“My aim is to reassemble the pieces of a once proud culture and to show the dignity and bravery of my people”.

Norval Morrisseau, 1969
Norval Morrisseau (1933 - 2008), was born in Beardmore, Ontario.  An Ojibway with a grade four education acquired at the St.Joseph’s Indian Boarding School in Fort William, he arrived in the Red Lake area in 1959 to work as a miner for Cochenour Willans Gold Mine. A self-taught artist, in his spare time Morrisseau painted images interpreting the legends of his people, which he sold to local residents.  In May 1963 he quit mining but stayed in the area and became a full-time artist, supporting his growing family with his art.   

Morrisseau gained international recognition as the founder of the Woodland School of Art and as the most influential Canadian artist of all time. Generations of young Aboriginal artists credit Morrisseau for inspiring them to take up painting as a way of recovering their heritage.  

Morrisseau painted the main body of his early works (1958-1972) in our community, and many of these paintings, as well as later ones, have been acquired by major Canadian art galleries and museums such as the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Royal Ontario Museum, the National Gallery of Canada and Rideau Hall.  Many international galleries also collected his paintings and frequently create exhibitions of his works. .