Kent Monkman's Being Legendary at Royal Ontario Museum Confronts Colonial Museum Practices

At the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Cree artist Kent Monkman showcases his exhibition, Being Legendary, which will be open until April 16, 2023. This display includes 34 paintings characterized by Monkman’s distinctive realism, set against vibrant walls accompanied by informative texts. The exhibition prominently features Monkman's alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, who leads audiences through a story that begins with cosmic creation in We Are Made of Stardust (2022). It also integrates geological specimens and dinosaur bones from the museum’s collection, alongside Monkman’s sculptural piece, Mesozoic maskisina (2022), a fossilized stiletto. The narrative shifts to colonial violence, highlighting the theft of Indigenous lands and the forced assimilation of First Nations children in residential schools. Study for the Sparrow (2021) illustrates a girl in a dormitory reaching for a bird, symbolizing unattainable freedom. Monkman juxtaposes a case of moccasins from the ROM collection with paintings of the same footwear alongside grieving ancestors, invoking those who once wore them. This exhibition is part of a larger movement within Canadian institutions to confront their roles in settler colonialism, utilizing the museum's own artifacts to critique traditional Western museum practices.