Ikwéwak shows First Nations women freeing ourselves from the patriarchal and colonial gaze. By staring directly into the lens, we resist anthropological, Eurocentric and male-dominated representations of Indigenous women. In doing so, we reshape how we are represented in the collective consciousness. Our bodies are doubly threatened because of our relationship to the land. But Indigenous women are not objects to be taken, or possessed and controlled like a landscape. Ikwéwak is part of a larger series of photographic and video works presenting First Nations women in all of our beauty, eccentricity, elegance, and pride. This series reframes how we’re viewed in our cities, in our families, in our lives, and in our own imaginations. These are portraits for the future that we are building together, both for ourselves and for the seven generations that will follow us. ⁂

Caroline Monnet is an Anishinaabe/French multidisciplinary artist from Outaouais, Quebec.