Dante's Heart
An Interview with Aaron Paquette
DH: That’s fascinating, you don’t hear about apprenticeships, especially in
arts that have been taken over by manufacturing like glass and metal work. Did
you stumble upon those opportunities or was it something you had always very
much wanted to do?
AP: I simply stumbled into these apprenticeships and it was really my good
fortune to do so. But isn't that the case with almost all the very interesting
things in our lives?
DH: In one blog post you mention two sides to a Native view of Christianity.
You say you try to remain neutral on the subject, but what ways has that
awareness of Christianity and its relationship to Native culture and views of
religion snuck into your work?
Raven (Aaron Paquette, 2008)
AP: Well, it's definitely snuck into my work. A good example would be the
painting, Katikakiw (or Raven). Without delving too deeply into it, I was thinking
of Residential Schools at the time and wondering how some of the children
made it through with their own sense of self intact. Granted, this was very rare,
but it did happen. I imagined they would have had to have a very strong love and
belief in their own stories and culture, and instead of allowing them to be
replaced, found a way to incorporate it into the concepts in which they were
being indoctrinated.
Back Page 4
DH: That’s fascinating, you don’t hear about apprenticeships, especially in
arts that have been taken over by manufacturing like glass and metal work. Did
you stumble upon those opportunities or was it something you had always very
much wanted to do?
AP: I simply stumbled into these apprenticeships and it was really my good
fortune to do so. But isn't that the case with almost all the very interesting
things in our lives?
DH: In one blog post you mention two sides to a Native view of Christianity.
You say you try to remain neutral on the subject, but what ways has that
awareness of Christianity and its relationship to Native culture and views of
religion snuck into your work?
Raven (Aaron Paquette, 2008)
AP: Well, it's definitely snuck into my work. A good example would be the
painting, Katikakiw (or Raven). Without delving too deeply into it, I was thinking
of Residential Schools at the time and wondering how some of the children
made it through with their own sense of self intact. Granted, this was very rare,
but it did happen. I imagined they would have had to have a very strong love and
belief in their own stories and culture, and instead of allowing them to be
replaced, found a way to incorporate it into the concepts in which they were
being indoctrinated.
Back Page 4
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