Mohawk Warriors, Hunters and Chiefs
The art and life of Tom Wilson
Tom Wilson, “Ghosts by the Pool,” oil on board, 72" x 52" (courtesy of the artist, Cultural Goods Gallery and Goose Lane Editions)
For the first 53 years of his life, Tom Wilson Tehoháhake didn’t know much about his roots. All he knew about his ancestry were dreams and a handful of vague hints scattered throughout his life.
Then, eleven years ago, he learned he is Indigenous, Mohawk from Kahnawake. His discovery continues to inform much of his creativity as he shares his experiences with the world. The reasons for his dreams became clearer.
“I’m not the beacon of Mohawk knowledge. I don’t tell any story but my own,” says Wilson, a renowned Canadian writer, musician and artist.
“But the more that I create and tell my story, and my discovery of my identity, I feel that I’m doing the job I’m supposed to be doing right now.”
An exhibition of Wilson’s art, Mohawk Warriors, Hunters & Chiefs, is on now through Feb. 27 at Cultural Goods Gallery in Toronto.
The show shares its name with his new book, Mohawk Warriors, Hunters & Chiefs. Published this spring by Goose Lane Editions, it contains essays by him and others, in English and Mohawk, as well as more than 35 colour images of his work.
Both the exhibition and book explore what it means to be taken from your culture and then having to reconnect, rediscover who you are as an adult. The exhibition, for instance, features Wilson’s paintings and installation pieces, including Fading Memories of Home, an installation that pays homage to Indigenous children and families affected by residential schools. “I am working through my art to bring these stories to light,” he says, adding that his birth mother, now in her 80s, is a residential school survivor.
The exhibition’s curator, David Liss — former director and curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto — also has an essay in the new book. The two have been friends since the 1980s, and Wilson says the opportunity to collaborate came naturally. “We kind of speak the same language when it comes to art and writing and music.”
Born and raised in Hamilton, Ont., Wilson’s musical career includes multiple Juno Awards and a lengthy history on stage with bands including the ’90s rock group Junkhouse, as well as Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and Lee Harvey Osmond.
In 2017, he shared newfound stories of his Indigenous roots in his book Beautiful Scars (published by Penguin Random House Canada). “We survive, and with those skills, and in that survival, we create art,” he wrote in the bestselling memoir.
Indeed, art has been a constant in his life, long before he knew of his Indigenous roots. His work has been in group shows at the National Gallery of Canada and the Penticton Public Art Gallery. The Art Gallery of Burlington held an exhibition of his work, Beautiful Scars, in 2017 and the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences commissioned his painting The Mystic Highway, which pays homage to Hamilton’s rich musical culture. A 2000 exhibition in Toronto included Wilson’s art alongside that of other musician-visual artists, including Daniel Lanois and R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe.
Tom Wilson, “The Warrior,” oil on board, 60" x 60" (courtesy of the artist, Cultural Goods Gallery and Goose Lane Editions)
“Painting is the meditation. The place I go to find and reinvent myself. Where I touch the hands of my ancestors,” he writes on his website. “I am a Mohawk when I paint.”
Tom Wilson (photo by Jen Squires)
These days, a stack of canvases and guitars, coffee and cigarettes are always close at hand, Wilson says, for when he needs them. He’s co-writing a play, scheduled to premiere this year. Appointed to the Order of Canada in 2023, he spends as much time as he can with his grandchildren and he’s making art every day, at home or in his Cotton Factory studio in Hamilton's north end.
Wilson doesn’t pretend his life or creative journey have been easy. Far from it. “Being a working artist is hard. You wake up every day and that’s just what you do. You work. Hard,” he says.
“The reward is that you get to keep doing it.”
It’s a beautiful cycle, he says, that he still can’t believe he gets to live. “I’ve worked my entire life to have the ability to wake up and paint or write or create music,” he says.
“I couldn’t ask for a greater gift.” ■
Tom Wilson, Mohawk Warriors, Hunters & Chiefs, is on now through Feb. 27 at Cultural Goods Gallery in Toronto.
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