Key Points:

• A new exhibit sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries spotlights 26 contemporary Native American artists.
• Some of the art subtly refers to issues such as missing and murdered Native American women, abuse at Indian boarding schools and climate change.
• The show, “This Land Calls Us Home: Indigenous Relationships with Southeastern Homelands,” features more than 60 paintings and objects that will be on display until November 2024.

While traveling several years back, the Rev. Chebon Kernell came across something interesting at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

It was “A Walk Through Atlanta History,” a permanent exhibit tracing the city’s story up to the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games.

“They included Indigenous peoples there, but it was on just one little panel of this massive display,” said Kernell, executive director of the Native American Comprehensive Plan of The United Methodist Church. “I noticed that one panel was about 13,000 years of (Native American) history. And the entire rest of the exhibit was 200 years.

“That didn’t sit well with me, and so I began to use that example as a teaching moment, to talk about how we have silenced histories, especially in this country.”

Visitors view the newly installed works of “This Land Calls Us Home,” on view at Concourse T North, near gates T12-15 at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta. Photo by Dan Curran for Global Ministries.

The Rev. Chebon Kernell (Seminole/Muscogee), executive director of the Native American Comprehensive Plan of The United Methodist Church, speaks with a reporter at the opening of “This Land Calls Us Home,” held at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta on Nov. 6. Photo by Susan Clark, courtesy of Global Ministries.

Glenn Kellum, a colleague at the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, where Kernell worked at the time, suggested he meet with airport officials to talk it over. They were amenable.

“So fast-forward five years later, we have developed an art exhibit that gives contemporary examples of Native American culture, identity and even our hopes and dreams for this area that we still consider our homelands in Georgia,” Kernell said.

Double Woven River Cane Basket” (left) and “United First Nations River Cane Basket” (right) were created by Vivian Garner Cottrell, who is of Cherokee and Irish descent and a fourth-generation basket maker. Cherokee patterns are woven into each basket with natural dyed material using black walnut, bloodroot, berries and bois d’arc shavings. Photo courtesy of Global Ministries.

Artist Vivian Garner Cottrell (Cherokee) stands near a display case that features one of her baskets at the opening of “This Land Calls Us Home” held at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta on Nov. 6. Photo courtesy of Global Ministries.

He curated the exhibit with the help of museum professionals and other Native American Methodists and scholars. It is sponsored by Global Ministries.

The show, “This Land Calls Us Home: Indigenous Relationships with Southeastern Homelands,” features more than 60 paintings and objects by 26 artists and will be on display in the T North Concourse until November 2024. It’s free to travelers in the airport.

“Global Ministries is pleased to partner with representatives from our denomination’s Native American community to present this exhibit for display at Atlanta’s airport,” said Roland Fernandes, the top executive of Global Ministries and the United Methodist Committee on Relief, in a statement. “The installation offers a unique opportunity to help facilitate a greater understanding of Native American and Indigenous peoples of the Southeast. Many of the artists have close ties to specific ancestral sites now in the greater Atlanta and Georgia region, which may also be of special interest to travelers visiting the Atlanta area.”

Jeff Edwards, who has three pieces of art in the exhibit, said it was the first time his artwork was featured in an airport.

“I think it’s pretty neat,” he said.

One of Edwards’ pieces is an Andy Warhol-inspired piece about Sequoyah, whose creation of the Cherokee syllabary made reading and writing in Cherokee possible.

“I thought it was kind of cool that you actually have to be a traveler (to see the exhibit),” Edwards said. “If you get a six-hour layover, it’d be kind of cool to have an art show to go to.”

Some of the exhibits tackle Native American issues such as missing and murdered Indigenous women, abuse at Indian boarding schools and climate change, albeit subtly.

“You’ll see little bits and pieces in some of the expressions that we’ve selected,” said Kernell, a Native American scholar and educator. “Sometimes they might take a little bit, maybe an explanation from the artist or different things, to kind of bring it to the forefront.”

“Spearfinger’s Deception” was created by Luzene Hill of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Her work is informed by pre-contact culture of the Americas and advocates for Indigenous linguistic, cultural and individual sovereignty. In Native American lore, Sprearfinger could transform herself from the ugly, old woman she was into a beautiful young female. Her deadliest weapon was her sharp finger that resembled a spear or awl, which she used to cut her victims. Photo courtesy of Global Ministries.

The Rev. Chebon Kernell (second from left), executive director of the Native American Comprehensive Plan, leads a stomp dance demonstration at the opening of “This Land Calls Us Home” held at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta on Nov. 6. Photo by Susan Clark, courtesy of Global Ministries.

For example, there is a painting by Jody Bradley Lipscomb of a young girl clutching a tree. Titled “The Crying Tree,” it alludes to abusive Indian boarding schools — a few operated by Methodists — intended to separate Native Americans from their culture. “The Crying Tree” refers to an oak grove where children sought refuge from Cherokee Indian Boarding School in North Carolina.

Tony A. Tiger, another artist featured in the airport show, believes exposure to Native American art could do the opposite of the boarding schools by sharing Native culture with people of other races.

“We have a narrative to share with America,” Tiger said. “I think it’s important that people understand that we weren’t savages; we did have civilization here with many different languages and we had large villages.

“With more knowledge … possibly we can treat each other better.”

An exhibit at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, “This Land Calls Us Home: Indigenous Relationships with Southeastern Homelands,” showcases 60 works of art by 26 Native American artists. It will be on display in the T North Concourse until November 2024. Photo by Jim Patterson, UM News.

“Know Your Enemy” by Jeff Edwards portrays a Cherokee Native American. The spider held by the subject’s left hand originally was the head of Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt. It was changed to a spider because of concerns the reference would be missed by non-Oklahomans. Photo courtesy of Global Ministries.

But Edwards said there’s a line he won’t cross between honoring his Cherokee heritage and doing what he called “pity pieces,” or art that reflects stereotypes.

“Oh, look at what has happened to us Cherokee. We’ve had such a horrible history.” Edwards said. “Yes, of course we have. But … we’re still here, you know, so we survived that history.”

Having the exhibit at the airport means it may reach people who don’t go to museums very often.

“One advantage … is to counteract the historical silencing that I feel the other exhibit does in the tunnel area of the airport,” Kernell said. “To have something more in depth that provides the community with a deeper understanding of Native American people.”

Patterson is a UM News reporter in Nashville, Tennessee. Contact him at 615-742-5470 or [email protected].

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About the Native American Comprehensive Plan

The Native American Comprehensive Plan serves as the United Methodist entity that resources, strengthens and advocates for the local church in Native American communities and contexts for all generations. 

“Post-COVID … the focus that we’ve taken is (to cultivate) relationships with the entities that surround us and do a lot of education to the non-Native American world about the things that we’re going through,” said the Rev. Chebon Kernell, executive director of the plan.

“We have relationships with universities. We have relationships with museums … and we’ve tried to reach what they’re teaching so that a good message about Native American people today can be taught that can be a good pedagogy there.”

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Watch video: Stomp Dance

“This Land Calls Us Home” is an artistic multidimensional exhibit highlighting the contemporary expressions of Indigenous peoples and their relationship with their ancestral domains and homelands. Representing primarily Mvskoke and Cherokee indigenous communities, “This Land Calls Us Home,” tells a story of the eternal connection that modern Native American people have with their respective homelands. Sixty works of art by 26 Native American artists will be on display in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Ga., until November 2024. Video courtesy of Global Ministries. Click here to watch video

Cecelia Bull Bear has been making quillwork art for as long as she can remember.

“I learned from my grandmother, Ethel Black Crow, and my aunt, Rose Spotted Eagle, when I was real young,” the 76-year-old Denver-based Oglala Lakota artist said. “I’ve been doing it all my life.”

Quillwork is an art form that uses porcupine quills to embroider clothing and make jewelry, and it is one of the oldest artistic traditions practiced by Indigenous North Americans, mostly in the northern plains of what is now the U.S. and across Canada.

To Bull Bear, who is from the Medicine Root District of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, quillwork products are as precious as gemstones.

“Quillwork is like wearing diamonds,” Bull Bear said. “Quillwork is sacred. It was here before the beadwork people do now.”

Bull Bear is one of many artists who patronize and sell their art at the reopened Orr’s Trading Post, a Native arts supply store that has long been an important community hub for Indigenous people.

New owner Lakota Sage wants to expand Orr’s 133-year legacy as a community hub and arts store into a destination for authentic Indigenous arts.

Formerly located in Englewood and Denver and operated by the Orr family for generations, the new owner, Lakota Sage, reopened the store in Lakewood near Colfax Avenue and Kipling Street in February after the previous owners decided to close down.

Orr’s has always offered Denver’s Indigenous community a place to buy supplies to make regalia, practice traditions and create art; even Bull Bear’s grandmother used to buy supplies at Orr’s when it was on Colorado Boulevard in Denver.

“Most people come here to buy supplies, so when word started getting around it was closing, the community started freaking out a little,” Sage, a Lakota citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said of why he restarted the business.

This new location continues the business’ legacy of serving Denver’s Indigenous community, but Sage also wants it to be a place where people who are not Indigenous can come to see and buy local artists’ artwork.

Here, Sage hopes, they can also learn about sacred traditions and see that Indigenous art and culture is alive and well in Denver.

“The more we can have representation, the better,” Sage said. “Because we are still here; we’re still remembered.”

That’s also why Bull Bear said being able to sell her work at Orr’s is so important to her: Not only is quillwork sacred, but here in Denver, the skill is a rarity.

Bull Bear is the only practicing plains quillwork artist in the area; many people stopped doing quillwork to take up the less complicated beading art that is most commonly associated with Indigenous embroidery now. She’s started classes in Denver to keep the tradition alive here.

“They say it’s a dying art, but if people like me teach it, I think we can keep it alive,” she said. “It’s really a blessing to try and teach it to new generations. We need to take care of it.”

Newer local artists also get a chance to show people their work at Orr’s.

Tom Salazar, an Indigenous third-generation Coloradan, is a self-taught artist who sells beaded jewelry at Orr’s and buys a lot of his supplies there. His art is also meant to show people Native American traditions are still alive, and he said Orr’s is the perfect place to teach people about art through his and others’ work.

“Art is something I like to do so people don’t forget where we came from,” Salazar said. “A lot of people don’t see Native art as something somebody put their heart and soul into. When I make something, I genuinely have a love for my ancestry and love for the community to where I want to make it authentic.

“A place like Orr’s is a great place for the community to make and see authentic jewelry.”

Sage also has branched the store out for more than just the beadwork and regalia-making products.

Other wares include macaw feathers for Nahua, or Aztec, people of Mexico; shells of all types, sea stars and urchins for coastal nations and Pacific Islanders; painted beads from Peru; and katchina dolls, ancestral spirits of the Hopi and Pueblo people of the Southwest, are all available at Orr’s.

“There’s something for everybody here,” Sage said. And that goes for non-Indigenous people, too.

A whole section of the store is dedicated to naturopathy, with traditional teas that have healing properties lining a wall and sages, sweetgrass and palo santo available for ceremonies and smudging. Stones with different astrological and healing purposes are also available in different sizes and shapes for different uses.

“It’s not just a store for Natives; it’s a store for everybody,” Sage said. “The idea behind that is the more people we can get in here, the more these local Native artists can be seen and our culture appreciated. It’s a helping hand for everybody.”

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As you make your way towards the Art Gallery of New South Wales, you will come across the giant sinewy bronze legs of the artist’s monumental sculpture Maman (“mum” in French) looming near the entrance.

As large to us as humans appear to spiders, Maman borrows the form of a daddy longlegs, but through its title switches both parent and gender. The artist replaces our fear of spiders with the love and protection associated with motherhood.

Despite a life and career mostly spent in New York City, where she moved in 1938 and remained until her death in 2010, the artist, born and educated in France, insisted on her “right to defend her Frenglish”. Titles of her works and her extensive body of writings move seamlessly from her native tongue to English to a deeply personal intermixing of both languages.

London’s Tate acquired the original Maman in 2008, but six other versions also exist. One now stands in the Domain, marking the arrival of Louise Bourgeois in Sydney and the opening of the first large scale show in the new Sydney Modern.

First opened to the public just over a year ago, the Sydney Modern promised “a 21st-century gallery providing one of the world’s great art museum experiences”. This exhibition matches this ambition with a deeply thoughtful and sensuous show.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (WMBF) – One of the biggest stars to come out of the Palmetto State was honored with his own star.

Darius Rucker got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“This is stuff you only dream about when you’re from South Carolina, struggling growing up and just wanting to be a singer and that’s all I ever wanted to be was a singer,” Rucker said.

Rucker received the star in the category of Recording, and it’s the 2,766th star along the walkway in California.

He said he was walking along the Walk of Fame and said he couldn’t believe he now has something in common with so many legends.

“I’m walking the streets the other day and I’m seeing Marilyn Monroe and Charley Pride and Buddy Hackett, these are names that stuck in my mind because they’re big stars,” Rucker said. “To be here with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it’s the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

While he thanked many people who helped guide him throughout his career, including his band Hootie and the Blowfish, he thanked his kids and said being their dad has been the best part of his life.

“They’re my heart, my soul, everything I do is for them and it’s been an amazing thing to be your father. As great as all this stuff is, it’s not as cool as being your dad, I love you guys so much,” Rucker said.

But the people he wanted to thank the most are the fans who have gone out to buy records and who have spent their hard-earned money to get tickets to his shows.

“I want to thank everybody who comes out every year to see us play, I can’t say thank you enough and I still can’t believe I have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Rucker said.

Other recording artists in the Hollywood Walk of Fame Class of 2024 are Toni Braxton, Def Leppard, Sammy Hagar and Gwen Stefani.

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