My Big Idea Project will be focusing on artistic portrayal of the social issues Indigenous peoples in Canada encounter on a daily basis as a long term result of European settler colonialism in North America. I will explore the works of Indigenous artists from British Columbia’s unceded territories, such as Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. I first discovered Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s work when visiting his exhibition Unceded Territories at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, when collecting information for a research paper. Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s work, for example, especially portrays the restrained Indigenous rights in terms of land and land ownership. I have always been a very creative person and an art admirer, hence the admiration for Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s work and the manner in which he powerfully portrayed the issues Indigenous peoples face.

Thus, I will depict the works of further Indigenous artists’ works, in which they illustrate the suppression of the Indigenous communities. Once I’ve visited a few galleries including, but not limited to, the Belkin Art Gallery and Vancouver Art Gallery, I will chose a few artists whose work I’ll analyse. I’ll explore the works using my artistic knowledge to reflect on the principles of design and composition, as well as to depict the underlying message and contextual qualities. In other words, I will simultaneously analyse the visual qualities and symbolism, through which artists visually express themselves in regards to the ongoing issues and challenges they face in Canada’s current society. Finally, I will conduct further detailed research based on the illustrated topics and themes in order to broaden my knowledge and understanding of Canada’s social structure from an Indigenous perspective.