My own graffiti

I’ve been looking at a lot of artists and their work and how they relate it to the Indian Act, and it made me want to try some art myself. I asked a lot of people what they think of the Indian Act, and so I thought I should figure out what I think of the Indian Act. And since the whole idea started out with the poem “I am graffiti”, I decided to make my own graffiti.

I started with a jail. That was my first impression of the Indian Act. It was something that witheld the full potential of aboriginal people. It trapped them and stole their liberty.

But the Indian Act is also something that separates Aboriginal people, it makes them stand out as a special people, so I put the jail on a stool, to how it makes them unique. Later on in the 20th century the Indian Act also gave native people some special privileges. There are some good laws that came out of it. Those are the flowers on top of the jail.

Because the Indian Act has caused so much hurt, people want to tear it down. Those are the ropes trying to pull it apart. But people are also kind of worried of ruining the flowers that are balanced on top of the jail, and so it becomes a delicate sort of tug a war. They want to get rid of the control the Indian Act places them under, but they also want to keep the little control it does give them.

It is complicated and the only solution is to bring the issue to aboriginal people. The government can’t make the decision of what to do with the Indian Act on their own. They have to talk about it. The best place for that is around a meal table, where the atmosphere is friendly.