Wabanaki Modern tells the story of how, in the early 1960s, a modernist movement—unlike any other—took hold for a brief but powerful eight years in New Brunswick. In Elsipogtog, the province’s largest First Nations reserve, the Micmac Indian Craftsmen (MIC) collective rose to national prominence and forever changed the landscape of modern Indigenous art in Atlantic Canada.
Inspired by stories of the Wabanaki—ancestors of present-day Indigenous Peoples including the Abenaki, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Nations—the collective’s trailblazing work was included at Expo 67 and it grabbed national headlines. Led by artists Michael Francis and Stephen Dedham, the visual language of the MIC fused modern geometric abstraction with traditional Wabanaki heritage to create eclectic, often minimalist, and unabashedly contemporary works.
By 1966, however, the withdrawal of government support compromised the resources of the MIC, and its production ceased by 1970. Its work faded from memory for decades until 2022, when the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and Goose Lane Editions published a trilingual edition of the book to coincide with an exhibition of the same name spotlighting the collective’s groundbreaking work, which paved the way for future generations of Indigenous artists to follow. The ACI web version of the book is produced under license from Goose Lane Editions.
Emma Hassencahl-Perley is Curator of Indigenous Art at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and a Wolastoqey visual artist, arts writer, and educator from Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation) in New Brunswick. She has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions, including ehpituwikuwam (2022), BACA: Creation Stories (2023), and Epekwitk Quill Sisters: Etleoogoeiog (Talking Together) (2024).
Dr. John Leroux is an art & architectural historian, heritage specialist, educator, emeritus architect, and former curator at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. He has worked at award-winning architecture firms in Toronto, Atlanta, Saint John, and Fredericton, and has taught at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, the University of New Brunswick, and St. Thomas University. Leroux has authored or contributed to twenty-six books on Canadian architecture and visual culture. He was awarded the Order of New Brunswick in 2024.