Through her alter-ego Khris – an Indigenous woman who identifies as a white Australian – Skeena Reece’s video interrogates the ways we categorise ourselves and others.

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For the exhibition Interior Infinite, artist Skeena Reece created an original character named VictimPrincessMother. She was both an amalgamation and a subversion of stereotypical depictions of Indigenous women. Inspired by the “sacred clown” in Hopi culture, as well as the “trickster” figures of Raven and Coyote in Indigenous stories of the Pacific Northwest, Reece cleverly uses humour as a powerful vehicle for difficult and unsettling work.

Through her VictimPrincessMother character, Skeena Reece – daughter of renowned carver Victor Reece – considered the exhibition’s central theme of masking. Is the role of the mask to hide or reveal? Does the presence of a mask simply call attention to the thing it’s supposed to cover up? These questions led to the creation of a new persona: Khris, an Indigenous woman who, upon discovering that she has Australian ancestry, identifies as white. 

Reece’s satirical mockumentary Fauxcasian is a blisteringly funny send-up of “race-shifting”: specifically Pretendianism, in which non-Indigenous people claim Indigenous ancestry in order to benefit from reparations. Yet, amid the biting humour, it is also a commentary on Canada’s decades of attempts at assimilating Indigenous people into white populations. Just like the first Soundsuit sculpture by US artist Nick Cave, made in response to the beating of Rodney King, Reece’s piercing insight reminds us how we sometimes disguise ourselves for our own protection.

— Elliott Ramsey

Film credits
Created and written by Skeena Reece
Starring Skeena Reece as Khris and Tanner Zurkowski as the Interviewer
Cinematography by Skeena Reece and Tanner Zurkowski
Edited by Tseequetin Rampanen