Kent Monkman, “Les Castors Du Roi,” 2011. Collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Image via the artist. Here, Monkman, a Cree artist in Dish With One Spoon Territory (Toronto), depicts a fanciful hunting scene in New France, as it might have been painted in the time of Louis XV, who was known for his love of hunting. “The violence perpetrated against the beaver,” Monkman writes of this painting, “can be interpreted in various ways, considering the violence present in New France between French, English and the First Peoples. More than a beaver hunt, this scene alludes to the complex political, social and cultural histories of Turtle Island.”
