Canadian Identity: Visuals

Visuals include paintings, photographs, maps, illustrations, drawings, and sketches. They are excellent sources of information. You can "read" these sources just as you read text. What do you think is happening in the following pictures?

First Nations and Inuit First Nations and Inuit from coast to coast to coast used, and continue to use, a variety of art forms, or media, to represent various aspects of their cultures and beliefs. Some of these are traditional and some are modern. Please see Figure 1.3 in your textbook on page 5. Artists Reflect Canadian Identity

West coast peoples use wood to make masks and totem poles.

Inuit carve stone, antler, and bone.

The Innu are known for their beadwork and the painted patterns with which they decorate.

The Anishinabe make petroforms, boulders that are arranged on the ground in the shape of different animals.

The Maliseet and Mi'kmaq peoples paint, etch, and embroider on birchbark. Many Maliseet and Mi'kmaq artists are skilled porcupine quillworkers, wampum belts from shells.

An Inukshuk is a stone landmark used as a milestone or directional marker by the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic. The Arctic Circle, dominated by permafrost, has few natural landmarks and thus the inuksuk was central to navigation across the barren tundra.

The carvings were created in the pre-Columbian era and represents aspects of First Nations mysticism, including shamans, animals, and the Great Spirit. Petroglyphs

Please use the "General Questions" on page 4 for to review the picture.