The Gift

A large mural covers an entire wall. It depicts a map of Michigan and the Great Lakes, in bright shades of yellow, blue, orange, and green. In one corner is a white man who is dressed in the style of a few hundred years ago. There is a surveyor's instrument set up in front of the wall, and a long red braided piece of fabric laid on the ground.

The Gift by Bonnie Devine, 2022

Acrylic paint, graphite, ink, beaded felt, surveyor’s transit, and red cotton cloth. Courtesy the artist © Bonnie Devine Installation photography by Charlie Edwards, courtesy of the University of Michigan Museum of Art

About the Art

Miigiwewin (in Anishinaabemowin)

Bonnie Devine
Anishinaabe-Ojibwe; Zhaaganaashiiwaki, gaa-ondaadizi 1952

Miigiwewin
2022
Gaaskiiginowaaboo, asinikaan, ozhibii’iganaaboo, manidoominensikaade miskogaadeyaab, gwayako-diba’akiijigan, miinawaa miskogidagiigin
Nimiigwechiwenimaanaan Gaazheninjiged
Mishigami Gichigabegikendaasowigamig izhi-Ganawendaanaawaan Gaazheninjigaadeg waabanda’inegwaa ge Wayekwaajiwan izhiseg wenji-nanaandomangid Gaazheninjiged

Ogii-ozhitoon Miigiwewin gikinoo’amoonang ezhi-giichigoshkawaad Anishinaaben Anishinaabewakiing miinawaa ezhi-wanendamowaad gaa-ezhiwebag jibwaa dagoshinowaad gichimookomaanag. Gete-gwayako-diba’akiijigan o’aabajitoon dibishkoo nitam-deba’akiijig. Gichimiskowaandeg gidagiigin-apikan o’aabajitoon ji-mikawaaminang ezhi-niiwana’aad Anishinaaben epiichi gichimookomaanag inakaaneziwinikewaad. Oshki-akii-mazina’igan ogii-ozhitoon ji-gikinoo’amoonang awesiinhyag gagwaadagitoowaad miinawaa zagaa’iganan banaadag.

Oshki-akii-mazina’igan waabanjigaade naawayi’iing niizh dibaajimowinan: Bezhig namanji-ayi’iing wiindamaagwag gaa-onaakonamowaad 1817 Chinaakonigewin Zhimaaganishii-waakaa’igan Meigs gii-bagidendamowaad akiin Waawiyaataanong Niswi Shkodeg (Ojibweg, Odawag gaye Boodawewaadamiig). Wemitigoozhi-mekadewikwanayeg ogii-daapinaawaan akiin ji-ozhitoowaad Gabe-gikendaasowigamig Michigan. Anishinaabeg ogii-debwe’endaanaawaa maamwi-ozhitoowaad mii aanawi gaawiin ezhiwebasinog. Bezhig bakaan debani-ayi’iing wiindamaagwag gaa-ozhitoowaad ani 1891 Mount Pleasant Dazhiike-gikinoo’amaagewigamig, endazhi-bashanzhe’igaazowaad awashime midaaswaak Anishinaabewiwaad mii dash 227 gii-nibowaad. Devine gibagosenimigonaan ji-mikwenimangwaa miinawaa aanjitooyang waa-ezhiwebag ezhi-biindigesina’igewaad gikinoo’amaadiwigamigong noongom Wenishinaabewijig.

The Gift (in English)

Bonnie Devine
Anishinaabe-Ojibway, Canada, born 1952

The Gift
2022
Acrylic paint, graphite, ink, beaded felt, surveyor’s transit, and red cotton cloth
Courtesy of the artist
Commissioned by the University of Michigan Museum of Art for Watershed

Bonnie Devine’s The Gift draws attention to the removal of Anishinaabe people from the Great Lakes region, as well as their erasure from historical narratives. To visualize the human cost of settler colonialism, she uses the tools of the settler surveyors, including an antique tripod-mounted transit for mapping land; a vibrant red fabric braid suggests the Indigenous blood spilled to create colonial borders. In a re-mapping of the watershed region, violently bisected by a road, she superimposes the silhouette of an animal over each of the Great Lakes to emphasize the concurrent destruction of animal populations.

Framing the map are two commemorative texts: one (left) addresses the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs, in which the Ojibway (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Bodewadimi (Potawatomi) Nations—known as the Three Fires Confederacy—granted lands in Detroit, including the University of Michigan’s original campus, to the state of Michigan having been falsely promised that Indigenous students could enroll at the university. The other (right) describes the establishment in 1891 of the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School, where thousands of Indigenous children were stripped of their languages, cultures, and families; 227 of them died. In this way, Devine draws attention to a legacy of displacement and exploitation that cries out to be addressed.

A Conversation on “The Gift” and Reciprocity

Ojibwe.net and UMMA have partnered together to create this video. The video is based on a conversation between Bonnie, the exhibit curator, Jennifer Friess, and American Culture student, Fionnan Noori about the creation of “The Gift” and what it can teach us about reciprocity, identity and belonging, and reconciliation.

About the Exhibit

Watershed at the University of Michigan Museum of Art

Watershed was on display June 4–October 23, 2022. It brought recent work from fifteen contemporary artists to UMMA for an exhibition that immersed visitors in the interconnected histories, present lives, and imagined futures of the Great Lakes region.

Visit the exhibit at the University of Michigan Museum of Art

About the Exhibit