The title of Robert Houle’s exhibition, “Premises for Self Rule,” refers to the conditions of the treaties between the Canadian government and First Nations groups that were designed to ensure self-government for aboriginal peoples. Given Canada’s history of broken treaties, those premises might seem unachievable. While in practice these treaties have set up what amounts to managed extinction, they still provide a standard for the self-determination of First Nations peoples, as Houle’s exhibition points out.

Houle’s five tableaux are organized around a series of treaties signed between 1763 and