Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

Leaving My Reservation to Go to Ottawa and Fight for a New Constitution

In Leaving My Reservation to Go to Ottawa and Fight for a New Constitution, a briefcase emblazoned with the words "Indian Government" indicates that the central figure is a Native bureaucrat working within the Canadian government. Salish artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun uses Northwest Coast imagery, such as ovoids often found in carvings on masks and totem poles, to examine the political and economic conditions of Native communities under Canadian settler colonization. He also incorporates dreamlike landscapes to subvert the larger history of Surrealist artists taking from "primitive" cultures in a bid to reclaim Native representations. In Leaving My Reservation to Go to Ottawa and Fight for a New Constitution, Yuxweluptun’s protagonist heads to Canada’s capital with the purpose of upholding Indigenous sovereignty.