Joseph Tehawehron David
Encyclopedia
Joseph Tehwehron David was a Mohawk
artist
who became known for his role as a warrior during the Oka Crisis
in 1990.
, a small Mohawk
(Kanienkehaka) community about 70 km west of Montreal
, Quebec
. David came from a big traditional family who embraced the Longhouse traditions
.
Joe David’s artistic production focused on installations, sculpture, painting and mixed media. By the late 1980s, he had established himself as an artist with the sale of an artwork to the Public Service Commission and the group exhibition PHOTOMATON (1989), part of “Mois de la photo” at Galerie Articule in Montreal, Quèbec. David studied studio art and art education at Concordia University
in Montreal.
, a 78-day armed stand-off between the Kanehsatake Mohawks and the Canadian army that began during the summer of that year. The Oka Crisis began as a non-violent occupation of the Pines, a stand of hundred-year-old trees located in Kanehsatake and planted by the ancestors of the Mohawks who live there now. The protesters erected a barricade to protest a golf course
expansion and the construction of a parking lot
over the cemetery
where the ancestors of the Kanehsatake Mohawks are buried.
The land dispute exploded into armed conflict on July 11, 1990 when the Mohawk protesters’ barricade was attacked by the Quebec provincial police, the Sûreté du Quebec (SQ). During the attack, SQ Corporal Marcel Lemay was killed. The presence of weapons carried by Mohawk men in their roles as warriors then became more evident.
In support of the Mohawk blockade at Kanehsatake, the warriors blocked every highway leading from Kahnawake to Montreal and seized the Mercier Bridge, closing it to the daily flow of 65,000 vehicles. On August 16, the Canadian army surrounded the Mohawk protesters in Kanehsatake and were also stationed near the Mercier Bridge. The Mercier Bridge remained closed until the end of August 1990 when the Kahnawake Mohawks negotiated an agreement with the army.
On September 26, the Mohawks (including Joe David) who had remained behind the barricade in Kanehsatake dismantled their guns and threw them in a fire. They burned tobacco
and then walked out of the Pines holding their ceremonial mask
s. Many were detained by the Canadian Forces and arrested by the SQ. Joe David was among those who were charged as a result of the Oka Crisis. David, along with some of the other defendants, decided to use Mohawk sovereignty as a central defense strategy in their trial.
As examples of their assertion of Mohawk sovereignty, at the trial, the Mohawk defendants swore in witnesses in Mohawk using a string of wampum
instead of a bible
. They also won the right not to stand when the judge and jury arrived and left the courtroom.
In an article he wrote for the magazine Cultural Survival, Joe David wrote:
in 1991; the 1991 Havana Biennale; OKANATA, at the A Space and Workscene galleries in Toronto, Ontario; and INDIGENA: Perspectives of Indigenous Peoples on 500 Years (1992), at the Canadian Museum of Civilization
in Hull, Quebec
. Two of David’s paintings, created between 1990 and 1993, were purchased by the Indian Art Centre at Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Another was purchased by the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario
.
David also received media attention; he was featured in an article called "The Making of a Warrior" in Saturday Night magazine. He was portrayed in Loreen Pindera and Geoffrey York's book People of the Pines and Ronald Wright
's book Stolen Continents. In the years following David's involvement in the Oka Crisis, he lived alone in his farmhouse in Kanehsatake. As a result of the conditions during the 1990 stand-off, many of the protesters, including David, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder
and other mental health problems.
Despite this, David continued to paint and create installation art. He was part of the 1998 exhibit Irokesen Art which took place at Amerika Haus in Frankfurt, Germany. His work was published in the catalogue of the exhibit. His work was also shown in Montreal in 1998 at the ISART performance space, as part of the International Human Rights Festival.
In 1998, David was photographed by Jeff Thomas, an Ottawa
-based Onondaga artist. Thomas juxtaposed the photo-portrait of David, a modern-day “warrior” who became an enemy of the Canadian government, with a portrait of a Mohawk emissary
who visited the queen of England
in 1710 when the Iroquois were allies of the British.
In June 1999, Joe David was shot by Mohawk Peacekeepers during an altercation at his home in Kanesatake. It began after David yelled at a youth who was riding an ATV on his property. As a result of his injuries, he was essentially a quadriplegic for the rest of his life, with limited use of his arms and hands.
After his death in May 2004, David's ashes were scattered over Blue Mountain, his favourite place in Kanesatake.
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
who became known for his role as a warrior during the Oka Crisis
Oka Crisis
The Oka Crisis was a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada which began on July 11, 1990 and lasted until September 26, 1990. At least one person died as a result...
in 1990.
Life before Oka
David grew up in KanehsatakeKanesatake, Quebec
Kanehsatake is a Mohawk settlement on the shore of the Lake of Two Mountains at the Ottawa River in southwestern Quebec, Canada, near Montreal. The Doncaster 17 Indian Reserve also belongs to the Mohawk of Kanesatake. The population of the community is 1700.The community was formally founded...
, a small Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
(Kanienkehaka) community about 70 km west of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. David came from a big traditional family who embraced the Longhouse traditions
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
.
Joe David’s artistic production focused on installations, sculpture, painting and mixed media. By the late 1980s, he had established himself as an artist with the sale of an artwork to the Public Service Commission and the group exhibition PHOTOMATON (1989), part of “Mois de la photo” at Galerie Articule in Montreal, Quèbec. David studied studio art and art education at Concordia University
Concordia University
Concordia University is a comprehensive Canadian public university located in Montreal, Quebec, one of the two universities in the city where English is the primary language of instruction...
in Montreal.
The Oka Crisis
In 1990, Joe David’s life and career moved in an unexpected direction as a result of the Oka CrisisOka Crisis
The Oka Crisis was a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada which began on July 11, 1990 and lasted until September 26, 1990. At least one person died as a result...
, a 78-day armed stand-off between the Kanehsatake Mohawks and the Canadian army that began during the summer of that year. The Oka Crisis began as a non-violent occupation of the Pines, a stand of hundred-year-old trees located in Kanehsatake and planted by the ancestors of the Mohawks who live there now. The protesters erected a barricade to protest a golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
expansion and the construction of a parking lot
Parking lot
A parking lot , also known as car lot, is a cleared area that is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface....
over the cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
where the ancestors of the Kanehsatake Mohawks are buried.
The land dispute exploded into armed conflict on July 11, 1990 when the Mohawk protesters’ barricade was attacked by the Quebec provincial police, the Sûreté du Quebec (SQ). During the attack, SQ Corporal Marcel Lemay was killed. The presence of weapons carried by Mohawk men in their roles as warriors then became more evident.
In support of the Mohawk blockade at Kanehsatake, the warriors blocked every highway leading from Kahnawake to Montreal and seized the Mercier Bridge, closing it to the daily flow of 65,000 vehicles. On August 16, the Canadian army surrounded the Mohawk protesters in Kanehsatake and were also stationed near the Mercier Bridge. The Mercier Bridge remained closed until the end of August 1990 when the Kahnawake Mohawks negotiated an agreement with the army.
On September 26, the Mohawks (including Joe David) who had remained behind the barricade in Kanehsatake dismantled their guns and threw them in a fire. They burned tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
and then walked out of the Pines holding their ceremonial mask
Mask
A mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes...
s. Many were detained by the Canadian Forces and arrested by the SQ. Joe David was among those who were charged as a result of the Oka Crisis. David, along with some of the other defendants, decided to use Mohawk sovereignty as a central defense strategy in their trial.
As examples of their assertion of Mohawk sovereignty, at the trial, the Mohawk defendants swore in witnesses in Mohawk using a string of wampum
Wampum
Wampum are traditional, sacred shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America. Wampum include the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell; and the white and purple beads made from the quahog, or Western North Atlantic...
instead of a bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. They also won the right not to stand when the judge and jury arrived and left the courtroom.
In an article he wrote for the magazine Cultural Survival, Joe David wrote:
Later life
After the Oka Crisis, Joe David’s career as an artist progressed quickly. Within two years, David’s work had appeared in six significant group exhibitions, including LES POINTS CARDINAUX (1990), by Boréale Multimédia Centre in L'annonication, Quebec; Solidarity: Art after Oka (1991) at the SAW Gallery in Ottawa, Ontario; Strengthening the Spirit at the National Gallery of CanadaNational Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
in 1991; the 1991 Havana Biennale; OKANATA, at the A Space and Workscene galleries in Toronto, Ontario; and INDIGENA: Perspectives of Indigenous Peoples on 500 Years (1992), at the Canadian Museum of Civilization
Canadian Museum of Civilization
The Canadian Museum of Civilization is Canada's national museum of human history and the most popular and most-visited museum in Canada....
in Hull, Quebec
Hull, Quebec
Hull is the central and oldest part of the city of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the west bank of the Gatineau River and the north shore of the Ottawa River, directly opposite Ottawa. As part of the Canadian National Capital Region, it contains offices for twenty thousand...
. Two of David’s paintings, created between 1990 and 1993, were purchased by the Indian Art Centre at Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Another was purchased by the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario
Brantford, Ontario
Brantford is a city located on the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. While geographically surrounded by the County of Brant, the city is politically independent...
.
David also received media attention; he was featured in an article called "The Making of a Warrior" in Saturday Night magazine. He was portrayed in Loreen Pindera and Geoffrey York's book People of the Pines and Ronald Wright
Ronald Wright
Ronald Wright is a Canadian author who has written books of travel, history and fiction. His nonfiction includes the bestseller Stolen Continents, winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times...
's book Stolen Continents. In the years following David's involvement in the Oka Crisis, he lived alone in his farmhouse in Kanehsatake. As a result of the conditions during the 1990 stand-off, many of the protesters, including David, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...
and other mental health problems.
Despite this, David continued to paint and create installation art. He was part of the 1998 exhibit Irokesen Art which took place at Amerika Haus in Frankfurt, Germany. His work was published in the catalogue of the exhibit. His work was also shown in Montreal in 1998 at the ISART performance space, as part of the International Human Rights Festival.
In 1998, David was photographed by Jeff Thomas, an Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
-based Onondaga artist. Thomas juxtaposed the photo-portrait of David, a modern-day “warrior” who became an enemy of the Canadian government, with a portrait of a Mohawk emissary
Four Mohawk Kings
The Four Mohawk Kings or Four Kings of the New World were three Mohawk chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy and a Mahican of the Algonquian peoples...
who visited the queen of England
Queen of England
Queen of England may refer to:* Any of the female monarchs of England* Any wife of a male monarch of England who functioned as his official consort during his reign; see List of English consorts...
in 1710 when the Iroquois were allies of the British.
In June 1999, Joe David was shot by Mohawk Peacekeepers during an altercation at his home in Kanesatake. It began after David yelled at a youth who was riding an ATV on his property. As a result of his injuries, he was essentially a quadriplegic for the rest of his life, with limited use of his arms and hands.
After his death in May 2004, David's ashes were scattered over Blue Mountain, his favourite place in Kanesatake.