THE INDIANS OF CANADA PAVILION

The Indians of Canada Pavilion (IOCP) was one of the pavilions of the Expo 67 event that took place in 1967 in Montréal. Located on the partly artificial islands of Saint-Helene and Notre-Dame, this site is part of Parc Jean Drapeau. This pavilion showcased Indigenous artistic, cultural, as well as political and economic content and was spearheaded by numerous First Nations, Metis, and Inuit commissioners. Designed initially as a temporary structure, the pavilion is said to have impacted Indigenous-Canadian relations to this day as the exhibitions and themes of the IOCP continue to resonate with today’s Indigenous nations. Far removed from the performative stance of most other pavilions that sought to celebrate the colonial greatness of Quebec as a nation and Montréal as a modern North-American city, the IOCP aimed to speak truth to power and showcase Indigenous lived realities to the world. The official Expo theme song “Nous te ferons la fête, sur une île inventée, Sortie de notre tête toute aux couleurs de l’été” stood in strong contrast with the dim realities of First Nations reserves, residential schools, and unfulfilled land treaties in which the federal government was pinpointed to have played a major role. Not only did Indigenous nations refuse to be spoken about by Canadian officials as yet another colonial incursion into Indigenous peoples’ lives, the IOCP was a moment of re-appropriating one’s legacy and putting oneself on the map as Indigenous sovereign nations that ought to be respected as such on their ancestral land. Though the large teepee structure that constituted the main visual piece of the pavilion is gone today, a Kwakiutl totem pole, commissioned by British Columbia-based Aboriginal artists Tony and Harry Hunt, remains as the last vestige of the pavilion. As we walk through Parc Jean Drapeau, the site that once constituted the IOCP is filled with trees, plants, and a few benches for visitors to relax. The calm atmosphere of the space invites us to ask how a temporary artistic and cultural project like the IOCP has sought permanence in peoples’ minds and created lasting impressions in the minds of those that spearheaded it and those that witnessed the exhibition.