Illustrations

The following are works by, Jay Soule | CHIPPEWAR

These images accompanied the buffalo skulls mound exhibition.

If you are interested in purchasing signed & numbered limited edition prints of any images please visit the Shop page.

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DEFINITION OF GENOCIDE

 For 154 years actions intended to destroy Indigenous peoples on this land prove GENOCIDE. There are hundreds of acts, laws, intentions and premeditated plans that show how the Government of Canada colluded with others, such as the RCMP and Church leadership, to eradicate and assimilate Indigenous peoples. There is no doubt that Canada was and continues to be Built on Genocide.

 

 

 

Mr. GENOCIDE

CHIPPEWAR presents the aesthetic of the Mad Magazine Era, as part of a larger body of work entitled MAD SUBVERSIVE. 

Mr. Genocide’s ‘Magic Eraser’ features the Indian Act of 1876, an act to facilitate Genocide - specifically assimilation, destruction, and the ability to steal land and resources. In 2021, The Indian Act is still in effect, which supports the ongoing Genocide of Indigenous peoples.

 

 

 

 NO CROSSIES

CHIPPEWAR says that reconciliation requires returning stolen land and honouring treaties, but reconciliation will never happen. There are already 154 years of broken treaties with Indigenous peoples.

“Lick it, stick it, stamp it, no erasies”, as we travel on our two rows, (a childhood pinky-promise rhyme) is referenced as the commitment to travel on our own paths. The Two Row Wampum is an agreement of peace between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to strive for friendship, civilness between peoples, and a standing agreement to live in parallel forever. Amongst all other agreements with Indigenous peoples, the Two Row Wampum has never been upheld by non-Indigenous peoples.

 

 

FIVE WHITE GIFTS 

Five White Lies - flour, sugar, salt, dairy, and lard - were “gifted” to Indigenous peoples.

The government created the reservation system and forcibly relocated Indigenous peoples to smaller plots of less-resourceful and desirable land. This colonial tactic was devised so more land was available to newcomers, and to continue the expansion of the railways across Turtle Island. Indigenous peoples were dispossessed from their ancestral territories and from a wealth of natural resources such as fish & wildlife, plants & medicines, decent soil, as well as gas, oil, and diamonds.

Indigenous peoples were also not allowed to leave the reserves, and were therefore unable to provide for their families, allowed to practice their culture, or to participate in trade or the wealth of resources newcomers continue to enjoy to this day.

In a disingenuous attempt to care for Indigenous peoples, the Canadian Government provided the FIVE WHITE LIES ration boxes, contributing to a higher number of health issues such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. This is a direct result of colonial interference in a natural and sustainable system that acknowledges the right to food sovereignty.

 

 

 RCMP INK 

In 1876, the tattoo machine was invented. This same year the Canadian Indian Act was enforced to apply genocidal tactics including the disenfranchisement of Indigenous peoples and the implementation of Indian Status numbers. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were empowered to take care of the ‘"Indian Problem", and to uphold and abide by the racist, unjust laws created against Indigneous peoples by the Indian Act. The name, RCMP Ink, is a cheeky play on reality TV shows that follow tattoo artists.

 

 

 SAVAGE-O-METRE

CHIPPEWAR imagines a process to which Indigenous children might have been subjected at child concentration camps (residential schools). The Savage-O-Metre technology would detect if the child was broken from their culture, language and families. The children would have to line up weekly so the Savage-O-Metre could determine if the process of assimilation was working.

Despite their efforts, the boy’s heart still reads Anishinaabe. 

The United Nations defines this as GENOCIDE.

 

 

 

WHITE WASH 

 There are more children in care now than at the height of the residential schools operations.

By dripping the white from the flag onto the boy CHIPPEWAR represents the white washing of Indigenous children and ongoing child apprehension.

The breakdown of the Canadian flag is CHIPPEWAR’s response to broken treaties, empty words, band-aid solutions, worthless promises, and the tarnished relationship that the Canadian Government has with Indigenous peoples here on Turtle Island. Every day we hear of continued atrocities impacting Indigenous people, with no concrete actions taken by the government to repair what they have done and continue to do.

The United Nations defines this as GENOCIDE.

 

 

PRECIOUS RESOURCE

CHIPPEWAR illustrates a proven fact that resource extraction ‘man camps’ cause an insidious spike in missing and murdered Indigenous women.

The rate of missing and murdered Indigenous women is staggering as it continues to grow into the thousands. These numbers have not alarmed the Canadian Government. Former Prime Minister Harper, when asked about the issue and calls for a formal inquiry, replied “Um it, it isn’t really high on our radar, to be honest…”.

This attitude, that Indigenous women are not valued, has infiltrated the Canadian public.

The United Nations defines this as GENOCIDE.

 

 

WHITE PAPER

 “In spite of all government attempts to convince Indians to accept the White Paper, their efforts will fail, because Indians understand that the path outlined by the Department of Indian Affairs through its mouthpiece, the Honourable Mr. Chrétien, leads directly to cultural genocide. We will not walk this path.” — Harold Cardinal, The Unjust Society

In 1969 the Prime Minister of Canada was P.E.T, the current Prime Minister J.T.’s father.

CHIPPEWAR illustrates how P.E.T. instilled racist, colonial tactics, systemic discriminatory behaviours and views onto his son, which inherently influences the way that Little Justin currently governs this country, through broken promises and lies.

CHIPPEWAR quotes P.E.T directly in this piece.

 

 

ADOPTIONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

The Canadian Government deliberately tore Indigenous children away from their families and adopted them into primarily non-Indigenous homes, in what is known as the Sixties Scoop. CHIPPEWAR was a child within this system.

From the mid-1950s to the 1980s Canada forced assimilative tactics onto Indigenous children, instead of assisting Indigenous communities and families with proper resources. The Government was completely aware of the fact that 'scooping-up' the children would contribute to the loss of culture, language, community ties, and the mass destruction of Indigenous families. Staggering numbers of Indigenous children are still over-represented in the child welfare system today.

The United Nations defines this as GENOCIDE.

 

 

ALL OUR RELATIONS

 Indigenous women have gone missing and murdered ever since European people arrived on Turtle Island, or in so-called Canada. Thousands of Indigenous people have gone missing or murdered, and neither their lives nor their deaths have been investigated by authorities. The deep loss felt by Indigenous communities has gone unacknowledged for decades, despite their requests, pleas and demands. And Indigenous women still go missing.

 

 

SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS

Prisons are the new residential schools.

CHIPPEWAR draws our attention to the over incarceration rates of Indigenous peoples, specifically Indigenous women and youth, and how this system is fracturing families. Systemic racism occurs throughout the criminal justice system, in the courts, sentencing, policing, corrections and more. Indigenous women and youth receive longer sentences than their non-Indigenous counterparts, for the same crimes.

Women are life-givers, sustainers, and the backbone of all peoples. Indigenous women are water protectors, healers, matriarchs and are the heart of our communities. The youth are our future generation’s leaders and knowledge carriers. Without both, all communities are lost.

The justice system is ill-prepared to engage with Indigenous peoples and only rarely does it work from a trauma informed perspective. It continues to uphold the values of settler colonialism and prejudice against Indigenous peoples.

The United Nations defines this as GENOCIDE.

 

 

 

 BORN TARGETS

Indigenous peoples experience some of the highest rates of violence and mortality at the hands of the police in this country.

Indigenous peoples often become targets of over-policing, but are neglected when support is needed. Starlight Tours is one of many calculated strategies by police, who drive Indigenous peoples to the outskirts of a town, at night, in winter. They take their clothing and abandon them in sub-zero temperatures, knowing that their actions will inevitably result in death. This policing practice dates back to 1976 and continues today.

The United Nations defines this as GENOCIDE.

 

 

 

THE LIAR’S LANGUAGE

 CHIPPEWAR’s home community of the Anishinaabeg of Deshkan Ziibiing, Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, has seven fluent language speakers left in a community of 2600.

Language is necessary for cultural preservation, and directly linked to ‘how to live a good life’ on this land. Mino bimaadiziwin is a common phrase in Anishinaabemowin, that describes the feeling of ‘living the good life’.

Canada has been working on the erasure of Indigenous peoples since European boats arrived on these shores, and it has continued to find ways to sever people from their language and culture. The two official colonial languages within so-called Canada are English and French, but there are hundreds of unrecognized, distinct Indigenous languages and dialects that originated from the land on which we stand, work and live. 

The United Nations defines this as GENOCIDE.

 

 

 

GENERATIONS SEVERED

Doctors have forced sterilization surgery on Indigenous women for decades. The exact number is unknown, but horrific and completely unacceptable at well over 1200.

In 2017, a group of Indigenous women sued the Saskatchewan Government, stating that they were either coerced or gave no consent to their sterilization surgeries; there is no guarantee that this practice has been discontinued. 

In most cases, and under duress, Indigenous women would agree to these inhumane practices in order to see their newborn babies. The operations often took place immediately after they gave birth, many times without their consent or even knowledge. The number of women affected is likely well beyond those recorded in the court cases. There have been similar incidents where Indigenous girls, as young as ten, were forcibly inserted with intrauterine devices (IUDs), without informed parental consent. These surgeries and procedures resulted in the severing of family trees and the disruption of generations of Indigenous families. This loss not only impacts the dignity and the respect for Indigenous women now, but for generations into the future. 

The United Nations defines this as GENOCIDE.

 

 

 HALF CLEAN, HALF DIRTY

Is the glass half full or half empty? Either way there is no escaping the fact that it remains a glass of DIRTY water. The Canadian Government broke yet another promise to Indigenous peoples, stating that all Indigenous communities would have clean water by International Water Day in March 2021. That day has come and gone and even the Canadian Government admits that there are still at least 51 Indigenous communities without clean drinking water. 

CHIPPEWAR shares, “Indigenous communities never lived without clean water. Our people knew we needed to gather near fresh water sources. Our lands near fresh water were taken by non-Indigenous people, and our communities were relocated to places where there wasn’t, and in many cases still isn’t, access to clean water”.

The United Nations defines this as GENOCIDE.

 

STRATEGICALLY MISINFORMED

This work references CHIPPEWAR’s previous billboard campaigns in Toronto.

Due to strategic misinformation provided by the Government, Canadians believe that tax dollars fund Indigenous communities. However, payments owed to Indigenous peoples are treaty annuities and interest from a federally controlled trust fund, worth over two trillion dollars, intended as payment for the use of stolen land and resources.

By using strategic villainizing language such as, “we are going to increase funding to First Nations communities for housing”, the Government gives the perception that the money comes from tax dollars, which perpetuates harmful stereotypes and further feeds into discrimination towards Indigenous peoples. 

 

 

 

FOREIGN GOVERNANCE

In this work, CHIPPEWAR expresses how Indigenous communities’ sovereignty is not honoured by the Canadian Government.

The current systems force and enforce a governance of Chief & Council, which is not Indigenous law or governance. Indigenous peoples are beholden to these foreign governance systems against their will through Chief & Council, Indigenous lobbyist groups, and various other institutionalized organizations. These systems are forced upon Indigenous communities and disregard any previous governance systems that Nations may have had such as matrilineal or patrilineal systems, clan associations and family ties.

 HOW MUCH IS THAT INDIAN IN THE WINDOW

How Much is that Indian in the Window speaks to the unreciprocated relationships some families have with the Indigenous children they adopted.

The little boy playing with the Indians and soldier figurines is a recurring theme in CHIPPEWAR’s work. CHIPPEWAR, Jay Soule was adopted by a white family during the Sixties Scoop, when Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their own families into the foster care system.

Although Karen has embraced the white saviour role by adopting an Indigenous child, and feels she has done the child a favour, she is inconvenienced by his presence and often refers to him as a rescue, like a dog.

The United Nations defines this as GENOCIDE.

 

WHITE PAPER 2.0

Little Justin, the current Prime Minister of so-called Canada, has followed in the footsteps of his colonial father, P.E.T., by continuing to break promises and approve projects that negatively affect Indigenous peoples. 

In 1969 P.E.T. supported the White Paper created by J. Chrétien, Minister of Indian Affairs, as a policy that attempted to abolish legal rights and treaties relating to Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island or in so-called Canada. It continues to be the norm that non-Indigneous people hold positions of power and control over Indigenous narratives, issues, and the overall jurisdiction of their rights. The White Paper was rejected.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as Justin continues his father’s legacy and will leave a colonized legacy for his family and all Canadians.

Little Justin's Bill C-15 is disguised as a Bill that would implement The UN’s Declaration of Indigenous Peoples, but it is essentially the White Paper 2.0.