| Abstrakt: |
This case study of the mural program in Chemainus, British Columbia, Canada, explores the use of public art as a successful strategy for economic viability based on tourism but questions how depictions of first Nations people afect ethnic relations for locals and international visitors. Critical visual analysis of murals, their production, and audience reception reveals how the images of the Native people serve to craft a sanitized and nostalgic historical narrative that erases Indigenous history and inserts dominant cultural values. The choice of source images for the art, the aesthetic style of the artwork, and the failure to include Native voices in mural production all serve to reproduce a colonial gaze, reinforce stereotypes, and continue the exploitation of Indigenous people by the dominant culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
