FROM THUNDER BAY ART GALLERY’S COLLECTION

Wild Rice Harvesters is an etching by Thunder Bay-born artist Susan Ross (1915–2006). The artist depicts two figures and a baby inside a large canvas or hide tent. The figures look happy, with adoring smiles and shining eyes. Two black pots boil and steam over a campfire inside or near the opening of the tent. A fourth figure shows us that seasonal temperatures have cooled off enough for a buttoned-up jacket and hat. As a viewer, we sit “inside” the world of the tent and share in the cosiness of a crackling fire. The deep yellow of the tent flaps compared to the spare use colour in the shoreline landscape beyond help capture this feeling.

While we can’t be sure of the exact location, there is a Whitefish Lake located about 65 kilometres southwest of Thunder Bay. The artist might very well have captured a memorable fall day down Highway 588.

Wild rice, or manoomin in Anishinaabemowin, is a nutritionally rich food source for Indigenous people of the Great Lakes, traditionally hand-harvested using a canoe and a pole for “knocking” the rice off the shaft. The plant grows in shallow lakes, sloughs, and streams. With the rise of tourism in the region starting in the 1950s, wild rice began to be marketed and sold by both non-Indigenous and Indigenous people as a delicacy with both positive and negative effects for local economies and ecosystems (in the grocery store, look for tiny bags of pine needle-size grains of pricey rice). Depending on the weather, peak harvesting dates are typically in late August and early September.

Beginning in the 1940s, Ross’s artistic career spans six decades. Her paintings and intaglio prints capture daily life of First Nations and Inuit people and their relationship with the land. Historically, her works document intersections of modern and traditional ways of life. As a trusted mentor, she encouraged Indigenous artists to unveil their own visions of the world to others and shared her artistic knowledge. Ross exhibited widely across Canada and was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2001. She generously donated many of her works to the gallery’s Permanent Collection.