First Nation Artists

Canadian Aboriginal Paintings depicting the rich indigenous culture of the First Nation People, living north of Lake Superior and south and west of the Hudson Bay coast.

Eugene Morriseau
Sandy Lake First Nation

I currently live in Thunder Bay, Ontario and am a member of Sandy Lake First Nation which is my home community.
I am one of seven of Norval Morrisseau’s children.

I am inspired by other peoples’ artwork. My other inspirations come from listening to my elders passing down stories. I try to visualize these stories and bring those images into my paintings. Each of my paintings has its own story.

Some of the people who inspired me were my uncles, Joshim Kakegamic and Goyce Kakegamic. They were the brothers-in-law of my father, Norval Morrisseau. These three people planted the seed in me to paint by letting me help them with their work when I was young.

I knew I had the talent. One of my biggest inspirations was watching my father paint when I was a boy. He used to tell me stories about the paintings and their meanings. I was too young to understand them at the time.
Back in the year of 2000, the seven of us were with my father in Thunder Bay. One evening he asked us, “Come and sit with me here”. He asked, “When I pass on, will my colours die?” After a silence, I responded, “Do you know how many generations you inspired through your artwork?”

There are four of us that inherited our father’s talent, me, Christian, David and my sister Lisa. I am a self-taught artist.
My inspiration is my father, Norval Morrisseau. Through my artwork, I would like to carry on my father’s colours in my own unique way. When I am painting, sitting there, using the paints and colours, this is when my ideas and images come to me.

I am so grateful and fortunate to have inherited my father’s talent and to be able to carry on the Morrisseau name for my kids and future generations to come. “Your colours will live on!”
“Your colours will not die. Your colours will live on for the future generations to come. We will carry your colours.”

Moses (Amik) Beaver
February 21, 1960 ~ February 13, 2017

Moses (Amik) Beaver wasa Canadian Aboriginal Artist, from the fly-in reserve of Summer Beaver, Ontario (Nibinamik). He was self-taught, his use of colour revealing. He worked with acrylic on canvas, Indian ink on paper and watercolour. While Moses’ work reflects the black lines of traditional Woodlands art, he embraced his own unique style of embedded images of spirits, human faces and animal forms, transcending physical boundaries to the outer dimensions of the spiritual realm. In this his work reflects symbolism, realism and abstract imagery.

As stories for the First Nations People have always been a major tool of cultural transmission holding the history, values, beliefs and spirituality of the people, Moses hoped his work would resonate and awaken an awareness that is at once exciting and empowering, a way for all people to understand an Aboriginal world view. Within this context, story telling through colour and imagery, he contributed to cultural revitalization, an awakening that continues to gather strength among the people to express and share the experience of being in and with the world, not masters of it.

Moses workedwith the youth both within the educational system and in community projects. This relationships with youths both inspired and motivated him and was a constant source of personal growth.

Francis Esquega
Rocky Bay First Nation

Francis Esquega was born in 1955, in Macdiarmid, located on the Eastern shores of Lake Nipigon and is a member of the Rocky Bay First Nation, Biinjitaawabik Zaageen Anishinabek. His Ojibwe name is Sikaasika.
In 1986, Francis attended Confederation College, graduating in 1988 with a General
Arts and Science Diploma. Later, he went on to Lakehead University with the
intention of obtaining a BA. For personal reasons, he left in his third year before he completed it. While at university he took acrylic painting classes and History of Western Art.

Born in Fort William in 1951, Mr. Wrigley Graduated from Lakehead University with a degree in Geology. His interest in shipping history led to research into shipwrecks in a part of Lake Superior from which there was little information. From this research came many magazine articles as well as this, previously unpublished, manuscript detailing most of the unknown shipwrecks of Northern Lake Superior. He lives today in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

"I have written this book to fill what is an obvious gap in the history of shipwrecks in Lake Superior. Many books have described in great detail the wrecks that have occurred in other parts of the lake, but none have written of the sorrow, hardships and heroism of those in northern Lake Superior."

Available at Lake Superior Store