The Humanities Research Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Carmen Robertson, Faculty of Fine Arts, is the first researcher to be profiled on the HRI website as part of its Research Profiles series.

Q: What is your primary research area?

I am currently engaged in SSHRC-supported research on the Anishinaabe artist Norval
Morrisseau (1931-2007) and plan to finish the manuscript next year. This is part of a
larger direction of research related to constructions of Indigeneity in popular culture
and the media and how contemporary Indigenous art confronts such tropes. I recently
co-authored Seeing Red: A History of Natives in Canadian Newspapers with Mark Cronlund
Anderson published by University of Manitoba Press (2011).

Q: How did you come to this area of study?

Teaching Aboriginal art history at First Nations University of Canada in 2001 I became
interested in how the National Film Board of Canada had framed Indigenous artists such
as Morrisseau, Odjig, Janvier and others in a series of documentaries made during the
1970s but still widely used as teaching resources. This led to my PhD dissertation and
my focus on Morrisseau.

Q: What current work are you carrying out?

I am writing an essay related to self-representations of Morrisseau. Morrisseau expertly
manipulated his identity and utilized stereotypical representations to challenge how the
press imagined Indigenous peoples. I think this art serves as evidence of his agency at
a time he was afforded little voice to present himself in Canadian culture.

Q: What future directions do you envision?

I have a few projects on the go! I am incredibly passionate about recording the history
of contemporary art of the flatlands and have begun to explore how that might take
shape. First, though, the Morrisseau project has prompted me to consider an analysis of
contemporary Indigenous artists in both Canada and the USA who respond to the arbitrary
construction of the 49th parallel. Art directions have emerged quite separately though
many Indigenous artists have a broader sense of the land as turtle island–beyond
national borders.

Q: What are your most significant publications and research grants/awards?

In addition to Seeing Red: A History of Natives in Canadian Newspapers with Mark
Cronlund Anderson I have published an exhibition catalogue with CPRC related to
contemporary Saskatchewan Indigenous art in Indigenous media titled Clearing a Path
2009) and have a number of essays in journals such as American Indian Quarterly, Media
History, Third Text, and the Review of Canadian Art.

Q: What is it about Humanities research that sparked your interest as you developed as
a student and scholar?

As a student of art history and history I was inspired by the creative forces of others
before us. At the same time, I found little scholarship related to Indigenous arts and
hoped to add to this scholarship through research and teaching.

Q: Besides being a professor, what are one or two activities that you do outside the
academy that say a little something about you?

We have a cabin in the Yukon and I love to head off on a one or two week canoe trip with
my family in the summers. I love to travel, also, and look for opportunities to see the
world whenever I can.