"Engaged Histories: Indigenous Traditions of Representation"
Annette de Stecher, University of Colorado Boulder
Yeager Recital Hall, Oct. 6 at 6 p.m
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<span style=”font-weight: 700; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);”><span style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: 300; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em;”>Wendat moose hair embroidered porte document, c. 1830, from the Whitecloud Collection at the New Orleans Museum of Art)</span></span>Indigenous traditions of representation, grounded in belief systems, worldviews and visual arts that are distinct to each nation or tribe, offer a complex and fascinating field of study. While engaging with Western artistic conventions, Native American creative practices transmit and sustain the cultural knowledge of a tribe over generations.
In my talk, I will present first a background and context of Indigenous creative production and interconnections with Western cultural traditions. I will then look at museum representation of Indigenous visual arts and how this has shifted in recent decades, as a new kind of institution has emerged: North American Indigenous museums or cultural centres established by First Peoples nations. Grounded in Indigenous purposes and practices of representation, these spaces narrate Indigenous histories, connected to ongoing cultural traditions.
