A Purposeful Conversation with Shelley Niro

Shelley Niro is a multi-media artist who was born in Niagara Falls, NY. Currently, she lives in Brantford Ontario. Niro is a member of the Six Nations Reserve, Bay of the Quinte Mohawk, Turtle Clan. Her work involves photography, painting, beadwork, and film. Niro is conscious of the impact post-colonial mediums have had on Indigenous people. Like many artists from different Native communities, she works relentlessly presenting people in realistic and explorative portrayals and photo series such as MOHAWKS IN BEEHIVES, THIS LAND IS MIME LAND, and M: STORIES OF WOMEN that display the various genres of her artwork. Films include HONEY MOCCASIN, IT STARTS WITH A WHISPER, THE SHIRT, KISSED BY LIGHTNING, and ROBERT’S PAINTINGS. Recently she finished her film, THE INCREDIBLE 25th YEAR OF MITZI BEARCLAW. Shelley graduated from the Ontario College of Art with Honors and received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Western Ontario. Shelly’s artwork and films have been screened and exhibited widely nationally and internationally.

Niro was the inaugural recipient of the Aboriginal Arts Award presented through the Ontario Arts Council in 2012. In 2017, Niro received the Governor General’s Award For The Arts from the Canada Council, The Scotiabank Photography Award, and also received the Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Award. Niro was recently honored with an honorary doctorate from the Ontario College of Art and Design University in 2019.  I had the pleasure and honor of asking Shelley about what she thinks is the most crucial part of the art process, what she wishes her artistic statement will make, and how art can bring more attention to issues indigenous people face.

UZOMAH: How did your family influence your love of art where you wanted to include them in your later projects?

SHELLEY: The environment in which I grew in, including my family, influenced my desire to create objects. This usually resulted in beadwork, soapstone carving, and drawing. These are the three basic materials I grew up with. We had people around us who made things. They would never consider themselves artists. I think the word artist felt foreign to them and was placed on a much higher level of thing making. However, now, when I conceive of an idea, I always go through my own thought process making and see in my own mind if I can construct it in the most achievable way. Its’ building blocks.

U: What inspired you to focus on the women of your tribe and also on others?

S: I became aware of how Indigenous women were portrayed, how they were expected to look, and how that look was capitalized on. I’m referring to films that came out of Hollywood, mostly during the time I was watching them on tv in my living room as a child. Women were silent and had no personalities. As I developed my skills I realized the portraits of Indigenous women were limited. Realizing that, I discovered I could go anywhere. The sky was the limit. I’ve kept on thinking that individual personalities are out there. I do mainly use my friends and family for this purpose.

U: How can art bring more attention to issues indigenous people face and how others who think they can help provide aid?

In Her Lifetime, 1991, black and white photography

S: I believe in visual art…. Be it sculpture, drawing, photography, filmmaking. For a few seconds, the artist can make images that the viewer can respond to. Sometimes it is emotional. If you can connect with people on an emotional level, you can lead them to a place they’ve never been before. Sometimes the work doesn’t speak for years down the road. But that is also the beauty of making art. Even for the artist, the work might be made and the artist does not know what it means. Eventually, that realization will surface.

U: What do you want indigenous people that walk away from one of your films or art exhibits to feel in respect to the past generation, the present, and the generation to come?

S: When I make my pieces, be it film or art for an exhibit, I want Indigenous people to know this work is made for them. I take into consideration our ancestors and others who have passed here before we have. They have laid the bricks for us to walk on. In some humble way, I want to feel I am doing that as well. By continuing to make these roads accessible to future generations, I think we are communicating with each other at different stages of our lives.

souvenirs from the homeland

U: What can the art world do to include more indigenous artists and have artists in the permanent collections?

S: Yes, that’s a great question and observation. The art world can no longer exclude Indigenous art in their permanent collections anymore. Art that is coming out of the Indigenous art world is highly developed in the sense of production and meaning. It has taken over 500 years to actually see how the work has been developed and where it is coming from.

Then Everyone Got Mad, 2017

U: What is the most crucial part of your artistic process?

S: The most crucial part of my artistic process is making sure I have the energy to finish my project. I do not want to start something and get halfway through and stop to go to another project. I feel this is the worst thing I could do. Finishing what I start is the only way. What drives you to create art? I am driven by the fact that creating art is the only thing I can do. It is all that I think about. Where to start, how to finish, how big is it going to be.? What will the final piece look like?

U: Can you describe the artistic statement you wish to make with your art and why it is essential?

S: The artistic statement I want to make with my art is that I hope it is inspiring, stimulating and will lead the viewer to become curious about the Indigenous world everywhere.

Resting Warrior Dreams Of Hunting, 2017

U: How did you learn how to produce and direct films?

S: I'm a great watcher of film.  I have always been starting as a child and taking in a constant diet of westerns in the fifties.

The dynamic was always the same, especially when it came to the saintly cowboy and the evil Indian.  Since that time, I have been making art and gradually made films starting in the 1990s.  I co-produced a film with Anna Gronau,   IT STARTS WITH A WHISPER, and from there went to HONEY MOCCASIN 1998, THE SHIRT 2003, TREE 2007, KISSED BY LIGHTNING 2010, ROBERT'S PAINTINGS 2011, and THE INCREDIBLE 25th YEAR OF MITZI BEARCLAW 2018…With a few shorts mixed in.

I basically am self-directed, thinking of film as sculpture and gradually building the shape and adding layers.  I have attended workshops, TELEFILM Canada, and WOMEN IN THE DIRECTOR'S CHAIR, Banff Centre For The Arts. 

Day At The Beach, 2017

U: How do governments in countries such as Canada, the USA, and even in Australia provide solutions to what happened in boarding schools to indigenous children and their families?

S: A very important question indeed.

Of course, we now realize the impact the boarding/residential schools have had on children, their families, and Indigenous People in colonized territories.  It started out as assimilation but genocide became the target activity.  Graves of children are being discovered bringing so much grief to the communities. 

I believe in art and what it does for the Indigenous population.  Artists, writers, poets, and musicians struggle to make statements about this impact.  Governments are now trying to make a way and create platforms for the extinguished voices to be heard.  However, Indigenous People are forging ahead and making their own platform for those voices to be heard and for their relations.

 For more information about Shelley’s artwork please visit her site.