The Art Gallery of Ontario’s Indigenous curator Wanda Nanibush left her job last week in what the institution calls a mutual decision, following years of outspokenness that caused friction with some at the gallery and in the arts community – which came to a head with the Israel-Hamas war.
She has publicly supported Palestinian causes both recently – including in a since-deleted social-media post viewed by The Globe and Mail – and in the past, including in a 2016 feature for Canadian Art magazine. In that story, she linked the experience of Indigenous peoples living in Canada to that of Palestinians. “Colonization marks a before and after where identity is radically altered by loss,” she wrote.
