Guná (Megan) Jensen

Carcross, Yukon

Painter

Guná is of Dakhká Tlingit and Tagish Khwáan Ancestry from the Dahk’laweidi Clan which falls under the wolf/eagle moiety. Her family has made the southern lakes area of the Yukon their home for numerous generations. She is a Tlingit artist, dancer, language learner and lifelong student of Northwest Coast design. Guná has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art
and Design with a major in Visual Arts. She often refers to her lifelong community work on her ancestral lands as her masters degree. As an artist and teacher, it is Guna’s mission to help dismantle the colonial processes enveloped in society and education. She actively participates in deconstructing Eurocentric pedagogy and methodologies in order to build a new foundation of cross cultural understanding, safety and empowerment. These values are embodied through learning the Lingít language, her artistic practice, and her extensive experience as an educator. Guná acknowledges she will never stop learning as a Tlingit artist and teacher. Her practice is dedicated to preserving and understanding the highly esteemed art form and practices of her ancestors.
In her contemporary practice, Guna plays with the relationship of ancient Lingít design that merge into contemporary and often ironic materials. Guna’s visual art practice centres dominantly in canvas painting that often incorporates Tlingit formline. The irony of her work is activated through the historical context of using European materials such as oil paints, along with utilizing realistic techniques in her works with portraiture. Visually and symbolically, she engages in a discourse with historical European artists in their efforts to assert and maintain power and domination among other nations, and the eventual consequences of the the colonial project reaching the shores of her Tlingit ancestors.
In literal terms, Guna’s work embodies the relationship between indigenous and nonindigenous people, that we will never be able to regress back to a time prior to the devastations of colonialism. Indigenous communities are in a paradoxical period of reclaiming and healing
themselves and their communities, while simultaneously having to heal their relationship with a colonized world. These tensions are ignited through Guna’s oil paintings through the energy circulating behind human and animal figures expressed in formline. Layered in the foreground are often figures whom propel from the ground, pushing the boundaries of the colonial borders,
yet still having to be “contained” within a painting. Though the contemporary colonial project continues to assume supremacy over indigenous ways of knowing and being, Guna resiliently pushes forward without requesting permission to speak, to share the Lingít worldview that manifests in the exceptionally complex and stunning art forms of her ancestors.
“Since time immemorial our people have been malleable to the winds of change, had they not done this, we simply would no longer exist. This is about telling their story, however this is also about documenting our stories through art, song, dance and language for all the future generations to come.” - Guná