Mythologizing Norval Morrisseau

Mythologizing Norval Morrisseau examines the complex identities assigned to Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau. Robertson looks at news stories, magazine articles, and film footage to examine the cultural assumptions that have framed Morrisseau.

Carmen Robertson is a Scots Lakota woman with two daughters from in and around the Qu’Appelle Valley in Saskatchewan. She is also an Indigenous Art Historian and the Canada Research Chair in North American Indigenous Art and Material Culture at Carleton University.

“Impressively researched, exceptionally well written and documented, informatively and accessibly organized and presented, Mythologizing Norval Morrisseau is an outstanding work of seminal scholarship.”

Allan Ryan:

“Morrisseau is a towering figure in the contemporary Canadian art world, a creative master, mentor, and visionary whose life and works will be discussed and debated for years to come. Carmen Robertson’s research and analysis of the uneasy relationship between the artist and the media is a welcome addition to a growing body of literature, not only on Morrisseau, but on the nature of contemporary Canadian culture and the difficulties faced by Aboriginal peoples attempting to define and affirm an identity within it.”