Artist, Jaune Quick-to-see Smith: This story that I've woven together is a true story. It's about my family, but it's also about other Native families in this country and Canada.
My name is Jaune Quick-to-see Smith. The title of this work is Paper Dolls for a Post-Columbian World (With Ensembles Contributed by the U.S. Government).
These paper dolls represent this overview of the genocide of Native people, beginning when Europeans hit our shores—killing, pillaging, pushing people out of their homelands. But genocide is composed of a whole list of things. Every single piece in this work has a story that fits this genocidal program.
Barbie Plenty Horses, she's making fun of Barbie, a pop icon, living a good life in America. Something that was out of reach for those of us who were at the poverty line.
And then we have paper dolls of children because one of the other facets of genocide is re-educating people with propaganda. When you remove children from their parents, you remove them from their cultural life, their identity. That was the focus of all the boarding schools.
After all this indoctrination, they would send us into town to work as slaves for white people. So what I did in the paper dolls, you'll see for the woman, she has a maid's uniform. For the man, he has to work in the orchards.
My aim is always making a teaching moment from something that I feel we don't learn in school. And I think my paper dolls offer the viewer a moment to do some critical thinking.