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ALFRED, Agnes

Born
Village Island, British Columbia, 1889
Died
?, 1992
Biography synopsis
First Nations artist Agnes Alfred was a member of the Namalilakula Tribe of the Kwakwaka'wakw. A respected elder in her community, she was also renowned for her hand-woven cedar baskets. In 1922, Alfred was imprisoned by the Canadian government for participating in a potlatch ritual, which was outlawed at the time. Alfred was keen on passing on her knowledge of her people's way of life and, in 2004, her memoirs were published under the title "Paddling to Where I Stand: Agnes Alfred, Qwiqwasutinuxw Noblewoman."
Media used
Basket making
File & Archive locations
University of British Columbia - Fine Arts Library
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Writings about
"Our Chiefs and Elders." Aperture 139 (Summer 1995): 88-91
Blew, Mary Clearman. "Paddling to Where I Stand: Agnes Alfred, Qwiqwasutinuxw Noblewoman." University of Toronto Quarterly 75.1 (2006): 335-336
Clifford, James. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. United States: Library of Congress, 1997
Converse, Cathy. Mainstays: Women Who Shaped B.C.. Markham: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2000
Kirk, Ruth. Wisdom of the Elders: Native Traditions on the Northwest Coast: The Nuu-chah-nulth, Southern Kwakiutl, and Nuxalk. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1986
Lindberg, T. "Paddling to Where I Stand: Agnes Alfred, Qwiqwasutinuxw Noblewoman." (book review) Canadian Woman Studies 26.3, 26.4 (2007): 226
Logie, Pat Richardson. Chronicles of Pride. Calgary: Detselig Enterprises, 1990
MacClancy, Jeremy. Contesting Art: Art, Politics and Identity in the Modern World. New York: Berg, 1997
Mauzé, Marie. "Two Kwakwaka'wakw Museums: Heritage and Politics." Ethnohistory 50.3 (Summer 2003): 503-522
Miller, B.G. "Paddling to Where I Stand: Agnes Alfred, Quiqwasutinuxw Noblewoman." (book review) American Indian Culture and Research Journal 29.2 (2005): 149-150
Osburn, Katherine M.B. Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 1887-1934. Nebraska: Library of Congress, 2008
Redl, C. "Reid, Martine J., ed. - Paddling to Where I Stand. Agnes Alfred, Qiqwasutinuxw Noblewoman." (book review) Canadian Ethnic Studies 37.2 (2005): 118
Reeve, Phyllis. "Paddling to Where I Stand: Agnes Alfred, Qwiqwasutinuxw Noblewoman, As Told to Martine J. Reid and Daisy Sewid-Smith." (book review) British Columbia History 38.2 (2005): 34
Reid, Martine J.; Miller, Bruce Granville. "Reviews - Paddling to Where I Stand: Agnes Alfred, Qwiqwasutinuxw Noblewoman." American Indian Culture and Research Journal 29.2 (2005): 149
Reid, Martine Jeanne; Sewid-Smith, Daisy. Paddling to Where I Stand: Agnes Alfred, Qqiqqasu'tinuxw Noblewoman. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2004
Reno, Dawn E. Contemporary Native American Artists. Brooklyn, New York: Alliance Publishing, 1995
Rockefeller Foundation. Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991
Sewid-Smith, Martine; Reid, Daisy. Sixwaso: Many People Are Paddling Toward Me the Memoirs of a Quiquasutinuxw, Agnes Alfred. Victoria, British Columbia: University of British Columbia Press, 1999
Shorten, Rebecca. "Martine J. Reid. Paddling to Where I Stand: Agnes Alfred, Qwiqwasutinuxw Noblewoman." Past Imperfect 12 (2006)
http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/pi/article/view/1586
Stelzer, Ulli. Indian Artists at Work. North Vancouver: J.J. Douglas, 1976
Turner, Nancy J. The Earth's Blanket: Traditional Teaching for Sustainable Living. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 2005
Twigg, Alan. Aboriginality. Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2005

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