Mohawk Rebel

An in-depth exploration of the photograph and film works of Mohawk artist Shelley Niro as they connect to New York State.

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Mohawk Rebel is an in-depth exploration of one of North America's most important Indigenous artists. Claire Raymond's compelling and well-researched book connects Niro's lineage as a Turtle Clan woman to the artist's oeuvre that evokes and represents the Mohawk people's memory of and continuing relationship to the land now called New York State. With profound allegorical and metaphorical power, Niro's virtuosic photographic and filmic works create layered temporal tapestries that weave the past and present in a new vision. The book offers fresh interpretations of many of Niro's best-known works and brings into view some of her earlier lesser-known works. Raymond's sensitive and nuanced interpretations of Niro's art ultimately contend that Niro's work agitates subtly but unmistakably for the ethical rightness of the land-back movement. Raymond eloquently argues that this Mohawk artist's relationship to New York State is one of rightful claim.