The story behind Kent Monkman’s human-sized beaver sculptures

What have people been telling you about how they're interpreting the art or how it makes them feel? Beavers are representative of the giant beavers that used to live here in North America. So they're almost human scale. When people enter this work, they can feel like they're part of this celebration that's happening. They love the joyfulness of it. It feels very festive. What I've seen so far is like people kind of walk up and hug them or touch them or pet them. And, you know, the beavers have expressions. Some of them are singing. There's a couple that are playing a drum. People relate to them. Part of the story you're telling here is about colonization, that the eradication of these animals during the height of the fur trade, the comparison that can be made to the eradication and genocide of indigenous peoples. Talk to me about that larger story you're telling and that people would come away hugging it and feeling fun. Yes, I wanted to speak to those more difficult histories, but I really wanted the joy and the exuberance of this piece to speak to the incredible resilience of indigenous people. The resilience really comes through in our humor and how we are staying connected to our cultures.