Noah Mapes, PhD Candidate in Cornell’s Department of the History of Art & Visual Studies, published an introductory essay about contemporary Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore on the website for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Mapes’ essay grounds Belmore’s multidisciplinary practice in Anishinaabe values and relationships between inawemaaganag (relatives) and mayagwewininiwag (foreigners). As Anishinaabe society and politics form through mediations between the two, Mapes asserts that Belmore enacts, images, and vocalizes experiences of being both as a First Nations woman in Canada. The essay draws connections between several of Belmore’s works and pivotal examples of Canadian coloniality, such the Siege of Kanehsatà:ke in 1990 as well as ongoing policies and attitudes that promote violence against Indigenous bodies and lands. With such a framework, Mapes aims to not only teach MoMA’s audiences about Belmore and her practice but also of the broader Anishinaabe culture and society buttressing the artist’s oeuvre.
MoMA reached out to Mapes about an introduction essay following his contribution to the museum’s 2025 Mellon-Marron Research Consortium (MRC) Study Session and Dossier. As a participant in the MRC, Mapes wrote and presented an essay on Two Guns Arikara (1973/1977) by T.C. Cannon (Kiowa/Caddo). Mapes’ essay arrives following MoMA’s 2026 acquisition of Belmore’s photographic print, Flood (2025).
