Enactment Framed Print by Barry Ace

Barry Ace often uses images from digital repositories as a source material upon which to build his compositions for his smaller paper works. Archives, such as the Smithsonian Museum’s, provide scans of daguerreotypes, plates and photographic prints from the era of documenting what was termed “The Vanishing Race” as colonial interests advanced Westward suppressing culture and overtaking Indigenous territory.

In Enactment under the image of a dance troupe the caption reads “McDonald & his performing Warm Spring Indians.” At that time, acts like Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and George Catlin's Indian Gallery would tour North America as well as Europe. At the same time as these performances were popular with white audiences, in both the United States and Canada, ceremonial and other performances for and with the community were outlawed. These types of shows were one of the few legal ways Indigenous people could enact their culture and retain, as well as transmit, knowledge.