Art as a Pathway

Guy Sioui Durand
November 28, 2011
Wendake

"Myths still explain the world."

Guy Sioui Durand, Wendat

"Indigenous artists are hunters-shamans-warriors," says art sociologist Guy Sioui Durand. As hunters, they stay connected to the land and nature, to the spirit of animals and to ecology. As warriors, they express political criticism and fight stereotypes and appropriation. As shamans, they open passages between the world below and the world above. Heirs to a thousand-year-old culture, they know that every ceremony is rooted in a relationship with the world. That is why their practice transcends art for art.