The Heard Museum partners with the McMichael Canadian Art Collection on its upcoming exhibition, “Early Days: Indigenous Art from the McMichael,” the first large-scale survey of Indigenous art from Canada presented internationally.

Organized by the McMichael in collaboration with Indigenous stakeholders — scholars, writers, knowledge keepers, and contemporary artists — the exhibition explores the tensions and continuities that exist between the present and the past, and relationships to the land, to ancestors, and to each other.

This exhibition will be on view at the Heard Museum from Friday, Sept. 1 through Jan. 2, 2024, and is made possible by sponsors EPCOR and Lili Chester. Additional support provided by donors to the Grand Gallery Exhibition Fund. The Heard is located at 2301 N. Central Ave., in Phoenix.

“We are honored to be the first stop on this world tour,” David M. Roche, Heard Museum, Dickey Family director and CEO, shared in a press release. “The exhibition allows us to share the magnificence of Indigenous art from coast-to-coast-to-coast in Canada with the people of Arizona.”

Showcasing the diversity and vitality of Indigenous art in Canada, “Early Days” features objects ranging from 18th-century ceremonial regalia to the work of the vanguard artists of the ’60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, such as Norval Morrisseau, Carl Beam and Alex Janvier, and leading contemporary Indigenous artists like Kent Monkman, Meryl McMaster and Rebecca Belmore.

This will be the first time that many of the living artists in the exhibition have had their work shown in Arizona.

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is the only museum in Canada devoted exclusively to Canadian art.

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This “Great Lakes First Nation Pair of Moccasins,” circa 1770-80, are black-dyed deerskin sewn with sinew, decorated with porcupine quillwork and fringed with red dyed deer hair tassels inserted in tinned iron cones.

(Photo provided by Heard Museum)