MC Snow, a kanien’keha’ka artist from Kahnawake

As you stroll along Peel Street, you may have come across these massive spheres planted at the curb along its length, from the Lachine Canal to Mount Royal…
This project¹https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nos_r%C3%A9cits,_notre_voie_:_parcours_Peelwas initiated by the City of Montreal, in close collaboration with the Kahnawake community, following the discovery of 14th- and 15th-century Kanienkehaka artifacts²Shards, pottery fragments during an archaeological dig on an urban development site³2016 to 2019. Memory never dies… Beneath the concrete and asphalt, the past inevitably reemerges, recounting the presence of the Iroquoians who once occupied the site.

The Kanienkehaka⁴https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohawk_peoplewere accustomed to breaking their pottery and utilitarian objects, and burying them when they left a camp to set up on another site. Everything taken from the Earth is returned to the Earth…

It is this connection with nature, faithful to impermanence, that is sacralized in native thought. This awareness, which enables us to stay in touch with the elements, attests to the ecological dimension of the First Peoples, and to their profound respect. The Haida of British Columbia have the same notion, returning old totem poles to the earth by laying them on the ground after a final homage.

To honor the Ancients, twenty-two bronze spheres have been installed as a duo at eleven stations along the street. They celebrate the encounter between the Haudenosaunee⁵https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquoispeople who lived here and the European explorers, and tell the story of their cohabitation. For more than ten years, two artists, MC Snow (kanien’kehá:ka) and Kyra Revenko (non-native), have worked closely together to create these works.

For several years now, I’ve been regularly seeing MC Snow on the arenas of summer pow wows, whether in Kahnawake, Akwesasne or on the campus of McGill University⁶https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGill_Universityin Montreal. Highly involved in his community, he is also a multidisciplinary artist who creates artistic works inspired by history and ancestral traditions.

The weather that day was gloomy. The April light gave the place a surreal atmosphere, with gusts of wind whistling through the space. An old white limousine that looked like something out of a sixties movie was hanging around the neighborhood, just a few yards from the house where MC Snow lived. As I looked up at the sky, I thought of the total solar eclipse, a major astronomical event that would occur a few days later.

This phenomenon also marked the creation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy by the “Great Peacemaker”⁷https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Peacemaker, Deganawida of the Wyandot Nation⁸https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyandotte_Nation, 1.000 years earlier…

After welcoming me, MC Snow invited me to sit in the living room, where a golden retriever and a chihuahua burst in. In conversation, I learned that he was born in Detroit and spent his early childhood in the USA, before moving to Sherbrooke – in the Eastern Townships – at the age of 12.

– I also lived in North Carolina, but at the age of 26, I entered the Fine Arts program at the University of Ottawa,” he says,
– That’s when I joined my family on my father’s side in Kahnawake.

Influenced by Peter Gnass⁹https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gnass– a famous Quebec engraver, photographer and sculptor – of whom he was a student, MC Snow quickly made a name for himself in the art world as a painter and sculptor. He works with traditional Kanienkehaka materials such as natural pigments and wood to ensure cultural transmission. He also uses plaster, epoxy resin and fiberglass, and has recently experimented with bronze to create ten spheres for the Peel project.

Acknowledged in Canada and the United States since the 90s, his dynamism propelled him onto the international scene in 2023, with an exhibition for the Biennale d’art contemporain autochtone.In this exhibition, he presented objects steeped in history, creating a reflection on the past and Kanienkehaka culture – a powerful symbol of the reappropriation of knowledge. Ensuring the transmission of knowledge, creating a link between past and present, remains at the heart of the company’s preoccupations.

– My priority is the cultural identity of my nation,” he explains, “an imprint with meaning for generations to come…

Inspired by the Kanienkehaka ceremony of thanks, the Peel trail – a trail of Kanienkehaka ancestors – was designed to bring together native and non-native cultures.The spheres symbolically embody the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) prayer, Ohén:ton karihwatéhkewen ‘”Words before all others“, which celebrates the elements of creation and living beings up to celestial principles and the Creator.

This historic alchemy was born of a long creative process between him and Kyra Revenko. Their collaboration was enriched by their cultural differences, producing this timeless work that reminds us of the importance of dialogue between peoples.

Another of his works, the “Presence of the past” exhibition¹⁰https://www.musee-mccord-stewart.ca/en/exhibitions/presence-of-the-past-mc-snow/ and the “Tell me a story” collection, can be seen at the McCord Stewart Museum¹¹https://www.musee-mccord-stewart.ca/en/. Both make reference to the past. On display are traditional objects such as pottery and arrows, as well as a collection of baby carriers featuring “The young woman with a basket”, a statue he sculpted as a symbol of the transmission of memory and knowledge. Last April (2024), he also created a work for Canadian National Railways illustrating a map of the American continent in territorial waters – “Turtle Island”¹²https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_Island as it is known to the natives – where CN tracks are marked in red.

Tradition plays a crucial role among the natives. And the Kanienkehaka are no exception. MC Snow explained to me that he came back to it late in life, on his return from Ottawa.
– My mother is from Quebec. My family is Catholic, so we never talked about tradition,” he says, pausing for a moment.

But curiosity prompted him to get more involved and join the Longhouse¹³https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhouse.
– I wanted to find out more about the divisions and prejudices that affected my community…
This essential return to his roots, begun some twenty years ago, marks a turning point in his life. He attended the ceremonies, trying to reconcile the Longhouse and spirituality, two terms that were often discriminated against under colonial influence.

It has to be said that this iconic house has long suffered religious prejudice, wrongly considered a place of protest. A place of celebration, this family home, exclusively reserved for Kahnawake families, has many protocols. .

At gatherings, each clan member sits with his or her clan.

– There are three clans in Kahnawake,” he explains. The Bear, the Wolf and the Turtle.
The clans stand face to face.

MC Snow was adopted by the Turtle Clan, the clan with which his father is affiliated. The turtle is a sacred animal for the Kanienkehaka. In the cosmogonic story of creation – the story of Ajinjagaayonh (adult flower), the woman who fell from the sky¹⁴https://fourdirectionsteachings.com/transcripts/mohawk.html– she bears the earth-.

– The importance of the Longhouse was paramount, and is even more so today,” he explains. There are three or four in Kahnawake… No decision is taken without the full agreement of the entire community.

The name “Longhouse” evokes the original Mohawk dwellings. In the transition from nomadic to sedentary life, after the year 1,000, these 20-meter-high communal structures – made from bent poles covered with bark and cedar – were built within villages fortified with palisades.

They served both as residences for several families and as meeting places. Today, the term refers to a contemporary house where gatherings and rituals take place. Ceremonies follow the rhythm of time and the seasons, and are always accompanied by dances and offerings to the Earth. During them, the women’s gestures symbolize the movements of creation. As he tells me, everything is perfectly orchestrated, nothing is left to chance in these ceremonies…

– In winter, when the days are very short, there’s the ‘White Dog’ ceremony, or Midwinter, when we give thanks to the Creator and all the elements of creation,” says MC Snow.
Medicinal herbs such as sweetgrass, tobacco, cedar and sage are burned during the rituals.  
– They follow the natural cycles of the earth and the constellations, and are accompanied by dance.

There’s the “Opening of the Maple Trees” at the very beginning of Spring, and the “Opening of the Gardens” where seeds are prepared. Then there’s the “Corn Ceremony” held in August in the Long House.

Pow wows¹⁵https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powwoware a beneficial dynamic for native nations. While these gatherings are today identified with the “red path”, a path of spiritual healing, they have long been perceived as a threat to assimilation. The first pow wows began with the creation of reserves in the 19th century (1851). Considered a subversive element, they were banned by the authorities and restricted by the Indian Act from 1886 to 1951..

– Today, things have changed. The pages that blackened the history of the First Peoples, if they still mark our consciences, are far behind us,” says MC Snow.
He lets some time pass, then picks up again, with his characteristic dynamism,
– We’re witnessing a real cultural renaissance in our community.
A renaissance that goes hand in hand with the abandonment of beliefs imported during colonization, or a hybrid coexistence with them.
– We’re still in opposition to Catholicism, because for many years there were a lot of preconceived ideas about our spirituality and discrimination,” he says.

European religions did a lot of damage to the First Peoples, with notions that equated nature with an ‘inanimate’ thing that had to be controlledThere are two churches in Kahnawake, one Catholic, the other Protestant. I have cousins who are priests and sisters in my family.
He then goes on to say,

– Our community is governed by a band council, a political structure created by colonization – the Indian Act¹⁶https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Actand made up of twelve chiefs..

Despite the colonial and missionary influence that tried to eradicate native culture between the 19th and 20th centuries, rites and traditions have always been perpetuated, sometimes clandestinely.

– We used to have ‘socials’, as these events were called, with dancing, singing and sharing, but no pow wow,” MC Snow tells me. They came back from the West, thanks to the influence of British Columbia.

This reappropriation took place in the same way for all Eastern nations.
Then as now, spirituality is a veritable “way of life” for the natives. It is based on the link with the Creator, Mother Earth and all the life forms she shelters, to which must be added inanimate objects that are also endowed with spirit. Traditions and ceremonies are dedicated to healing and ensuring continuity; a primordial dimension, sacred to all members of the community. In the pow wows, one of the women’s most specific dances, the “dance of the bell dresses”, is a healing dance to which 365 tin bells, originally made from the metal of tobacco tin lids, are rung.

I take a look at the traditional headdress adorned with white turkey feathers on a beaded birchbark frame hanging on the wall. MC Snow has just finished it.

The “gustoweh”¹⁷https://gks.artsci.utoronto.ca/search-page/gustoweh-headdresswas originally worn by the Haudenosaunee nations (Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and Tuscaroras). MC Snow also makes ceremonial outfits, such as ribboned shirts and beaded moccasins, as well as shawls and dance dresses for her daughter.

– We used to have traditional clothing, but not the regalia you see at pow wows today. Today, the colors are more beautiful, brighter than they used to be,” he explains.

The style of beading is specific. It tells the story of where the dancer comes from, his or her clan. Flowers, animals and Kanienkehaka symbols can be seen.

In the course of our conversation, I realize that the past is still there, that its imprint is much stronger than it seems in the minds of the First Peoples. MC Snow’s work as an artist is centered on the need to reappropriate, to fill in erased areas marked by invisibility. Erasing oblivion is at the heart of this approach to identity, which highlights the loss of territory and traditional ways of life.

– We learn our history in childhood…” he says,
– Montreal, originally “Tiohtiàke” – short for Teionihtiohtiá:kon, “where the group separates “¹⁸or “where boats and rivers meet” – lies on our ancestral territory.
– This fact is not insignificant, and remains at the heart of our concerns to this day, he murmurs gravely.
– Our territory is so small ! exclaims MC Snow, saying nothing more.
Then, with a hint of bitterness in his voice, he tells me about the difficult times he went through at school, when he was in Sherbrooke, in the Eastern Townships, feeling taken to task or discriminated against when people talked about the conflicts between Natives and Europeans during colonization.

– II was always involved. I stood aside in class. I just wanted to disappear…” he says, before adding,
– It was hard to speak English…
Silence followed.

In those years, the linguistic conflict between English and French persisted in Quebec. Added to the territorial conflict was that of a controversial linguistic territory, the result of conquests and wars during the years of colonization.

– Even today, as in Kanesataké, we are in conflict with real estate developers.
From one reserve to another, we hear the same thing. The crisis affecting the Kanienkehaka is far from over…

To understand it, we need to go back once again to the turbulent history of these peoples at the time of the European landings.

Mapping the Mohawk territory is a reminder of the power of the Haudenosaunee before the landing of the first European explorers, who lived south of Lake Ontario, in what is now New York State in the United States. But their ancestors, the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, who appeared after the ice ages, shared a much larger territory stretching from the St. Lawrence Lowlands to the Great Lakes, including the present-day provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and New York State…

The word “territory”, heard on the lips of all the natives I came across during my investigations, is not insignificant. This inalienable concept attached to a people’s identity, which is regularly called into question by the greed of dictatorial states, obeys a strategy of chaos well known throughout history. It responds to the needs of a system deliberately geared towards development, with no concern for the lasting impact on the legitimate occupants of the coveted lands, or their terrible impact on the “sensitive world”: lasting ecocide and the extinction of animal species…

Although the abuses of colonization, with the discovery of the Kamloops residential schools, have been widely publicized, the memories of the elders remain vivid. And that’s perfectly understandable… More than any other nation in Quebec, the Kanienkehaka have lived through this period with the bitter feeling of being dispossessed of their land and their identity. Recently, I learned that the government had even offered to buy back parcels of land that had been stolen from them, a particularly dramatic nonsense when you consider their history.

– Do traumas fade over time? I asked.
MC Snow nodded.
– A lot of time has passed since the Oka crisis¹⁹https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oka_Crisis, so we don’t talk about it as much, and there are no more traumas like our parents experienced. But among our elders, the past has left indelible marks, and some of them still refuse to come out since the crisis.

The tension during that period when Kahnawake was cut off from the world is not out of the imagination… In support of the Oka1 crisis, Kanienkehaka warriors blocked the Mercier Bridge, holding up traffic between Montreal Island and Châteauguay for 57 days. Food couldn’t get across the bridge, people were traumatized, prisoners on the reserve,” explained MC Snow, as the situation escalated in Oka, involving the army and airplanes flying over the reserve.
Silence followed.
We looked into each other’s eyes, but beyond the acceptance MC Snow displayed, I sensed the incredible resilience and determination of a people.

– What are your expectations today?
– For our community, the priority is to reclaim our land; a sacred territory for us, because it’s part of our identity.

Today, during official events and ceremonies in Montreal, mention is made of the “unceded territory” on which they take place. This official recognition initiated in the reconciliation process is a positive dynamic because it has given a voice to the Kanien’kehà:ka people, but much remains to be done.

– We hope that Quebec will take a step towards getting to know Aboriginal people, who are still stigmatized by the colonial past…
It is this gesture, based on mutual respect and dialogue between peoples, that MC Snow is hoping for.

The golden retriever nonchalantly comes to lie down on the sofa where we are seated, reminding us of this tenuous link with the animal world, which the natives have always integrated into their beliefs. The teaching of animal totems was prevalent then and is just as much so today. Imbued with ancestral wisdom and knowledge, they lead humans through life, ensuring a direct connection with nature and the spiritual world. At the heart of this initiation is the notion of interdependence between all beings, a sacred bond ensuring the survival of the species…