{"id":44,"date":"2018-04-08T14:57:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T14:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/?p=44"},"modified":"2018-04-29T17:49:49","modified_gmt":"2018-04-29T17:49:49","slug":"indigenous-based-curatorial-practice-art-history-methodology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/2018\/04\/08\/indigenous-based-curatorial-practice-art-history-methodology\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
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Christi Belcourt<\/a> (M\u00e9tis). Medicines To Help Us, 2014. Acrylic on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WHAT’S AN INDIGENOUS-BASED METHODOLOGY?<\/h2>\n

heather ahtone (Choctaw and Chickasaw). \u201cReading Beneath the Surface: Joe Feddersen’s Parking Lot<\/a>.\u201d Wicazo Sa Review<\/i>, vol. 27, no. 1, 2012, p. 73-84. www.jstor.org\/stable\/10.5749\/wicazosareview.27.1.0073<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cReading Beneath the Surface\u201d demonstrates the possibility and actuality of doing ethical art history, specifically in the field of art by Indigenous peoples, while also showing that different types of art require different tools for assessment. ahtone does not suggest that art historians utilize this methodology when looking at non-Indigenous art. In fact, she is not interested in the methods they take in dealing with this work. This highly focused approach is responsible because it designates space specifically for Native people, who have traditionally been excluded from the the field of art history, while also maintaining that their experiences and therefore their creative practices are necessarily different than those of non-Indigenous peoples. Thus, their work should be treated as such and requires different methodological tools for study.<\/p>\n

To ahtone\u2019s mind, an \u201cIndigenous-based methodology\u201d is rooted in \u201ccultural reciprocity\u201d (74) and pays close attention to an object\u2019s materiality, as well as its maker\u2019s life and cultural identity. This methodology shows that \u201cmore is present in Feddersen\u2019s work than is accessible through a Western art historical approach\u201d (75). Through a close-reading of Parking Lot<\/i>, ahtone demonstrates not just the feasibility of her method, but also its necessity for getting to answers that are otherwise inaccessible using a traditional Western art historical methodology.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

VISUAL SOVEREIGNTY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rickard, Jolene (Tuscarora). “Sovereignty: A Line in the Sand<\/a>.”\u00a0Aperture<\/em>, no. 139, 1995, p. 50-59.<\/p>\n

How is this practiced?<\/p>\n

INDIGENOUS-BASED CURATORIAL PRACTICE<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Indians, about Indians, informed by Indianness
\n“A Conversation About ‘Americans.'”\u00a0YouTube<\/em>,\u00a0uploaded by Smithsonian NMAI, 2 February 2018,\u00a0https:\/\/youtu.be\/Td–OkcSO3k<\/a>. Gerald McMaster (Plains Cree\/Member of the Siksika First Nation) moderates a discussion between curators of “Americans” at NMAI,\u00a0Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche) and C\u00e9cile R. Ganteaume, and Director of NMAI,\u00a0Kevin Gover (Pawnee).<\/p>\n

McMaster, Gerald R. \u201cINDIGENA: A Native Curator’s Perspective<\/a>,.\u201d Art Journal<\/i>, vol. 51, no. 3, 1992, pp. 66\u201373.\u00a0www.jstor.org\/stable\/777350<\/a>. McMaster reflects on the 1992 show, “INDIGENA: Perspectives of Indigenous Peoples on Five Hundred Years”\u00a0at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now Canadian Museum of History).<\/p>\n

Who holds power in an institution? Which institutions? What’s the difference between amplifying voices through inclusion and granting material decision-making power<\/a>?<\/p>\n

ART-MAKING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake (Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg). “Embodied Resurgent Practice and Coded Disruption<\/a>.” In As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance<\/i>, 191-210. Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2017. http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/10.5749\/j.ctt1pwt77c.14.<\/p>\n

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Martineau, Jarrett (n\u00eahiyaw [Plains Cree] and Dene Suline from Frog Lake First Nation in Alberta) and Ritskes, Eric. \u201cFugitive indigeneity: Reclaiming the terrain of decolonial struggle through Indigenous art<\/a>.\u201d Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education, & Society, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2014, p. I-XII.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHAT’S AN INDIGENOUS-BASED METHODOLOGY? heather ahtone (Choctaw and Chickasaw). \u201cReading Beneath the Surface: Joe Feddersen’s Parking Lot.\u201d Wicazo Sa Review, vol. 27, no. 1, 2012, p. 73-84. www.jstor.org\/stable\/10.5749\/wicazosareview.27.1.0073. \u201cReading Beneath the Surface\u201d demonstrates the possibility and actuality of doing ethical art history, specifically in the field of art by Indigenous peoples, while also showing that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1548,"featured_media":86,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","9":"no-post-title"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/indians-in-art-museums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}