But Mr. Gibson, who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Royal College of Art in London, is ambivalent about being presented as a Native American artist rather than just a contemporary maker.

“People believe that by supporting me, they are supporting a Native American art world, but I am not sure that’s true,” Mr. Gibson said. “I’m not representative.”

Kay WalkingStick, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, said that she has seen progress in the art world since she arrived in New York in 1960 (she is now based in Pennsylvania).

“My goal was to open up the mainstream to Native American art,” said Ms. WalkingStick, 83. “And it has absolutely gotten better.” The biggest breakthrough, she added, was getting past the expectation that “Indian artists made art about being Indian.”

As Ms. Belmore readied her exhibition at the Ontario museum, she spoke about one featured work, “Mixed Blessing” (2011), a crouched, hooded figure in a jacket with synthetic hair spreading out on the floor behind it. The jacket is emblazoned on the back with explicit phrases about being both Indian — her word, the same one rejected in Emily Carr’s title — and an artist.

Ms. Belmore, a soft-spoken sort who lets her work do the talking, said it represented the contradictions of her identity.

As for whether the museum show, her largest to date, was going to be a personal game-changer, she expressed a hopeful hesitation that could apply to the progress of all Indigenous artists and the cultures they represent: “It’s too soon to tell.”