Nahneebahweequay
In 1860, a courageous Ojibwe (Mississauga) woman, Nahneebahweequay, or “Nahnee”, Catharine Sutton in English, crossed the Atlantic, to present important land claims in person to Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. Although the Queen promised to help, the Duke of Newcastle, in charge of Indian affairs, did not follow through. As Nahnee says: “ ….we were sure, that if we could only have an investigation, the dark deeds of the department would be brought to light; and so we have been doomed to disappointment of a most vexatious kind.”
I honour Nahnee with a collage patchwork called Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, which uses nineteenth century maps showing the encroachment of white settlement on Indigenous lands around Lake Huron, Owen Sound and the Bruce Peninsula, framed by images of corn.