The Indian Church (painting)

The Indian Church (renamed Church at Yuquot Village in 2018 by the Art Gallery of Ontario) is a 1929 painting by the Canadian artist Emily Carr. Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris bought the painting to showcase it in his dining room, and called it Carr's best work. In 1930, the work was shown in the Fifth Annual Exhibition of Canadian Art organised by the National Gallery of Canada. In 1938, the painting was chosen for an exhibition titled A Century of Canadian Art, at the Tate Gallery. The exhibition was described by Vincent Massey as "a most representative showing of Canadian painting and sculpture, including all schools and all periods."

The Indian Church is considered a "transitional" painting because it reflects the transition of Carr's artistic work from purely depicting Native Art to shifting her focus toward the land. In her 1946 autobiography, Growing Pains, Carr wrote that she "felt the subject deeply". She painted it at Friendly Cove, near a lighthouse.

When Carr saw her painting in Harris's home, she exclaimed: "The house must have bewitched this thing! It was better than I had thought." However she could not continue to look at it, because people in the room were saying kind things and she could not accept praise and felt embarrassed when others complimented her about her work.

The Indian Church is one of Carr's most reproduced works, and was donated to the Art Gallery of Ontario by Charles Band upon his 1969 death.