Art museums have this long history of not really engaging with Native peoples, and it’s taken a very long time for museums to come around to truly partnering, collaborating, with Native folks. This project is about revisioning the Native American galleries so that we are showing a people that are alive and vibrant. This is about showing a people that are here and now — contemporary — but also have a very artistic past.
My name is Hillary Olcott. I am the curator of the Arts of the Americas at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. We have been working on a reinstallation of our Native American art galleries here at the de Young museum. We knew that we needed to foreground Indigenous voices and partner with artists, culture bearers, leaders from communities of origin to bring that collaborative work into the gallery.
My name is Joseph Aguilar. I’m from San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. Here at the de Young, we’re engaged in the reiteration of the permanent Native American gallery. We’re working with co-curators who are helping us build a culturally appropriate exhibit that’s representative of not just the museum’s collection, but Native people across North America. My name is Meyo Marrufo, and I am Eastern Pomo from Clear Lake basin and a member of Robinson Rancheria.
When I first came into the galleries, I was asked, “What do you think of the galleries?” And I said, “It’s a lot of beautiful objects made by a lot of dead people.” So what we’re here to do is bring life back into those galleries. My name is Will Riding In. I am Pawnee and Santa Ana Pueblo. Working with this curatorial team, you know, we bring such different perspectives.
We work in different fields. We come from, you know, different parts of the country. But to develop an exhibition like this, we really have the opportunity to disseminate an entirely unique, different story.
So my name is Sherrie Smith-Ferri, and I come from Northern California, up in Pomo country. And Northern California has had an eons-long fine art tradition that is world class. From the very beginning, Pomo baskets have been at the de Young museum. I come from a family of basket makers, like most everybody in Pomo country does. And I was always interested in stories of the baskets and who made them.
Pomo baskets are amongst the finest, I would say, are the finest in the world. We have 10 different weaving techniques, and our people have mastered all of them. Willow can get very big. We cut the largest of the pieces down, harvest whatever we can off of it, and then we let it grow. Weaving is in our blood.
The landscape is inherently a part of who we are as a people.
We live in the places where we belong, where we’re meant to be. For the exhibition, we have a few Pueblo pottery pieces that are ancestral, but we’re also looking at historic works and contemporary as well. So we really want to highlight that, you know, our Pueblo artists are still continuing to make in the same manner that their ancestors have.
Russell Sanchez, the well-known potter from San Ildefonso Pueblo, a lot of his just being as a Pueblo person is manifested in his work as a potter. Potting actually helped revive Native American arts all over the place. You know, it’s a part of our culture. We live it, and I want the kids growing up around here to learn the history and their own culture, see the different designs, different techniques, and get inspired by that.
And carry it on.
It fired nice. Nice color. Nice color.
In the end, museums are about people, and what this exhibit is doing particularly well is representing people through the art. We’re acknowledging the past while acknowledging peoples in the present and future generations.
Clarence Cruz is from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. He really has an emphasis on utilitarian ware. I think that’s so important for Pueblo people because, you know, we’ve always used those pots for everyday use. And he’s still continuing to make those pieces.
Once you lay your hand on the material, you become the guardian of that material from the beginning to the very end. Through all the colors that you might see, pigment and slips, as we’re told, that’s who we are. A reflection of her materials from many, many different cultures and many, many different shades.
My friend Saige Lafountain, who’s a sculptor based out of Santa Fe, he works in a completely different medium: stone. And a lot of his work draws from generational continuance and his own experience as a Native person.
This style is kind of what my dad taught me. He was always telling me, “Don’t make your sculptures look stagnant, you know, don’t make them look flat. Make sure they move. Make sure they’re inviting from every angle.” His artwork is just instilled in him through those family and, like, cultural community ties.
The art represents us as Native people. And so I really hope that these beautiful objects and the collection will, kind of, open up the world to Native peoples and act as a stepping stone into exploring, learning more, about the diverse Native cultures. The approach to curation for this project is different from other projects that I have worked on because we have begun, from moment one, working together as a team.
In past projects that I’ve worked on, there’s one true curator. And for this project, it really has been collaborative since the beginning. We make decisions together. We talk about everything together. That is really lovely. It’s exciting that people are coming from all over to see the de Young, and they’re coming to see this exhibition, and they’re learning about Indigenous peoples, our art forms.
You know, how some of these are made. What’s the meaning behind them? And why they’re being made. Art is part of life, part of everybody’s life in various ways. And we’re sharing that with you. I hope that the Native American children understand the beauty of what their people created. I hope that outsiders, visitors from other countries, come see us and say, “Oh, wow, they made beautiful things.
And look, they’re still here.” My intention for this is that people understand that we are still here, and a very vibrant and a very living community.
