Morrisseau medal on hold pending legal ruling

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SACRED ANIMAL TOTEM, 1975 /Click on image to enlarge/

TORONTO, ON – Canada's most famous aboriginal painter, the late Norval Morrisseau, is being honoured with a lifetime-achievement award tomorrow evening in Toronto.

But don't expect anyone to take the stage at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts to receive the trophy and medallion that have been struck in Morrisseau's honour for the 15th annual National Aboriginal Achievement Awards. While the 13 other honorees or their representatives, including CBC broadcaster Paul Andrew and filmmaker/gallerist Shirley Cheechoo, are scheduled to appear on stage, a legal battle between some of Morrisseau's children and his long-time guardian means that the Ojibwa artist is going to be represented by a film outlining his legacy and featuring tributes from friends, curators and colleagues.

Three and possibly four of Morrisseau's seven children - including a brother and sister from Keewaywin, where Morrisseau is buried alongside his ex-wife - are expected to be among the audience of roughly 2,500 tomorrow, but none has been invited to take the stage. The same goes for Gabor Vadas, Morrisseau's Nanaimo-based guardian and self-described "adopted son" who formed a seemingly unbreakable bond with the Ojibwa artist in the final 20 years before Morrisseau's death, at the age of 76, in Toronto on Dec. 4 from complications related to Parkinson's disease.

According to Jamie Monastyrski, director of communications and media for the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, the plan is to "hold the award and the medallion until the courts decide who the rightful heir is [to the Morrisseau estate]."

Last month, Vadas was invited to participate with Morrisseau's children in a teleconference about the awards evening organized by the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. "But he chose not to," foundation chief executive officer Roberta Jamieson said this week. "We did our very best to involve everyone whom we felt had a connection to Norval."

Four of Morrisseau's adult children - Christian, Eugene and David Morrisseau and Victoria Kakegamic - are contesting Morrisseau's will, which, they claim, is in the possession of Vadas and names him "the executor and sole beneficiary of the deceased's estate." In a caveat filed on Dec. 12 in the British Columbia Supreme Court, the four argue that the will should not be granted probate because of what they claim was Morrisseau's "lack of testamentary capacity, lack of approval or knowledge of the contents of the will, the presence of undue influence, non-compliance with statutory requirements" and Vadas's alleged "unfitness ... to act as executor." Late last year, they clashed with Vadas over his intention to have Morrisseau cremated.

Morrisseau was in Ottawa in mid-November with Vadas when the honorees for the aboriginal awards were announced and presented to the House of Commons. He later attended a reception hosted by Speaker of the House Peter Milliken. "We were just thrilled that Norval and Gabe were in Ottawa when that occurred," Jamieson said. -

James Adams
Source: "Globe and Mail"
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* Detailed information about the painting in this posting unknown: "Sacred Animal Totem" , © 1975 Norval Morrisseau /Private Collection/