"The sexualisation and exploitation of female representation within mainstream society has been consistent over time, disregarding the rich cultural existence Indigenous women have maintained through traditional knowledge, social roles and power. The objectification of women in Western society lacks an understanding and relationship to traditional teachings, and I feel it is time to push the continuum of those teachings forward in the direction of exposing vulnerability and sensuality that will allow eroticism to be reclaimed through the matriarchal body.” ~Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde

The exhibition premiering at UVic’s Legacy Art Gallery, In Defiance emerges from Iroquois Mohawk artist Lindsay Delaronde’s photographic project entitled Squaw. This project, in utter defiance to that negative word long often used to denigrate Indigenous women, seeks to breakdown the stereotypes. These 30 individual portraits dismantle the negative stereotypes of First Nations women by allowing the individuals to portray themselves more authentically, reflecting truth of diversity, power, and respect.

The motivation for this project is to “seek to create a project to reclaim and empower First Nations women and their capability to express their natural sovereign powers of eroticism, sensuality and vulnerability through their presence over time.” ~LKD. The individual photographs, when shown together, create an empowering series that deconstructs, challenges, and defies mainstream ideologies of identity and its link to sexuality. Allowing each subject to decide how and where she was going to be portrayed in her portrait, the artist has given each woman her own voice and a platform that provided them with safety and trust to express the most private and sensual aspects of themselves.