A ‘Namgis artist based in Victoria is has gained support from First Nations leadership on his journey in implementing a new logo for the province of British Columbia.

Jamin Zuroski designed the new logo using the same blue and yellow colours used with the current logo, but the design features an art style regularly used by Coast Salish artists.

“I’ve been working hard to find new ways to highlight our ancestors and how we can make them proud of the way we walk in this world today and every day,” he noted in a news release. “A great mentor and teacher of mine, Chief Robert Joseph Sr. wrote a beautiful message in his book, which reads, ‘In my work on reconciliation, I’ve learnt there are two kinds of people. There are people who have suffered like I did, in the ways I did. And then there are the rest: good, caring people who listen to these stories and want to make things better, make things right.’”

After gaining support from Joseph, a hereditary chief of Gwawaenuk First Nation, Zuroski hopes to begin the process of bringing forward the design to the government, with the hopes of adding culture and community connections through Indigenous art to the B.C. brand.

“I’ve connected with a few government officials about this logo rebrand and it’s implementation, but because there hasn’t been a logo change before, next steps for any design change would require new internal Government conversations and processes. I hope for cultural and community connections regarding this special rebrand. I feel all I can do now is wait,” he said in the release.

He said that for 25 years, he’s had a desire to add depth to visual and written messaging in workplaces, and he’s been hoping to use his art to rebrand something bigger because “when we have a brand that has deep symbolism and purpose, we will feel and be accountable to that cause.”

“See in Venice, buy in Basel” is the phrase bandied about every two years, after collectors scour the Venice Biennale for hot new young artists and then move on to Art Basel to acquire them.

This year the curator of the Biennale’s 60th edition, Adriano Pedrosa, has chosen to focus on queer, Indigenous and self-taught artists, particularly those from the Global South. Many are being shown at the Biennale for the first time; some were known in their lifetime but, for various reasons, disappeared from public view. But does this recognition in Venice translate into inclusion at an art fair, and does it have an impact on prices?

Quite a few Indigenous artists’ work are on show, and for sale, at Art Basel this year. And even if it is their first outing in Venice, do not forget that some of these artists are already well established in their own countries—they just lacked the international exposure.

Nevertheless, “the Biennale effect is real, both for visibility and values,” says Thiago Gomide, a partner at the Brazilian gallery Gomide & Co. “People pay more attention when an artist is shown in Venice, and this creates more demand,” he says. Gomide’s São Paulo gallery is showing several Indigenous artists who were seen in the Arsenale in Venice at Art Basel. One is the Paraguayan Guaraní artist Julia Isídrez, who makes ceramic pieces based on the animals of her area. “She lives in a remote region of Paraguay. It took me four months even to get in touch with her, she has no phone,” Gomide says. “She was unrepresented until a year ago, but there is now a waiting list for her works.” Isidrez’s prices range from $15,000 to $20,000, and Gomide says they are now ten times higher than 18 months ago. “The exposure is making a significant change in her life, it is a huge deal for her,” Gomide adds.

Rising demand

In Art Basel’s Unlimited section, the Labor gallery from Mexico City is bringing a performative installation titled Ko ta mapungey ka (Water is Also Territory), (2020) by the Chilean Mapuche and non-binary artist Seba Calfuqueo. The Labor founder Pamela Echeverría, who began representing Calfuqueo 18 months ago, agrees that the Biennale—where Calfuqueo is showing in the Arsenale—has had a major boosting effect, notably for institutional interest. “Prices were ridiculously low, but now there is a lot more demand,” Echeverría says. Today this means paying $9,000 for small sculptures offered at the fair and $70,000 for the performance piece.

Also in Unlimited is Marcados, a series of 37 images by the Swiss-born photographer Claudia Andujar (made in 1981-83, printed 2008-15). Andujar has devoted her life to defending Brazil’s Yanomami people, and the photographs, taken during a vaccination campaign, show individuals wearing numbered labels—something that reminded Andujar of genocide in Europe. This is one of just two complete sets (the other is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York) and is for sale at $2.5m. It is presented jointly by the São Paulo gallery Vermelho and Gomide & Co, and, if it sells, 5% of the price will be donated to the NGO Hutukara Associação Yanomami (Hay), which supports Yanomami people.

There are several other Indigenous artists at Art Basel who were selected by Pedrosa for the main exhibition in Venice, notably La Chola Poblete of Argentina, represented by Barro of New York, and the Angolan Sandra Poulson, represented by Jahmek Contemporary Art in Luanda.

The fair also features Indigenous artists who were not in Venice. For example, in the Features section, the Brazilian gallery Almeida & Dale is showing 25 paintings by Heitor dos Prazeres (1898-1966) mainly from the 1950s and 1960s. Dos Prazeres chose to explore the world of the post-slavery Black population and its fight for freedom and equality, at a time when most of the country was still focused on European culture. This did not go down well with the Brazilian authorities: his work was censored by the country’s military dictatorship in 1964.

Falling out of fashion

Prices for Dos Prazeres’s colourful, lively works range from $100,000 to $300,000. “Heitor had a measure of success in his lifetime, but then he fell out of fashion and visibility,” says the gallery director Paul Jenkins. “This was partly because of the concrete art movement, with its emphasis on abstraction, and also because he was a Black artist showing Black people.”

Another Indigenous artist, the Bolivian Alejandro Mario Yllanes, came to a mysterious end, probably assassinated by the political powers of the time. The largely self-taught painter and printmaker, born in 1913, had documented the culture and exploitation of the Aymara people, and in 1946 an exhibition in Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes featured 16 large-scale paintings and 20 woodblock prints by him.

The preface to that show was written by Diego Rivera, showing the international acclaim Yllanes enjoyed at the time. He was granted a fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, but never collected the funds, and never exhibited again; he disappeared, and is thought to have died around 1960.

Yllanes’s work was rediscovered by the London gallery Ben Elwes Fine Art, which last year began exhibiting the 50 or so works Yllanes left behind. At Art Basel, in collaboration with Gomide & Co, the gallery is showing Viva la Guerra (1938), priced at $750,000, and the accompanying wood engraving Trincheras (1944), at $25,000.

This year the US pavilion at Venice featured Jeffrey Gibson, a Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee painter and sculptor, and the first Indigenous artist to have a solo show there. It was an ostensibly feel-good exhibition with colourful, geometric patterns and beadwork on flags, sculpture, painting and a lively video of native American dancers. But some of the texts told a darker story, of exploitation and devaluation of native cultures.

Gibson has three galleries: Sikkema Jenkins & Co in New York, Stephen Friedman in London, and Roberts Projects in Los Angeles. At Art Basel, Sikkema is showing an acrylic painting on elk hide, Someone to watch over me (2023).

Gibson already has a secondary market and, for instance at Phillips last month, a beaded sign, Make me feel it (2015), doubled its estimate at $101,600. However, the “Venice effect” is not automatic, and a beaded figure by Gibson from 2014, Always After Now, just failed to sell at Sotheby’s in May, falling short of its $150,000-$200,000 estimate.

Nevertheless, “See in Venice, buy in Basel” remains true, and visitors will certainly be able to see a rich selection of work by Indigenous artists at the fair.

Sunshine Thomas-Bear has visited a lot of museums in her role as the cultural preservation director for the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and knows the feeling when an institution seems open to returning sacred objects.

The Denver Art Museum, she said after an introductory April meeting with museum staff, isn’t one of them.

“It does not seem they are willing to work with tribes,” she said, noting her tribe is still figuring out how many of the 130 objects in the Denver museum it will request back.

The experience of the Winnebago delegation is hardly an outlier. Representatives of multiple Native American tribes and foreign governments say the Denver Art Museum has not been open or amenable to returning pieces in its collection. Museum officials, they say, have been obstinate or unwelcoming.

Several have left meetings in the Mile High City feeling pessimistic about their chances of reclaiming important relics. Others say the museum has brushed aside their concerns, even when presented with strong evidence that relics had been plundered. The museum can be a stickler for guidelines and rules, they say, without trusting that the tribe or country knows best.

They say this has earned the museum a reputation among outside parties: Negotiations with the Denver Art Museum won’t be easy.

“They’re still in the mindset of, ‘This is the 1990s. This is ours. We decide what you get and don’t get,’ ” Thomas-Bear said, referencing a time when museums were far more defensive than they are now, amid a global reckoning in the art world over colonialism and white supremacy.

This reputation has even reached Congress. Three U.S. senators, in a letter to the Denver Art Museum’s director, late last month expressed their “grave concern” over The Denver Post’s reporting that the museum, in the lawmakers’ view, had failed to follow a 1990 law designed to return cultural objects to tribes.

Not all outside groups have had negative interactions with the Denver Art Museum.

“I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of the institution,” said Brian Vallo, former governor of the Pueblo of Acoma in New Mexico, whose tribe has worked closely with the museum in recent years.

Denver Art Museum officials addressed these concerns in an interview with The Post, saying every object, every conversation with an outside tribe or country is unique. In response to this perceived negative reputation, they said they respect people’s opinions and impressions of meetings.

“We follow guidelines, we follow recommendations and we honor the specificity of the people and object involved,” said Angelica Daneo, the museum’s chief curator.

Andy Sinclair, a museum spokesperson, said the team that met with Thomas-Bear was “saddened and surprised to hear that the outcome of the consult was unsatisfactory.”

The Native arts team has reached out to the tribal representative to understand how the museum can better support the tribe’s needs moving forward, she said.

A history of reluctant dealings

There have been multiple instances in which the Denver Art Museum has expressed hesitancy to return objects to tribes and countries, though this mindset was hardly uncommon among Western institutions.

In a 1979 memo posted to its website, Denver Art Museum officials indicated ambivalence at giving back a war god to the Zuni tribe of New Mexico — citing many of the same justifications that museums long have used, and continue to use, to rebuff repatriation claims.

“The museum is concerned by the fact and the principle of the proposal to give away an object from its collection,” officials wrote, “especially one which is believed to be the finest example of its type.”

The museum outlined its concern that the piece, if given back to the tribe, could be stolen or otherwise destroyed by natural elements.

“The return of the object will assure its ultimate destruction,” officials wrote.

The Denver museum also worried that the precedent could cause “immensely complex problems for museums of many kinds throughout the nation.”

Ultimately, though, the museum decided to return the war god.

The art world has changed significantly since the Zuni case. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed by Congress in 1990, marked a seismic shift in the way American institutions deal with Indigenous cultural objects.

The law, known as NAGPRA, mandated any collection that receives federal funding return human remains and other sacred pieces to tribes — though some museums and universities have moved at a glacial pace.

In 2002, a group of five tribes reached an impasse with the Denver Art Museum over the repatriation of seven cultural items, including a medicine cord, a wood figurine, two painted skin caps and three masks.

The Western Apache NAGPRA Working Group — a collection of Apache tribes from Arizona — said in federal documents they felt they had provided sufficient evidence that the items were culturally affiliated with their communities. The Denver Art Museum disagreed.

The dispute grew so intractable that the tribes took the unusual step of bringing it before the NAGPRA review committee, a federal body that mediates disagreements between tribes and museums.

The committee sided with the tribes, saying the group had provided sufficient evidence that the objects met the definitions of “scared objects” and “objects of cultural patrimony” under federal law.

“The return of these items to their resting places will be beneficial to the health of the Apache people,” committee members wrote.

The museum returned the objects the following year.

Lori Iliff, the Denver Art Museum’s senior provenance researcher, told The Post that the museum wanted to return those objects all along, but that the tribe wished for them to be repatriated under NAGPRA. The two sides disagreed on whether they met certain criteria under the law.

In 2019, an activist with a Nepali cultural heritage protection group emailed the Denver Art Museum about a limestone tablet in its collection. The tablet, depicting the Hindu god Shiva with his wife and children, had been stolen, Slok Gyawali of the Nepal Pride Project told 5280 magazine in 2021. He also provided research supporting his case.

A month later, the museum told Gyawali that it had confidence in the piece’s provenance, or ownership history.

“We are unaware of any substantiated claims of theft of this piece,” museum officials wrote, according to the magazine.

It wasn’t until the article was published that any movement occurred. Seven months after the story, the museum announced the stone tablet would be returned to Nepal.

Museum officials told The Post that Nepal in 2021 provided additional evidence that proved the piece had been stolen.

The relic, like many others that the museum has deaccessioned over the years, no longer appears on its website.

The Post in October reported that the Denver Art Museum removes from its website plundered objects and other pieces that have been removed from its collection. Unlike some museums, the Denver institution has no policy to preserve public-facing provenance and object pages after it gives back artifacts.

Experts say keeping this information available to the masses is an important transparency measure for a universal museum like Denver’s.

Daneo, the museum’s chief curator, told The Post that the institution has prioritized making more of its permanent collection available online. Officials have been adding provenance information to a dedicated webpage, which provides selected news releases on some, but not all, repatriations and deaccessions.

“We welcome people looking at this provenance,” Daneo said.

Lack of transparency

The museum’s transparency issues extend to dealings with foreign government representatives and tribal members.

A lawyer for Cambodia, in an April letter to the Denver Art Museum, requested again that the museum provide all provenance documents for objects that came from the ancient Khmer empire. The museum has previously returned at least five relics to the Southeast Asian nation, with several more designated to be returned soon.

Cambodian officials have been requesting these records for multiple years in order to track down looted relics across the globe — only to be rebuffed, they say.

“It’s kind of insane we have to do this guessing game,” Bradley J. Gordon, an American attorney leading Cambodia’s global quest to reclaim its plundered heritage, told The Post. “How did these pieces magically appear at the Denver Art Museum?”

There’s been a broad spectrum of how museums have reacted to Cambodian requests, he said.

“They definitely have not come to the table in a collaborative way,” Gordon said of the Denver Art Museum.

Sinclair, the museum spokesperson, said the institution has posted all the provenance information it has on Cambodian pieces to its website. Gordon said he believes there’s more documentation the museum has not shared.

Kirit Mankodi, a retired archaeologist who helps the Indian government track down looted antiquities, said Denver Art Museum officials initially responded to him when he brought to their attention 20 years ago a stolen object in their collection. But once he drilled down on repatriation, he said, the museum ghosted him.

“I certainly didn’t appreciate this lack of courtesy and it showed that they were not honest,” Mankodi said. The museum ended up handing the piece to U.S. officials in 2019 for its eventual return to India.

Sinclair previously told The Post that 2015 marked the first repatriation request from the Indian government. In 2018, American investigators provided documentation to the museum that the object had been looted.

The Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, meanwhile, say the museum has been intransigent, condescending and insensitive in consultations over the past two decades.

The Denver museum has rejected three formal claims for the tribes’ cultural heritage over the years, leading the tribes to feel that their efforts are fruitless, multiple tribal representatives told The Post for an article published in April.

The Post’s story on the Tlingit efforts prompted interest from Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, and Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Indian Affairs.

In a May 29 letter to the museum’s director, Christoph Heinrich, the senators requested a litany of records from the Denver institution, including an update on its current repatriation process; an itemized list of all the claims the museum has received; and an estimate of the pace of repatriation of cultural items under NAGPRA.

“Delayed repatriation is delayed justice for Native peoples,” the senators wrote.

Sinclair said the museum looks forward to responding to the committee’s questions. Daneo said the institution has engaged in renewed conversations with the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes in recent weeks, and are “listening and eager to collaborate.”

Denver’s process for claims seems more extensive than other museums, Thomas-Bear said. The museum, she said, did not defer to tribes or assume they knew the material best. One of her biggest disappointments with Denver, though, was that the staff employed a Native American associate curator, Dakota Hoska.

“You would think being Native American she would be understanding and sympathetic to NAGPRA issues,” Thomas-Bear said. “But instead it felt she was more of a gatekeeper.”

Hoska, in a statement, said she was “sad to learn that Sunshine Thomas-Bear’s perceptions of our interaction didn’t align with my intentions, which are always to provide transparency and access to our collections for Native community members.”

“I hope one day I can hear her perspective of her experience at the museum, and include her feedback into my future interactions with Native people,” she added. “I want all members of Indigenous communities to feel comfortable sharing their expectations and needs here.”

Sinclair said staff made available for review all artworks in its collection with Ho-Chunk or Winnebago affiliations. A few days after the consultation, she said, the museum shared provenance information with the tribe, which has not made formal repatriation claims.

This has become a common refrain: Tribes leave the museum unhappy, while the museum says there’s nothing more they can do since there has been no formal claim.

The fraught relations even prompted the Denver Art Museum’s Indigenous Arts curator to issue an apology for previous comments about the museum’s collections policies.

In a post to the museum’s website in late May, John Lukavic apologized for saying in a recent Post article that the museum is “not in the business of just giving away our collections.”

This “poorly expressed” language meant to convey the complexity of NAGPRA claims and repatriation processes, he wrote. The museum is reviewing its NAGPRA policies and “adjusting them to better serve Indigenous communities.”

“I am sorry for the hurt, pain, and anger these comments have caused Indigenous communities and specifically members of the Tlingit and Haida tribes in Alaska, as well as the DAM’s members, supporters and visitors,” Lukavic wrote. “Those comments are not a reflection of how I, or any of us in the DAM Native Arts team, feel about the artworks, objects and relationships we are entrusted with from Indigenous Nations and communities.”

“We wish they would come back”

Some tribes have had positive experiences with the Denver Art Museum.

Vallo, the former governor of the Pueblo of Acoma, said his tribe has collaborated closely with the museum in recent years. Museum officials, he said, have not just been interested in their own strategic goals, but also been keen on learning what’s important to Native artists, curators and scholars.

“We have had a really good relationship with them,” Vallo said.

That collaboration led to the museum agreeing to bring a host of historic weaves and textiles to display in an exhibition on the tribal reservation outside Albuquerque. The yearlong exhibition, which opens this fall, will also allow Indigenous weavers to study the craft of their ancestors to help revitalize the floundering tradition.

After the exhibition, though, the pieces will head back to Denver. Vallo said he hoped they could just stay, but the tribe has no agreement with the museum.

“We wish they would come back to the tribe at some point,” he said, “but that isn’t our reality.”

Jan N. Jacobs, chair of the museum’s Indigenous Community Advisory Council and member of the Osage tribe, said the museum has long operated in a proactive, not reactive, manner when it comes to tribal relations. Curators and other officials, she said, have always been open and accommodating.

“I don’t think they have been too hard (on tribal claims),” she said. “It’s laid out pretty clearly.”

Repatriations have been front and center at the Denver Art Museum in recent years as law enforcement and media attention has increased scrutiny of its collection.

The museum has been distancing itself over the past 18 months from a former board trustee and research consultant named Emma C. Bunker, who helped build the museum’s 7,000-piece Asian art collection.

Bunker used her connections with high-rolling dealers to secure valuable objects for the museum’s collection. But her relationship with one dealer in particular, the disgraced Douglas Latchford, led the museum to acquire a host of Southeast Asian relics that had been plundered from ancient temples, The Post found in a three-part investigation in 2022.

Museum officials in March announced plans to repatriate 11 pieces tied to Latchford or Bunker. Meanwhile, the U.S. government continues to probe the museum’s Thai collection.

The museum in recent years has also returned stolen objects to Myanmar, India and Tibet.

In 2022, the Denver Art Museum announced the creation of a provenance research team, which now counts three full-time staffers.

Provenance research, Daneo said, is “at the core of our mission.”

“We are truly invested in learning about our collection,” she said.

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For more than a century, visitors to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) have been greeted by a statue of a Native man on a horse, looking up to the sky with his arms outstretched and palms up. 

The statue — titled “Appeal to the Great Spirit” — encapsulates freedom and power for some. For others, it’s a false portrayal of a Native American man who, as one visitor to the museum wrote, is “welcoming visitors onto land that was stolen.”

The museum announced last week a major effort to fight against the image created by the exhibit. As part of an ongoing series, the museum will invite artists to create work that will stand near “Appeal” and seek to recontextualize and “respond” to the statue. 

Artist Alan Michelson, a Mohawk member of Six Nations of the Grand River, will be the first to create a temporary exhibit in response to “Appeal.” Michelson’s project, titled “The Knowledge Keepers,” will be unveiled in November, the museum said.

The exhibit is part of a larger MFA initiative called The Huntington Avenue Entrance Commission, which will invite artists each year to create “site-specific” artworks for the Huntington Avenue entrance.

“I’m honored to be the artist chosen to inaugurate the Huntington Avenue Entrance Commission. In 1909, when Cyrus Dallin cast ‘Appeal to the Great Spirit’ in Paris, the image of the noble but defeated Plains warrior as an exemplar of the ‘vanishing race’ was popular worldwide,” Michelson said in a statement. “In 2024, I hope my site-specific installation will challenge ingrained stereotypes and racial myths by presenting a story of survival and agency, not defeat or appeal, and I thank the museum for supporting this work.”

“Appeal” criticized for perpetuating myth of “vanishing race”

Sculptor Cyrus Dallin created “Appeal to the Great Spirit” in 1909. It was installed at the MFA’s main Huntington Avenue entrance in 1912. Dallin is known for various sculptures throughout Massachusetts, including the Paul Revere statue in Boston’s North End.

The MFA says “Appeal” was praised by critics at the time it was made, adding that Dallin himself thought his work “honored Indigenous peoples.”

“Like the art critics of his time, Dallin had a limited perspective on his work. He likely saw ‘Appeal to the Great Spirit’ as different from negative images of Native people, even though it perpetuated the ‘vanishing race’ stereotype with its anonymous, unarmed figure dressed in a mix of Lakota- and Diné-style regalia,” MFA’s website reads.

Over the years, the museum has said publicly that the statue furthers stereotypical and harmful representations of Native people. 

“Today, the MFA’s interpretation recognizes that the ‘Appeal’ is based on an inaccurate accumulation of Native symbols and ultimately capitalized on the degrading myth of the ‘vanishing race,’ which portrayed Indigenous peoples as disappearing in the face of modern civilization,” MFA wrote in the announcement about Michelson’s upcoming exhibit. 

Michelson grew up in Boston, questioned sculpture early on

Michelson himself is very familiar with “Appeal.” He was raised in Boston and attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and passed by the statue on his commute to school. He often questioned the sculpture even then, he said in a statement to the MFA. 

“What is a statue of an anonymous Plains rider doing in front of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston? Why is he wearing a war bonnet yet unarmed, and also a Navajo necklace? Why is he supplicating?” Michelson said. 

Though the MFA did not release specific details about Michelson’s upcoming exhibit, the artist has worked with various mediums including painting, sculpture, photography, sound, glass, and stone. His art, which has drawn from both Indigenous and Western cultures, was previously displayed at the MFA in 2022.

“The Knowledge Keepers” will be placed on the two empty pedestals outside the Huntington Avenue entrance, according to the museum. 

“We’re honored to launch this initiative with the work of Alan Michelson, an artist who has a long-lasting relationship with the Museum dating back to his student days. He will undoubtedly create a fascinating project that responds directly to the multilayered histories of the space and the communities that we serve,” said Matthew Teitelbaum, Ann and Graham Gund Director at MFA.

MFA has tried to address controversy around the statue for years

The MFA has engaged in efforts to address controversies around “Appeal” for years. In 2019, the museum invited community members to give their input on the statue, acknowledging it has “entered today’s international debates about cultural appropriation, public monuments, and Indigenous erasure.”

“I hate [the statue] and usually use the back entrance to avoid it,” one MFA visitor wrote. “It tells me that the museum isn’t for Native people like me, but for white people and their false impressions of reality.”

Others acknowledged that the statue contributes to harmful stereotypes but said it represents freedom, resilience, and strength. 

“More accurate depictions should be the norm, however, it also must be noted that Dallin’s piece still is one of the few attempts at honoring the history of the indigenous peoples and has some worth,” one visitor wrote. 

In 2021, the museum commissioned artist Elizabeth James Perry to plant native corn around the statue to “serv[e] as a counterproposal to the misrepresentations and erasures the sculpture embodies,” MFA said at the time, describing the statue as “made by a white artist for white audiences.”

When the statue was installed over a century ago, it was never meant to be permanent. But it’s now a central part of the MFA and one of the most reproduced objects in its collection, the museum says. 

“The Huntington Avenue Entrance Commission is incredibly meaningful for the MFA, as it will enable us to create a warmer welcome for Bostonians and visitors from all over the world as they enter the Museum,” Teitelbaum said.

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By Kaili Berg

June 07, 2024

This week in Indian Country, there are plenty of events for everyone to enjoy. From powwows to Native American water blessings and markets, here is Native News Online’s weekly round-up of arts, culture, and entertainment offerings around Indian Country.

Unlearning in Order to Learn: A Conversation about Indigenous Histories
Tyringham, MA
June 8, 2024

Most of us have information in our heads about Indigenous peoples, learned in school or from popular culture. Much of this information is wrong or based on biased assumptions. This lecture with discussion will present the concept of unlearning what we already “know” as the starting point for learning about Indigenous peoples. 

Native Nyyte Lyyv
Spokane Valley, WA
June 8, 2024

Join in to see Indigenous artists of all genres perform live, with an authentic indigenous menu, and arts and merchandise by independent Indigenous creatives.

Native American Water Blessing with Bear Spirit
Dalton, WI
June 7, 2024

Come experience a powerful water blessing/healing through Dennis J. King (Rocky) as a carrier of the bear medicine. As an individual spiritual healer, Rocky has found his passion in life for helping people through the gifts given to him by Papa (creator). His Great Grandfather and Great Uncle were spiritual healers, and now, he continues their legacy. 

Good Medicine Indigenous Wellness Celebration
Reading, PA
June 8, 2024

Join in for a free family-friendly event celebrating Indigenous approaches to health and wellness. Learn about Native American approaches to health and wellness and connect with local resources.

Powwow and the People Who Bring It to Life
Newton, MA
June 8, 2024

Join Indigenous Peoples Day Newton at the New Art Center at the Trio Corridor (245 Walnut Street) to experience Powwow and the People Who Bring It to Life, an exhibit on Native American powwows through the lens of local photographers Scott Strong Hawk Foster and Dr. Rob Adelman.

Marc Brown & The Blues Crew
Juneau, AK
June 7, 2024

Join in for an evening with Marc Brown & The Blues Crew. Throughout their more than 20-year career, Marc Brown & The Blues Crew opened for several big name acts including ZZ Top and Jethro Tull. Their 10th album, Indian Rock’n’Roll, won them a 2011 Native American Music Award for Best Blues Recording and a nomination for Group Of The Year. Their latest album, “Still Got the Blues”, stays true to the band’s danceable blues sound.

Unveiling the Secrets of Plants: Medicinal+Spiritual Ethnobotanical Journey
Pasadena, CA
June 8, 2024

Embark on a captivating exploration of local flora with Tim Martinez, a land steward and naturalist. Learn how various plants have been used throughout history for medicinal purposes, spiritual practices, and more. Discover the fascinating lore behind these plants and reconnect with your ancestral ties to the earth. 

Artisan Market & Spring Stretch at Native Sun
Attleborough, MA
June 8, 2024

Native Sun Cannabis is offering a yoga class to anyone (21+) who wants a valuable experience in mind, body, and spirit without spending a dime. This one-hour class will be held at the North Attleboro location & collaborates with Massachusetts-based Meg Nunes, a Usui Reiki Master and Yoga instructor. Following the mindfulness practice will be Native Sun’s bi-weekly Artisan Market beginning at 11 am. Come on by and support a variety of local creatives. 

Southwest American Indian 2SPLGBTQIA+ Rainbow Gathering
Pheonix, AZ
June 7, 2024

The Southwest American Indian 2SLGBTQIA+ Rainbow Gathering, founded by Trudie Jackson in 2011, invites you to a transformative free one-day conference dedicated to celebrating and supporting the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Delve into enriching discussions and gather valuable resources aimed at uplifting and advocating for the Two Spirit and Indigiqueer community under the theme of Sacred Stories, Sacred Medicine.

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About The Author

Author: Kaili BergEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Staff Reporter

Kaili Berg (Aleut) is a member of the Alutiiq/Sugpiaq Nation, and a shareholder of Koniag, Inc. She is a staff reporter for Native News Online and Tribal Business News. Berg, who is based in Wisconsin, previously reported for the Ho-Chunk Nation newspaper, Hocak Worak. She went to school originally for nursing, but changed her major after finding her passion in communications at Western Technical College in Lacrosse, Wisconsin.

High Point, NC (June 7, 2024) – The Art Gallery at Congdon Yards (TAG) is hosting an artist reception Thurs., June 20 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. for “Once Upon a Muse,” a captivating exhibit by acclaimed artist Sabrina Tillman.

Through a series of thought-provoking paintings and mixed media pieces, this exhibit explores the deep and complex connections between muse and creator.

“As I strive to portray both the strength and vulnerability inherent in the human condition​, my most recent series, “Double Consciousness,” is infused with symbolic elements and imaginative explanatory scenarios as a means of personal self-expression and communication through art,” Tillman said. “These works challenge the viewer to look beyond the surface, engaging with themes of transformation, resilience, and the interplay between the natural and the spiritual​.”

Tillman, a High Point native, graduated from the University of North Carolina with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with a Printmaking Concentration in 1998. Additional graduate studies included Interior Architecture, Advertising and Computer Graphics. She obtained her Master’s in Fine Art Painting & Drawing from the Academy of Art University in August 2020. She teaches art and works out of her private studio in High Point and her artwork is displayed in multiple galleries and collections throughout the East Coast.

Attendees will have the opportunity to meet Tillman and gain insight into her creative process during the reception. Light refreshments will be served. This exhibit will be open until Friday, August 16. 

Also on display is TAG’s Annual Middle School Show. The exhibit showcases the work of students from 15 area schools, featuring a diverse array of 2D and 3D art. The artwork will be displayed until Wednesday, July 26.

The schools participating are Allen Middle, Brown Summitt Middle, High Point Christian, High Point Friends School, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Jamestown Middle, Hairston Middle, Kiser Middle, Swann Middle, Southwest Guilford Middle, The Point College Prep, Tri-City Christian Academy, Wesleyan Christian Academy, Westchester Country Day School, and Western Guilford Middle schools.

The Art Gallery at Congdon Yards (TAG) is High Point’s premier destination for the visual arts. Located in the heart of Congdon Yards, TAG showcases diverse artwork from established and emerging artists in various mediums. The gallery offers a variety of art classes, workshops, and special events for all ages and interests. TAG is committed to making art accessible and inclusive for everyone, and its welcoming atmosphere makes it a great place to gather with friends and family.

India, a country rich in talent, diversity, and culture, has given the world some of the most famous and talented artists across different genres. From amazing painters who blended Indian and Western techniques, to Sitar maestros who collaborated with ‘The Beatles’, Indian artists have given the world some of the best paintings, ragas, voices, and beats.
Here we list some of the most famous Indian artists across genres.