ANISHINABE Scout

One of Ovide Mercredi's last official acts as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations was to take part in the ceremony to witness the dismantling of the lower portion of the Champlain Monument on Nepean Point. The piece of the sculpture to be removed was an Aboriginal scout, posed on one knee at the base of the statue. Hamilton MacCarthy was the sculptor of the monument.
The Samuel de Champlain monument is fraught with many other contradictions and ambiguities. Although the dates '1613-1913' (tricentennial of Champlain's first and somewhat abortive expedition up the Ottawa) are emblazoned on the base, the statue more properly commemorates Champlain's second voyage in 1615. In fact the Governor-General, Arthur Duke of Connaught, officially unveiled the piece in 1915. Of course there is also the upside down astrolabe, which in order to function as a solar navigation instrument had to be suspended from a rope. What may or may not have been Champlain's astrolabe was found by a farmboy near Cobden, Ontario in 1867, bought by an American collector, willed to the New York Historical Society, and finally repatriated to the Canadian Museum of Civilization across the Ottawa River.
The Anishinabe scout was a later addition to the monument. Funds for it were raised by a citizens' committee seeking to recognize the Aboriginal contribution to the success of Champlain's explorations. Originally it was to have included an accompanying bronze canoe, but when they failed to raise sufficient money for a canoe the scout (sculpted and cast in 1918) was placed on the base beneath Champlain in the early 1920s.
The issue with the Aboriginal community was the pose and position of the scout, presumably portraying obeisance and servitude. No attempt has been made to repair the scar or to provide an on-site explanation of the events surrounding his removal from the Champlain Monument.
The scout was ultimately moved to the base of Nepean Point, and surrounded by shrubs. The National Capital Commission's new plaque reads: 'Anishinabe Scout - Hamilton MacCarthy - 1918 - The same artist sculpted other works of public art, including the monument to Samuel de Champlain found on Nepean Point'. Although a little hard to find, the approach to the piece is hidden by bushes, the new location allows for a more intimate viewing than the original installation. It's a very sympathetic and human portrayal. The figure is laden with anthropological details and the physiognomy is highly realistic. He actually came off better than Champlain, who was generalized as a swashbuckling musketeer.

Depicting First Nations' people in Canadian art has a long tradition, from rude drawings by the early explorers to elaborate paintings such as Benjamin West's 'Death of General Wolfe' (1771), which is based on a Lamentation of Christ. Apart from the pasty-faced Wolfe, the most arresting figure in West's great history painting is the Aboriginal warrior seated in the foreground.
Whether the scout's pose was intended to be an act of submission, or just related to the unrealized canoe - it was perceived as derogatory by the people it depicts.
It is rooted in the 18th century's cult of primitavism, which celebrates the purity of a race uncontaminated by 'civilization'. Is it nobility or caricature?
As well as changing the context, the new setting puts the scout in the open air where he can be viewed from all sides.
Instead of looking up, the point of view is now looking down which reveals the distorted proportions that sculptors used when their pieces where to be be seen from below. The scout's torso and shoulders now appear exaggerated, but would have once read as correctly proportioned.
In the end, it is those foreshortened bended legs that require resolution and healing.
What to do when imagery that may been sincere for its time becomes denigrating and hurtful? The United States is faced with many analogous situations, such as the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C., where debates have raged for decades as to how the reinterpret this history.
One approach is to correct the imagery with new portrayals, like that of Thayendanegea/Joseph Brant among the grouping of heroes statuary in the corner of Confederation Square
Was this a lost opportunity to explain and interpret changing perceptions? It is ironic that in his new position, the severed scout stares back up at his companion of nearly a hundred years.
In this case I don't know if First Nations were well served by Iconoclasism.