Nahanni McKay: Spirit

Nahanni McKay’s photograph Spirit critiques the colonial foundations of Canada’s national park system and its ongoing impact on Indigenous lands and wildlife. A young Métis photographer from Banff, McKay works within a wildlife corridor, arranging the skulls of deer, cougars, and bears to honour their presence and the lives taken within these contested spaces. Through this evocative composition, she calls attention to how tourism and park policy have long overshadowed Indigenous relationships to land, while affirming the necessity of Indigenous knowledge in restoring balance, care, and respect for the beings who share these territories. Organized by the Art Gallery of Alberta. Curated by Alaynee Goodwill-Littlechild, TD Curator of Indigenous Creativity. The TD Curator of Indigenous Creativity initiates and collaborates on exhibition development, collections acquisitions and animation, public programming, and community engagement in partnership with artists, colleagues, and organizations across Canada, in order to support, share, and preserve Indigenous creativity. Support provided by TD Bank Group through the Bank's Corporate Citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commitment. Nahanni McKay is a Métis artist from in Banff Alberta. Nahanni produces photographic images of objects that take the shape of spirits around her home of Treaty 7 in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. The work she has produced aims to discuss the need to decolonize the complicated National Park system. Her work is in relation to the human impact of the natural environment by creating an unsettling image to be observed by the viewer. McKay is mesmerized by the beauty of her hometown and how the mountains attract a colonial desire to commercialize and conquer this sacred place. Since graduating from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2017, Nahanni McKays’ photographic and sculptural work has been exhibited extensively across Canada and Europe. Recent exhibitions include Hole 8 at the European Cultural Centre, (Venice) and Loop 14 was exhibited at the Contemporary Calgary as well as Art Toronto in 2020. McKay has received several awards including the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award in 2022. The artist's work is included in the permanent collection of the Alberta Foundation of the Arts. Nahanni is currently taking her MFA at Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary