Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast

by Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse (Editor), Aldona Jonaitis (Editor)

Overview

Inseparable from its communities, Northwest Coast art functions aesthetically and performatively beyond the scope of non-Indigenous scholarship, from demonstrating kinship connections to manifesting spiritual power. Contributors to this volume foreground Indigenous understandings in recognition of this rich context and its historical erasure within the discipline of art history.

By centering voices that uphold Indigenous priorities, integrating the expertise of Indigenous knowledge holders about their artistic heritage, and questioning current institutional practices, these new essays "unsettle" Northwest Coast art studies. Key themes include discussions of cultural heritage protections and Native sovereignty; re-centering women and their critical role in transmitting cultural knowledge; reflecting on decolonization work in museums; and examining how artworks function as living documents. The volume exemplifies respectful and relational engagement with Indigenous art and advocates for more accountable scholarship and practices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295747149
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	07/20/2020
Series:	Native Art of the Pacific Northwest: A Bill Holm Center Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	344
File size:	84 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse is director of the Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Native Art, curator of northwest Native art at the Burke Museum, assistant professor of art history at the University of Washington, and coeditor of In the Spirit of the Ancestors: Contemporary Northwest Coast Art at the Burke Museum. Aldona Jonaitis is former director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North, professor of anthropology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and author of Art of the Northwest Coast andThe Yuquot Whalers' Shrine. The other contributors are Karen Benbassat Ali, Janet Catherine Berlo, Iljuuwaas Tyson Brown (Haida Nation), Jisgang Nika Collison (Haida Nation), Karen Duffek, Sharon Fortney (Klahoose), Christopher Green, Denise Nicole Green, Ishmael Hope (Inupiaq and Tlingit), Lily Hope (Tlingit), Kaitlin McCormick, Emily L. Moore, Peter Morin (Tahltan Nation), Lou-ann Ika'wega Neel (Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw), Duane Niatum (Jamestown S'Klallam), Megan A. Smetzer, Robert Starbard (Xunaa Tlingit), Evelyn Vanderhoop (Haida Nation), and Lucy Fowler Williams.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse

PART I. Cultural Heritage Protection: Questions of Rights and Authority

A Bear in the Cedar, by Duane Niatum



Chapter 1. The Seward Shame Pole: A Tlingit Countermonument to the Alaska Purchase

Emily L. Moore

Chapter 2. The Social Life of Stones: Haida hlg̱as7agaa/argillite and the Making of Inalienable Commodities

Kaitlin McCormick

Chapter 3. Morse Code for Creation: Jim Schoppert's Painterly Language for a Postmodern Revival

Christopher Green

Chapter 4. From "Artifakes" to "Surrogates": The Replication of Northwest Coast Carving by Non-Natives

Janet Catherine Berlo and Aldona Jonaitis

PART II. Women's Work: Stories, Art, and Power

One Square Inch, by Lily Hope

Chapter 5. Stl'inll ~ Those with Clever Hands: Presenting Female Indigenous Art and Scholarship

Jisgang Nika Collison

Chapter 6. Copper Seaweed and Woven Octopus Bags: Shgen George and the Art of Resilience

Megan A. Smetzer

Chapter 7. Ellen Neel and Carving on the Coast: Three Decades of Change and Renewal

Lou-ann Ika'wega Neel

PART III. Changing Museums

Let Indigenous Reign, by Ishmael Hope

Chapter 8. In the Spirit of Reconciliation: Rethinking Collections and the Act of Engagement at the Museum of Vancouver

Sharon Fortney

Chapter 9. The Museum Disappeared: Northwest Coast Art and the Object of Display

Karen Duffek, Peter Morin, and Karen Benbassat Ali

Chapter 10. From Behind-the-Scenes to the Front of the House: Here & Now: Native Artists Inspired at the Burke Museum

Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse

Chapter 11. Woosh.Jee.Een, Pulling Together: Repatriation's Healing Tide

Lucy Fowler Williams, with contributions by Robert Starbard

PART IV. Beyond Art

Thoughts on Formline, by Iljuuwaas Tyson Brown

Chapter 12. Soft Robes of Thundering Power: Mountain Goat Fiber Textiles of the Northwest Coast

Evelyn Vanderhoop

Chapter 13. Sayach'apis and the Naani (Grizzly Bear) Crest

Denise Nicole Green

Chapter 14. Tlingit Art

Ishmael Hope

Conclusion. Fifty Years Studying Northwest Coast Art: A Personal View

Aldona Jonaitis

Contributors

Index

What People are Saying About This

Chadwick Allen

"Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast models best practices for Indigenous art studies—and for Indigenous studies broadly. Together, accomplished Native and non-Native curators, scholars, and artist-intellectuals innovate methodological approaches while confronting ongoing legacies of settler colonialisms and academic appropriations. As a bonus, the book is beautifully designed and illustrated."

Charlotte Townsend-Gault

"An example for scholars, in this and related fields, of the kinds of insight and exchange that can emerge when a diversity of voices and different frames of reference are juxtaposed."

Alan Hoover

"A welcome addition to Northwest Coast art historical scholarship."

Sonny Assu

"Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast is a definitive collection of writings that bring a conscious narrative of the past, present and future of Indigenous art. This collection of essays illustrates the thriving cultures that unsettle, entertain, inform, and challenge how art and culture from this diverse region are viewed and understood."

Editorial Reviews

"The volume exemplifies respectful and relational engagement with Indigenous art and advocates for more accountable scholarship and practices."

New Books Network

"The many stories and essays in Unsettling Native Art Histories provided me with valuable new teachings and perspectives. I recommend it highly to people of diverse interests in the fields of art, anthropology, history, ethnology, and contemporary Indigenous issues."

The Ormsby Review

"Given that the apprehension of Northwest Coast Native art is an ever-evolving process, these essays provide readers with an urgently required snapshot of dynamiccontemporary strategies."

American Indian Culture & Research Journal

"[A] valuable contribution to the growing body of scholarship working to center Indigenous voices in Northwest Coast art studies... This volume will certainly become a classic and is an excellent learning tool and essential library addition for anyone interested in Indigenous studies, museum practice, or Northwest Coast art history."

First American Art Magazine

"Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast questions the very notion of art and problematizes colonial approaches to Indigenous art. Editors Bunn-Marcuse and Jonaitis are particularly interested in how overturning Western ideals can unsettle colonial museum practices."

Transforming Anthropology

"Exemplifying the Indigenous methodologies of respect, reciprocity, and relationality, this book is a model for art historians, curators, and other scholars who want to develop more ethical relationships with the communities whose belongings they store, care for, and study, and is highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn from stories of Indigenous lives enriched by renewed relationships with their ancestral belongings."

Western Historical Quarterly

"[A]n enjoyable source to learn about emerging research and writers in its field... For humanities scholars attuned to material culture, museum practitioners, and Indigenous art enthusiasts more broadly, the book is generous in ideas and exemplars to better understand ancestral and current arts holistically and to set new directions for engagement at museums and galleries."

Journal of Folklore Research

"An incredible volume of Northwest Coast scholarship, art-historical analysis, Indigenous knowledge, and a confluence of literary power linked together through intergenerational visioning, Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast signals a change in how Indigenous art is contextualized both academically and institutionally."

Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal