Extirpate this Execrable Race #1
Artist
Ruth Cuthand
(Canadian, born 1954)
Date2018
Mediumglass beads, Canadian Forces blankets, ribbon
Credit LineCollection of Remai Modern. Purchased with the support of the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation, 2019.
Object number2019.14.a-e
Classificationsmixed media
On View
Not on viewRuth Cuthand’s work brings attention to the health impacts of colonization on Indigenous communities. The smallpox epidemic was one of the first major health crises during contact. Extirpate this Execrable Race is taken directly from correspondence that Lord Jeffery Amherst, commanding general of British forces in North America, sent to Colonel Henry Bouquet on July 13, 1763. In the letter, he advocated using smallpox-infected blankets as a form of biological warfare. The blankets, along with a handkerchief, were given in the guise of a reward to those who warned British forces of impending attacks. Cuthand remade that gift, creating packages of blankets affixed with beaded smallpox viruses and tying them up in a large red bows.
