Ruth Cuthand: Extirpate this Execrable Race

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Ruth Cuthand, "Extirpate this Execrable Race," 2018

“You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets, as well as to try every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race.”

- Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, 1763

Ruth Cuthand’s latest installation, Extripate this Execrable Race, continues to bring attention to the health impacts of colonization on Indigenous people, here, specifically the use of smallpox infected blankets as biological warfare.

In previous bodies of work, she has beaded diseases that were brought over by settlers, those responsible for long term boil water advisories in First Nations communities, and those that continue to disproportionately affect Indigenous populations.

In this project, Cuthand has beaded 100 representations of smallpox, affixed to blankets which are bundled in packs of two, tucked with a silk handkerchief and wrapped in a large red bow to hand over as a ‘gift’.

The smallpox epidemic, which began at Cumberland House in 1781-1782 through the distribution of infected blankets, was one of the first major health impacts of contact. In this body of work, Cuthand continues to confront the most difficult truths about Canadian society and the impacts of colonization.

An artist of Plains Cree and Scottish ancestry, Ruth Cuthand’s practice, spanning over 30 years, explores the frictions between cultures, the failures of representation, and the political uses of anger. Cuthand’s beaded portraits of infectious agents significant to indigenous people, past and present, were featured in the survey show of contemporary Canadian art, Oh, Canada, at MASS MoCA in 2012, which subsequently travelled across Canada. Her large-scale installation Don’t Breathe, Don’t Drink is part of the permanent collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario and she is currently artist in residence at Wanuskewin Heritage Park, SK.In 2013, Cuthand was awarded the Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Award and in 2015 was named an Alumni of Influence by the College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan. Cuthand holds an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan, and lives and works in Saskatoon, SK.