THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Catherine Porter
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| Critics say Cree artist Kent Monkman’s controversial painting Hanky Panky depicts the sexual assault of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Postmedia News |
TORONTO — Many Indigenous activists in Canada consider Justin Trudeau, after more than four years as prime minister, as little better than the other white colonial leaders who have oppressed them for the past 150 years.
His only Indigenous cabinet minister quit and his government approved pipelines across Indigenous territory, despite dissent and protests.
Despite that, even some of Mr. Trudeau’s sharpest critics were appalled by a painting by the celebrated Canadian Cree artist, Kent Monkman.
Titled “Hanky Panky,” Mr. Monkman’s painting depicts the prime minister on his hands and knees with his pants down as a crowd of Indigenous women looks on, laughing. Behind him is the artist’s alter ego, wearing knee-high stiletto boots and a long feather headdress. [
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| The artist Kent Monkman in his Toronto studio in December. Aaron Wynia for The New York Times |
