Canada is such a polite country, but it is also very dangerous. Oka was draining, and I felt powerless, because I saw there was very little that I could do. To avoid a spiritual depression, rather than doing an ambitious but ineffective 'down with Mulroney' piece, I decided to show what I was feeling. So I asked my sisters to spend a crazy day with me, be goofy, to just take control and make what we wanted. The resulting images feature three bouffant-coiffed women lounging in glamour poses and kicking up their heels in front of the monument to Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, interspersed with images of women from Niro's community in more banal settings.
People have a stereotypical idea of what native women are about.
We're portrayed in the movies as cardboard cutouts, and when you try to present a different image, people are disappointed. I want to blow that out. You don't have to be what you think you have to be. The images came together very spontaneously. In The Iroquois Is A Very Highly Developed Matriarchal Society, I show my mother under the hair dryer in her kitchen.