Norval Morrisseau: Storylines is a collaborative website created by the Morrisseau Project and the MacKenzie Art Gallery, with funding from Heritage Canada, key support from the Morrisseau Estate, and technical direction from Les Affranchis. Launched on May 15th 2024, the visually-rich site is a detailed account of Morrisseau’s legacy, bringing his work to new audiences with contributions from experts and Indigenous knowledge keepers.
Through interactive features, users can discover how one of the most prolific Indigenous painters created a unique language to articulate his connection to the world around him.
“It’s really important to make sure Morrisseau’s legacy resonates not just in Canada, but worldwide. Because his art and his creation of a visual language is so important, but it’s been misunderstood.” – Carmen Robertson
Storylines Features
The Storylines site integrates Morrisseau’s visual language and draws on Anishinaabe and Indigenous methods of curation to present its content, which includes:
Artistic Stories
Features modules on 6 key aspects of Morrisseau’s art: Spirituality, Visual Stories, Relations, Wiigwaas, Wiindamaakewinan, and Generations.
Biographical Moments
Presents stories and materials from 6 important time periods in the artist’s life: Young Norval Morrisseau, Early Years, An International Sensation, Eckankar and Visual Language, Senior Artist Status, Living Out West & Magiciens de la Terre, and Later Days.
Road Travelled
Gives users an interactive birch-bark map of Turtle Island created by art designer Jay Odjick to track important locations for Morrisseau across the continent.
Anishinaabemowin Videos and Glossary
Knowledge keeper and artist Saul Williams discusses Morrisseau’s “Thunderbird Woman” (1965) at the Royal Ontario Museum in 2023.
The Wiindamaakewinan module explores Morrisseau’s role in language revitalization as a fluent Anishinaabemowin speaker, and includes a set of video interviews in Anishinaabemowin between scholar Alan Ojiig Corbiere and artist and knowledge keeper Saul Williams, which are translated and transcribed in syllabics.
Morrisseau’s Voice
The site features many of Morrisseau’s writings, some of which are brought to life with narrations by Morrisseau’s son Eugene Morriseau and great-grandson Logan Fiddler.
Gallery of Artworks
Full-scale images and citation details for all the works on the site are provided in a searchable gallery feature.
Morrisseau Now…
Carmen Robertson, Dani Printup, Jobena Petonoquot, Alexandra Kahsenni:io Nahwegahbow, Bonnie Devine, Francesca Hebert-Spence.
In the Generations section, listen to Anishinaabe artists and curators Bonnie Devine, Jobena Petonoquot, Dani Printup, and Alexandra Kahsenni:io Nahwegahbow about Morrisseau’s significance today.
Storylines Partners
Morrisseau Project members with Saul Williams at the ROM (April 2023).
Norval Morrisseau: Storylines is a collaborative project presented by Carleton University and the MacKenzie Art Gallery. It would not have been possible without the support of many people dedicated to ensuring the legacy of Norval Morrisseau, his art, and his important contributions to the art world lives on.
A partner for this project, the Morrisseau Project: 1955-1985, works to conduct an exhaustive study of the life and art of Norval Morrisseau during the first thirty years of his career, housed at Carleton University under the direction of Carmen Robertson. This research team is made up of dedicated scholars, curators, and members of the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society, committed to sharing the many stories that Morrisseau gifted us all. This website is made possible, in part, through the research findings funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Members of our research team who made notable contributions to the content of this Heritage Canada-funded project include: Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Michelle McGeough, and Carmen Robertson along with support from Ruth Phillips, Trudy Nicks, and Richard Baker.
We would like to thank our partner institutions including:
- the Indigenous Art Centre (Ottawa),
- the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa),
- the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto),
- and Westerkirk Works of Art (Toronto)
for their institutional support throughout our larger project.
By drawing upon art and archival materials from several other institutions and private collectors who generously shared their art and materials to make this project a reality, we are indebted to the Norval Morrisseau Estate Collection, a number of private collectors, and the following public institutions: The Agnes, Art Gallery of Alberta, Art Gallery of Ontario, Indigenous Art Centre (CIRNAC), Museum of History, Market Gallery, McMaster’s Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, McMichael Canadian Art, Red Lake Heritage Centre, Royal Ontario Museum, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Canadian Museum of History, National Gallery of Canada, University of Toronto Art Collection.
Several of the modules included in our project relied on the knowledge and ideas of Anishinaabe knowledge keepers, artists, and curators from all parts of Anishinaabe Aki. They include Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Saul Williams, Sarah Johnson, Jay Odjick, Danielle Printup, Bonnie Devine, Jobena Petonoquot, Alex Nahwegabow, Patricia McGuire, Geraldine King, and Shaylin Allison. We wish also to extend a big thanks to Eugene Morriseau (Norval’s son) and Logan Fiddler (Norval’s great-grandson) who lent their voices to the modules.
The Carleton Norval Morrisseau: Storylines project team worked tirelessly to create and organize the content for this project. The team is comprised of Carmen Robertson, Kate Higginson (project manager), Lisa Truong (PhD candidate/Carleton); Stacy Ernst (PhD candidate/Carleton); Franchesca Hebert Spence (PhD student/Carleton); Emily Vilé (MA student/Carleton); Michael Carrier (MA student/Carleton); Ali Shajari (student/Carleton) and Shaylin Allison (MA student/UVic).
The MacKenzie Art Gallery is the presenting institution for Norval Morrisseau: Storylines, coordinating the production, funding, and presentation of this website. The MacKenzie’s Storylines team was led by Caitlin Mullan, Head of Strategic Initiatives; John G. Hampton, CEO; and Crystal Mowry, Director of Programs. The MacKenzie Art Gallery is supported through operating support from the MacKenzie Art Gallery Operating Endowment Fund at the South Saskatchewan, the Canada Council for the Arts, SKArts, the University of Regina, Sask Lotteries through SaskCulture, and the City of Regina.
The Norval Morrisseau: Storylines project was brought to life by the development team at Les Affranchis, led by Odile-Emmanuelle Auger, with art supervision and designs from Jay Odjick. The team is comprised of Martin Tremblay (Director of Technology), Jérémy Havitov (UX/UI Specialist), Hugo Vassal (Artistic Director), Michal Bluma (Lead Web Developer), Marie Josée Tremblay (QA Specialist), Kacey Chagnon/Coop l’Argot (Translation).
This project has been made possible in part through funding provided by the Government of Canada, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Finally, this project could not have been realized without invaluable support and input from the Morrisseau Estate, under the direction of Cory Dingle.
