected retrospective of an eminent contemporary Onkwehón:we¹ art collection and its cultural discourse. The chapter examines how the exhibition, curated from Canada’s National Indigenous Art Collection,² activated embodied memories, and was mediated to redress and disrupt the implications and mechanisms of an overriding national narrative folded into Canada’s sesquicentennial celebration. Through my role as curator, my intention was to re-focus the celebratory colonial stream of commemoration and advance a site of engagement for expressions of Indigeneity to be witnessed and championed simultaneously. I hold the exhibition and curatorial platform as a catalyst to engage with transcultural stories gathered from amassed economies of visual culture, and to publicly enliven a unique art history that prioritises Onkwehón:we art and experiences alongside a reading of Canada’s 150^th milestone.