Miss Chief Eagle Testickle Presents Her Memoir: Kent Monkman and Gisèle Gordon in Conversation takes place December 1
Vancouver Writers Fest highlights the long-time collaborators’ new book, The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island
Vancouver Writers Fest presents Miss Chief Eagle Testickle Presents Her Memoir: Kent Monkman and Gisèle Gordon in Conversation in partnership with the Vancouver Art Gallery and Eastside Culture Crawl on December 1 at 7:30 pm at the Vancouver Playhouse
CELEBRATED CREE ARTIST Kent Monkman and his long-time collaborator, settler artist and writer Gisèle Gordon, are making a Vancouver appearance to talk about their latest work. The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island is a genre-defying work based on Monkman’s paintings that aims to reframe people’s understanding of so-called North America and see things through the experiences of Indigenous peoples.
The new two-volume book blends history, fiction, and memoir.
The event is described as being of interest to anyone wanting to know about “a gloriously queer, art-drenched, Indigenous look at the ‘true’ history of North America/Turtle Island”, according to a release, and features a special appearance by Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.
A member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba), Monkman often features his two-spirit alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, in his work.
Volume One covers the period from the creation of the universe to the confederation of Canada, following Miss Chief as she moves through time from Cree cosmology to the arrival of European settlers, many of whom will be familiar to local history students.
Volume Two journeys from confederation to the present day, looking at the travesties of the 19th and 20th centuries. Miss Chief witnesses to the genocidal forces and systems that displaced and attempted to eradicate Indigenous peoples, looking at residential schools and the Sixties Scoop. Miss Chief’s perspective underlines resilience and reconnection with an eye to the future rooted in Indigenous history.
Gisèle Gordon.
After a reading with Miss Chief, Monkman and Gordon will have a conversation with broadcaster Shelagh Rogers about Indigenous resilience, reshaping understanding, and illuminating the path to reconciliation ahead.
Books will be for sale at the event courtesy of Iron Dog Books.
Monkman’s previous artworks include Shame and Prejudice, which inserts queer Indigenous peoples into Canada’s colonial past.
For more information, see https://writersfest.bc.ca/event/monkman-gordon.
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