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Native American Arts — Transcript

by Suzette Scotti · 10,163 words · 1,476 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:04hello again welcome back my lovely
0:06students today I'm very happy to share
0:09with you another tradition in nonwestern
0:12art we're going to be talking about
0:15Native American Art in this presentation
0:18and I'm going to be showing you some
0:20examples of beautiful work and I want
0:23you to think about it in the context of
0:27art as a kind of St avior art as um
0:32something that is at the heart of a
0:34cultural Revival that's going on today
0:37amongst Native American communities and
0:40the way that it is helping to bring them
0:44to the attention of the public and to
0:48highlight their accomplishments through
0:50history and um to uh show us their the
0:55importance of remembering these cultures
0:58and celebrating
1:00today so with that said I am going to
1:03share my screen with you and um I wanted
1:08to start with a really sweet image um of
1:12some Native American
1:14children who are dressed in traditional
1:17regalia they are at a a ceremony and I
1:21think that um this picture speaks to the
1:25main theme of today's presentation and
1:28that is as I said the Revival of Native
1:32American cultures through ART and of
1:35course we know that children are great
1:37transmitters of traditions right if we
1:40teach something to them then they will
1:43pass it on to their children and so on
1:45and so forth and that includes
1:47everything from um artistic Traditions
1:51to language to um what we would call an
1:56intangible cultural heritage things like
1:58dance um things like
2:02songs um the perpetuation of myths and
2:06legends right all of these things that
2:08make up a culture um that we want to to
2:13keep alive that are precious um and that
2:16need to be
2:17preserved so we are going to be uh
2:20concentrating today on two areas of the
2:25country because of course there are
2:27hundreds if not thousands of new Native
2:30American tribes but since we have
2:33limited time unfortunately I can only
2:36highlight a few but I'm going to be
2:39talking first about the Navajo and then
2:42um we are going to be talking about the
2:45northwest coast Indians and some of
2:47their Traditions but just for you to
2:49know um if you were doing a more
2:52extensive study of Native American art
2:55you would be looking um at the Eastern
2:58Woodlands tribe
3:01um who make up the West sorry the east
3:04coast of the United States um you'd be
3:07then looking at the Plains
3:09Indians um as well as the southwest and
3:13the California Inter Mountain and as I
3:16said the northwest coast so they
3:18extended all throughout the country and
3:21many of these tribes are still alive and
3:24well today but they have had a very
3:26rough history as we'll see in a moment
3:30and their very existence has been
3:34threatened so when we think of Native
3:36Americans uh a lot of people still refer
3:39to them as Indians um just to be clear
3:42this is not the correct term to use
3:45because this was a misnomer by
3:48Christopher Columbus who uh when he
3:51landed in America in
3:531492 thought he was in the Indies and I
3:56thought I had a bad sense of
3:58direction um and he called the
4:00inhabitants Indians and the name kind of
4:03stuck and a lot of people use it today
4:06but the really correct and respectful
4:08term to use as Native Americans so
4:11anyway a lot of our um image of Native
4:15Americans has been shaped down through
4:17the decades through Hollywood and not
4:20least of all through John Wayne who we
4:23see right here right all those cowboy
4:25and Indian movies um which certainly
4:29were um very
4:31entertaining but um not uh very factual
4:37um and often not very respectful to the
4:40the Native Americans that were being
4:42portrayed right they uh played on a lot
4:45of stereotypes okay so we're gonna go
4:49beyond the stereotypes today and try to
4:53uh get at the essence of the
4:56people so I wanted to uh start by um
5:01mentioning the father of anthropology a
5:04man by the name of France boas who was a
5:07German American Anthropologist living um
5:11around well he lived for a very long
5:14time actually from the middle of the
5:1519th century to the middle of the 20th
5:17century and I mention him because um it
5:22was his enlightened attitude that in in
5:25many ways gave rise to the serious study
5:28of Native American culture cultures so
5:31at the time that Boos was writing um the
5:35prevailing theory about Native Americans
5:39was that they were an inferior race
5:41right so um there was a kind of
5:45hierarchy in the academic world and in
5:48most people's minds that put white
5:51European people at the tippy toop um
5:55followed by Brown and mixed race people
5:58and then indigenous people and then at
6:01the very bottom black and African
6:03peoples so boas was really quite
6:07revolutionary because he said that that
6:11was absolute and total nonsense um and
6:14that that uh in fact smacked entirely of
6:17Adolf Hitler who also believed in a kind
6:20of hierarchy of races with the um Aryan
6:25race being the master master race as he
6:28called it and boa said that that was
6:31crazy and that uh there was no such
6:33thing as one culture being better than
6:35another or One race of humans being
6:38Superior to another um in fact he said
6:42cultures are equal and um we shouldn't
6:46try to rape them uh and so this idea we
6:51call cultural relativism today where we
6:54don't assign value judgments to cultures
6:57we we we look at them all uh objectively
7:00and and on an even playing field so I
7:03think it's very important to keep in
7:05mind that um not everybody subscribed to
7:09these racist theories there were
7:12enlightened people thankfully um as
7:15there still are today um but for a very
7:20long time because um of this theory of
7:24the white man being
7:26Superior um all sorts of terrible things
7:29were done to Native Americans um using
7:33that as an excuse so for example and I
7:36could multiply the examples but I think
7:38a few will suffice um President Andrew
7:41Jackson in the
7:441830s enacted something called the um
7:47Indian Removal Act which did exactly
7:50what it says it basically forced the um
7:55Native Americans who are living east of
7:58the Mississippi River here's the
7:59Mississippi River so everybody who lived
8:03to the east of that River basically uh
8:06had to had to move they had to pack up
8:09and leave and walk all the way over to
8:14present day Oklahoma that's an awfully
8:16long walk um it was called the Trail of
8:20Tears for obvious reasons because over
8:224,000 Cherokee Indians died um along the
8:27way and and why did jaon do this well
8:30simply because he wanted to free up the
8:33land H for White Settlement he wanted to
8:36clear it out and um and had no respect
8:39of course for the people who were there
8:42first and another uh policy not of
8:45Andrew Jackson but of later presidents
8:48was to eradicate the Native Americans by
8:52getting rid of their food supply right
8:55so instead of going out and directly
8:57killing them all they sort of killed
8:59them off indirectly through
9:02starvation and that was by um
9:05slaughtering as many buffalo and bison
9:08as they could because the Native
9:10Americans used these animals for
9:12everything from food to clothing to
9:16their moccasins to tents um they used
9:20every part of the Buffalo and the Bison
9:22nothing was ever wasted and so when they
9:25when the Buffalo and the Bison nearly
9:27became extinct so did the Native
9:30Americans who relied upon them so it was
9:34really uh it was really a horrific
9:37policy and here we have some Plaines
9:40Indian chiefs um very beautifully and
9:43and elegantly dressed sitting proudly on
9:46their horses these are the people who
9:49were suffering because of such policies
9:51these are the people who were dying out
9:54and they are on the very PLS where these
9:57buffalo and bison roamed so um it was
10:01really a very evil policy fortunately um
10:05there was a painter by the name of
10:07George Catlin who saw the beauty and
10:10dignity of Native Americans and wanted
10:12to preserve their culture for future
10:15Generations he was seeing what was going
10:17on that these people were being
10:19exterminated and he wanted to record at
10:22least in paint um for future Generations
10:27what they how they lived who they were
10:31and here we see some of his most
10:33beautiful portraits this is considered
10:35his absolute master piece um it's a a
10:40beautiful Chief uh that he painted In
10:431832 and in fact catlyn um would make uh
10:48five trips out to the American West in
10:50the 1830s so he really saw it before it
10:55changed he was able to capture the last
10:59last Harrah the last glimmers of of
11:02these peoples and their and their lives
11:05before they nearly
11:07disappeared here's another beautiful
11:09portrait that he did capturing this uh
11:13this Brave with his war paint on and his
11:16feathers which were a sign of his
11:19victories in battle and his his courage
11:22of course as well as his necklace
11:26um and he also chronicled uh through his
11:30art this is a
11:31lithograph um so it's a sort of
11:35print the um the games and the sports
11:38that the Native Americans played so this
11:40is actually lacrosse and I don't know if
11:43any of you have heard of the game of
11:45Lacrosse it's it's kind of a game that's
11:47really just played more on the East
11:49Coast but it was a Native American game
11:52um it was adopted later on by Americans
11:56who came and settled here but it was
11:58first played by native
11:59Americans not too many people know that
12:02I think he also was very impressed at
12:05the incredible physical courage and
12:08prowess of these Warriors who would go
12:10out and hunt the bison and risk their
12:13lives and these Bears here he captured
12:16the um incredible drama of a grizzly
12:19bear hunt right where the Bears are
12:22attacking the horses and uh takes quite
12:26a lot of nerve I think um to to do that
12:29so he he was trying to highlight their
12:32courage their dignity their beauty their
12:35Valor and and also how they lived right
12:39in their tents these were the teeps that
12:41the Native Americans erected um the
12:44Plains Indians so these they would often
12:46make from Buffalo or bison
12:48hides um and since they were uh largely
12:53nomadic tribes they liked the teepee
12:56because they could simply pack it up
12:58when it was to move and follow the
13:01buffalo herd so they they followed their
13:03food source um and you can see also that
13:07they would decorate their teeps so they
13:10were works of art in themselves in their
13:12own
13:14right the reality was uh somewhat sadder
13:18so here's a photo from uh Wyoming in
13:221870 this is this was taken after
13:25another Indian Removal where the natives
13:28were forced to um relocate to a very
13:33inhospitable stretch of territory where
13:36there was hardly any water growing food
13:38was nearly
13:40impossible um disease was Rife and many
13:43many many died so they the the Native
13:47Americans were being moved onto
13:49reservations uh where they would
13:51basically be um was almost like being
13:55imprisoned and then just forgotten about
13:57and the idea was you know they have to
13:59fend for themselves and if they die well
14:02more land for
14:04us so um one of the um things that I
14:09showed you a moment ago in George
14:10catlin's paintings were the feathers
14:13right The Feathered headdresses we see
14:15them here we see them here so feathers
14:18are sacred to Native Americans and
14:20particularly eagle feathers I had a
14:23student a couple years ago who was
14:24full-blooded Native American and she
14:27invited me to uh ceremony in town um and
14:32in fact um the people there were dressed
14:35she was dressed in her traditional
14:36regalia there was music and dancing and
14:39traditional
14:40food and during uh one of the dances one
14:44of the eagle feathers accidentally fell
14:46off someone's headdress and touched the
14:48ground and she explained to me that it
14:51would have to be picked up again by the
14:54chief and
14:55blessed so these these were sacred um
14:58objects and and the headdresses were
15:02they were called War Bonnets and they
15:04would be worn by Warriors into battle
15:07and a warrior was never supposed to give
15:10up his headdress um and you would get a
15:13feather if you had performed
15:17particularly well in a battle um here we
15:21see a a beautiful painting with a
15:23gorgeous warb on it that that goes all
15:26the way down uh the the person's back
15:30very Majestic right and of course again
15:33coming back to Hollywood the Cowboys and
15:35Indians theme that's one of the um
15:39features that we always see all the time
15:41on the Native Americans theh the War
15:45Bonnet um they also communicated rank so
15:49um much like think about an old Hawaii
15:52where Chiefs wore feather cloaks um in
15:56Native American society the feathers uh
16:00of the war Bonet signified your rank um
16:04and yeah and uh they like I say they had
16:08to be Bourn during battle and could not
16:11ever be
16:13abandoned so lots of examples of uh
16:17Chiefs uh very dignified this is a
16:20Navajo Chief who
16:23um survived somehow The Long Walk he was
16:27forced to walk over a thousand miles um
16:30in New Mexico to a
16:32reservation um the Navajo were also very
16:36badly treated it's it's kind of a theme
16:38that runs through unfortunately Native
16:41American history after uh
16:44European
16:48settlement so I want to say a few words
16:51about Navajo uh art and Navajo
16:54Traditions so um the traditional Navajo
16:58home was called a Hogan right now we've
17:01seen the TPS that the Plains Indians
17:04used but the Navajo let me show you
17:06where they come from let go back to my
17:09map here the Navajo are part of what we
17:12call the
17:12Southwest right so these are the Plains
17:15Indians who use the teps and these are
17:17the Navajo the Southwest tribes and
17:22they would typically build their Hogans
17:25as they were called um facing towards
17:28the Sun so Facing East because the sun
17:31was a very important um force in their
17:35world right the sun was responsible for
17:38life and again there's nothing new in
17:41this we have seen it with the Inca whose
17:43name means the people of the sun um the
17:46Aztec as well worshiped the sun wanted
17:49to keep the son God happy um then of
17:52course we can go back farther than that
17:54to the Ancients to the Egyptians for
17:57example uh who worshiped the son so this
18:00is um this is a connection that we have
18:04with nature here and Native Americans
18:07are very close to the land they feel a
18:10kinship with the land again much like um
18:14Hawaiians who who love the aa malama aa
18:18we say here take care of the land this
18:21is the exact same attitude that Native
18:23Americans have towards the land it needs
18:26to be protected it needs to be preserved
18:30it is sacred it is what gave them birth
18:34it is their mother just like in Hawaiian
18:38tradition I'm making all these parallels
18:40because we're in Hawaii right and I want
18:41you to start to think right about the
18:44connections so let me just show you a
18:46couple examples of Navajo art um Navajo
18:50tribes are known for these beautiful
18:53carpets that they weave by hand on looms
18:56like this and um traditional ones if you
19:00can really find an old one sell for
19:02thousands of dollars but they are still
19:05making them today they're making them
19:07new following the same uh patterns the
19:10same motifs using the same color
19:13schemes and this is one way that Navajo
19:17uh peoples are trying to revive their
19:21culture and to to make it known to The
19:25Wider world and also to earn some money
19:29because the Native Americans um who
19:32still many of whom still live on
19:34reservations tend to live very badly
19:37very very poor lives very uh High rates
19:41of suicide um abuse
19:45unemployment
19:47um um
19:49drunkenness um crime is high because
19:52they have very few opportunities they
19:54have horrible Health Care System very
19:56poor schools and
19:59um just very very very disadvantaged and
20:03so they do everything that they can to
20:06uh try to overcome those conditions um
20:09and one way is through selling their art
20:13um so traditionally these blankets were
20:15used to cover their homes to keep out
20:18the the elements um and they were very
20:22very beautiful very striking we have a
20:24lovely one in the Honolulu Museum of Art
20:26if we could ever get in there again
20:29um here you see some um women in the
20:341870s who are uh outside making a
20:37blanket on a
20:40loom the other art form that the um
20:44Navajo are known for uh is their jewelry
20:47made out of turquoise and silver which
20:50is very popular today with tourists um
20:53you can buy it online it's on it's all
20:56over eBay it's on Etsy
20:59it's really very beautiful um and
21:01turquoise and silver of course are mined
21:04in that part of the
21:08country the other art form um which was
21:12uh not so much practiced today but
21:15traditionally uh was very popular among
21:18the Navajo was sand
21:21painting so in a sand painting what
21:24happens is um the um elders of the tribe
21:29will create a beautiful painting out of
21:33different colored sand with uh symbols
21:37that are meant to bring healing to a
21:42member of the tribe who is sick so the
21:45member of the tribe will sit in the
21:47middle and um the tribe will gather
21:50around her inside the
21:52teep and sing and chant for days on end
21:58until whatever is making her sick leaves
22:01her body and it gets very very warm in
22:04there and um there's a lot of perspiring
22:06going on which could have something to
22:08do with it because you're eliminating
22:11the toxins from your body that way and
22:14then when the ritual is over the
22:17painting is
22:18destroyed um and they're very beautiful
22:21but unfortunately yeah I mean from an
22:24artistic point of view it's a shame
22:26they're destroyed but they are destroyed
22:28because they are believed to contain the
22:31illness that um came out of that
22:34patient's body and so the Sands are
22:37scattered to the Four Winds um and they
22:40go back to nature but again that's a
22:43great example of what I was speaking
22:44about a second ago with uh their
22:47connection to Nature right nature is a
22:50source of life and a source of healing
22:53and therefore must be respected um and
22:57protected
23:01okay so now moving on I want to take a
23:05look at um another group of um Native
23:09Americans the Northwest Coast tribes
23:12they actually prefer to be called bands
23:15but um it means the same thing so we're
23:17speaking about groups of people who live
23:20in uh British Colombia and um if we look
23:24back again at our map I am speaking
23:28about
23:29these tribes right here um the northwest
23:33coast in the light purple okay so we're
23:36talking about uh the northwest coast of
23:39the United States and going on up into
23:44Canada so I don't know if you have ever
23:46been to this area of the country but it
23:48is stunningly beautiful British Columbia
23:51they call it British Columbia the
23:52Beautiful on their license plates and
23:54you can see why so a couple years ago
23:57husband and I um rented a car for a
24:00couple weeks and we drove everywhere
24:05around British Columbia it was one of
24:07the most stunning places I have ever
24:10been it was late summer so the weather
24:12was perfect the light was Exquisite and
24:16you can literally drive for a 100 miles
24:19and not see another human being it is
24:23nature at its finest and purest you only
24:26see trees and mountains and bears and
24:29deer and it's very wild and very
24:33unspoiled if you like that sort of thing
24:35it is heaven on Earth and who wouldn't
24:38like it right so um one of the things we
24:42did is we took a lot of fairies because
24:45if you see uh the map here right British
24:47Columbia is uh bordering the Pacific
24:50Ocean and there's a whole bunch of
24:52islands off the coast here and fairies
24:55that go in between and um
24:59uh we went out to one of those little
25:02islands that was um still
25:05preserving uh Native American culture
25:09and I'm going to talk to you about that
25:10in a second I just want to mention uh
25:13the prime minister of Canada justan hudo
25:17who when he uh was elected a few years
25:19ago made a solemn vow to
25:24redress the um inequalities and and the
25:29um this the shameful there's really no
25:32other word for it history of the
25:35Canadian government towards Native
25:37American tribes and he uh he said and I
25:41quote I have his quote right here I
25:44commit to you that the government of
25:47Canada will walk with you on a path of
25:51true
25:52reconciliation key word here yeah in
25:55Partnership and in friendship I will not
25:58lose sight of that goal because you know
26:00it's important to remember that it's not
26:02only here in uh in America that um
26:05native peoples were were mistreated and
26:09um and cheated it also unfortunately
26:12happened in Canada and at least under
26:15their president their prime minister
26:17rather um amends are being made of
26:20course you cannot erase the past but at
26:23least if you have Goodwill right you can
26:26make the present and the future better
26:30so let's look a little bit at uh some
26:32geography so here is British Columbia I
26:34mentioned a moment ago all of the
26:36islands off the coast and these islands
26:41um are inhabited by many different bands
26:45or tribes of Native Americans we can see
26:47some of their names here and again we
26:50can see uh some of the Magnificent uh
26:53Landscapes that uh make up this region
26:56of of the world
26:58and our husband and I took a boat from
27:03Vancouver Island this huge Long Island
27:07here it's called Vancouver Island and we
27:10hopped on a boat and we took it over to
27:13alert Bay can see it right up there tiny
27:17little place because we had a B&B there
27:20and we kind of almost discovered it by
27:24chance so here's the ferry we took um
27:28and it took us over to corar
27:32Island and right away I knew that
27:34something very special was happening
27:37because as soon as we disembarked from
27:39the ferry the first thing I saw was a
27:43first
27:44Nations
27:46Cemetery which was dotted with these
27:48beautiful Majestic totem poles and in
27:52fact there was a sign right please
27:54respect the ngus marial grounds to be
27:57viewed from the street only so that's
27:59why my photo is a little bit far away
28:01but um these totem poles Mark the grave
28:05sides of the quac quaca wak Chiefs I
28:09know that's a bit of a mouthful but the
28:11quac quaca wak are the uh tribe that
28:15inhabit even to this day Corran Island
28:18and that's what makes this such a
28:20fascinating place especially if you're
28:22an anthropologist um because it's very
28:26rare indeed that you get to see Native
28:28Americans in their original locations
28:32where they haven't been uprooted and
28:34moved and resettled somewhere else um
28:37and Corran island is one of those places
28:39it's tiny little place but half the
28:41island is inhabited by by Native
28:46Americans and when I saw those totem
28:48poles I was reminded of other places um
28:51uh in the Pacific Northwest and in uh
28:54Alaska I don't know if you've ever been
28:56up there but there 's a place called KET
28:59keton yes um that also has many totem
29:04poles and even um totem poles projecting
29:08from the chief's house and basically um
29:12a totem is a non-human
29:16ancestor so um Native Americans believe
29:20that in the beginning of the
29:22world uh we we we all transformed from
29:26one form to another so so we might have
29:29started off Life as a bear and then
29:31transformed to a human being and human
29:34beings could transform back into Bears
29:37or Ravens we might have been Ravens who
29:41who then became humans and and vice
29:43versa so there was a kind of very fluid
29:48um uh no real boundary between between
29:53life forms in those days um when the
29:55world was new and so so so many Native
29:58Americans um of of the Pacific Northwest
30:01believe that their ancestors were Bears
30:05or uh Eagles or Thunderbirds or
30:09Ravens um they see absolutely no um no
30:14conflict in in that concept at all they
30:16they were not human um if you if you
30:19were to draw your family tree right you
30:21you'd have you and then your parents
30:23your grandparents great-grandparents
30:25right and I'm sure that you imagine them
30:27all As as humans right you may even have
30:29photos of them if you were Native
30:32American you might imagine your um your
30:35grandmother as a bear um and and her
30:39father as a wolf um and so on and so
30:42forth and and these were always animals
30:44that had qualities that they admired
30:46right so a bear very protective right I
30:50think Mama Bear right um my mom is like
30:53that um uh think Eagle right an eagle is
30:57a fantastic Hunter um they have super
31:00good eyesight they can see from hundreds
31:03of feet up a tiny little rabbit on the
31:05ground and swoop down and get him um
31:08Ravens had um the reputation for being
31:11super clever also kind of tricky and
31:14kind of kind of mischievous um those
31:17could be human qualities too I guess
31:21um well let's see what else
31:24um I mentioned Bears yeah salmon even
31:28right so fish um very nourishing um
31:32think about fish being a staple of the
31:34diet there in the Pacific Northwest um
31:37Alaskan salmon right famous to this day
31:40buy it at Costco all the time so all of
31:43these animals were revered for their
31:45qualities these were qualities that
31:46humans wished that they could have the
31:49speed the strength the agility the
31:51courage um of these animals and so the
31:54totem poles reflect that let me show you
31:57a closeup uh because um they show in the
32:01same way that we would have our family
32:03tree they show their their ancestors
32:06they're totems they're non-human
32:11ancestors and the Art of carving totem
32:14poles um is is a very intricate very uh
32:19complex art and there are very few
32:21people left in the world who have those
32:23skills and this is part of the problem
32:26with Native Americans is that many of
32:28these um artistic Traditions are on the
32:31verge of dying out
32:34because you know um they're not passed
32:37down and that's why in recent years
32:39there's been a very conscious effort to
32:41revive them and not to let them die to
32:44teach them to the young people um as
32:46well as not only the skills but but the
32:49language of their ancestors because
32:52these are languages that are dying out
32:54right think about same thing in Hawaii
32:57right how Hawaii language nearly died
32:59out it was only in the 1970s when the
33:02Hawaiian Renaissance began that you
33:05could start studying Hawaiian at
33:07University um at uh right you could take
33:10Hawaiian studies and Hawaiian immersion
33:13schools emerged um it's kind of a
33:17similar movement going on with Native
33:19Americans there's a conscious desire to
33:22transfer this knowledge to the younger
33:24generation so that it is not lost
33:26forever
33:28now you'll notice throughout the
33:30presentation that I've given you a bunch
33:32of links and I'm not playing them all
33:34because um it would make the
33:35presentation too long and too heavy I
33:38couldn't save it but I do want you to
33:40watch them they're only a couple minutes
33:42long and they're all super well and
33:44carefully chosen so um even though I'm
33:47skipping them now when you go back
33:49through this and you'll have a copy of
33:51the PowerPoint in um on laa make sure
33:53you please watch them okay
33:57so this is a picture another picture
33:59that I took on Corran Island we were uh
34:03we were walking around because the place
34:04is so small you don't really need a car
34:07and I mentioned salmon a moment ago and
34:09um in fact on one of the
34:12houses um there were symbols of salmon
34:16so these were created by Native American
34:18Artist um to um praise the salmon right
34:23because think about what salmon do they
34:26um they're extreme m l uh strong animals
34:30they swim against the current um so they
34:33are associated with perseverance
34:35strength with even with uh the cycle of
34:39life right because they swim upstream
34:42they um lay their eggs and then new
34:44salmon are born so they they perpetuate
34:48themselves um and they appeared on
34:51somebody's
34:53house and to my point a second ago about
34:56the uh the Lang anguage right so the
34:58quac quaca on Corran Island um actually
35:02have their signs in quac quaca and
35:05English so that's kind of interesting
35:08right kind of like in uh Quebec you will
35:11see signs that say stop and also in
35:15French so it's a language is culture
35:18right I mean we can't really separate
35:20them you keep the language alive you
35:22keep the culture alive the language dies
35:24the culture dies
35:28okay so here I am petting one of my
35:30favorite little animals here this is the
35:33Haida
35:35bear which is a beautiful wooden
35:37sculpture created by an artist named
35:39Bill Reed who was a Native American
35:42artist from the Haida tribe and the
35:45Haida tribe are one of these Northwest
35:48tribes um and in fact they have the
35:50distinction of of considering themselves
35:53to be the very first
35:56humans that's something right and I am
35:59actually in the anthropology museum at
36:02the University of British Columbia where
36:05some of Bill Reed sculptures are on
36:07display by the way it's a fabulous
36:10Museum if you ever get a chance to visit
36:12the UBC campus I would highly recommend
36:15a
36:17visit so um in that same museum is Bill
36:20Reed's most famous sculpture it's called
36:23The Raven discovering Mankind in a clam
36:27shell
36:28kind of an interesting title right and
36:31and when we speak about Mankind we mean
36:34the Haida people the people I just
36:36mentioned right who believe that they
36:38are the first humans and The Story Goes
36:41that um there was Raven who was flying
36:45above the Earth and uh he
36:49spotted this kind of Strang looking
36:51clamshell and he heard these weird
36:54sounds coming from underneath it and he
36:58took a closer look and saw all these
37:01creatures hiding really scared didn't
37:04want to come out um and luckily for them
37:08he had just had a big lunch so he wasn't
37:10hungry um and he coaxed them out he said
37:14you know don't be afraid the world's a
37:16nice place come on out have a peek um
37:19and he he he got them to come out and
37:22they became the first humans so that is
37:26the Haida creation myth and once again
37:30um we see the link to Nature right and
37:34we see that really close bond between
37:36animals and
37:40humans so there's a closeup I took kind
37:43of funny I see a lot of humor in
37:46this and um here is the actual myth um
37:51which I won't play for you now but as I
37:54said please watch on your own just about
37:58three and a half
37:59minutes um but what I would I do want to
38:02play for you is this little snippet and
38:05this is an overview of a different
38:08University but also in British Columbia
38:10an excellent university called Simon
38:13frasure and they also have a really um
38:18superb uh collection of Native American
38:22artifacts and in
38:25particular they feature uh works by Bill
38:28Reed so I think uh that it is worth
38:31taking yeah a little peek at
38:40that okay let's have a look
38:51[Music]
39:06Simon Fraser University is very
39:08privileged to be the recipient of the
39:11collection of art that is currently held
39:13by the bill Reed foundation and that
39:16collection is a very valuable collection
39:18it includes many Masterworks by Bill
39:21Reed one of Canada's great artists Bill
39:23Reed uh quite simply uh is one of
39:26Canada's most a knowledged and famous
39:28artists he personified in many respects
39:32a
39:33revitalization and a uh a Renaissance of
39:36northwest coast
39:38art the bill Reed foundation will be
39:41continuing to manage the gallery that
39:43houses The Collection Simon Fraser will
39:46take on the collection itself and I
39:48think that will strengthen a partnership
39:50and a relationship that already exists
39:53that partnership is made all the more
39:55viable and desirable by virtue a very
39:57generous donation from philanthropist
40:00Michael odain his million dooll
40:02contribution is going to enable the
40:03gallery to provide more exhibits and
40:05ensure that the collection is
40:08wellmaintained in the years ahead while
40:10the bill Reed Gallery is based on the
40:12Masterwork of Bill Reed it is also
40:15dedicated to the promotion of
40:18contemporary First Nation artist their
40:22art and their culture it's a great day
40:24to be here it's uh with great pride to
40:27to follow protocol of Squamish slav
40:30tooth MIM and the other coish nations
40:33who we shared this territory in which
40:36this Gallery sits here today so I just
40:40like to say Kayton that's our word in
40:41Squamish as welcome it was Bill Reed's
40:44dream for his personal collection to
40:47find a home in Vancouver ideally in
40:50downtown Vancouver in a central place of
40:54our community where guests where fellow
40:57members of the heida First Nation were
40:59other First Nations where vancouverites
41:02British Colombians Canadians tourists
41:04from around the world could come and
41:06look at contemporary native art we want
41:08to be known as a university that not
41:10only provides its students with an
41:12outstanding education that not only
41:14engages in worldclass research but is a
41:16university that in every way possible
41:19contributes to the betterment of the
41:20communities at serves the collection of
41:22this value which features northwest
41:25coast art and particularly the
41:27extraordinary art of Bill Reed is of
41:29huge educational value and benefit as
41:31well as of uh of value to the public so
41:34this collection will inform our teaching
41:37Mission it will uh provide benefit for
41:39students and for researchers uh and it
41:41will enrich the learning environment uh
41:44within Simon Fraser
41:48[Music]
41:55University wonderful and that's
41:57something that I want to stress here is
42:00that uh the mission of this University
42:03and the anthropology museum at UBC and
42:06other similar institutions is education
42:10it's to teach the world about these
42:13cultures um and especially visitors from
42:16overseas they're very keen to attract
42:18people from Europe people from around
42:20the world um who may not be so familiar
42:24with um North American native uh
42:28cultures and so very much uh a teaching
42:31Mission and I also want to uh repeat
42:35something that he said he said the two
42:36magic words um
42:39revitalization and Renaissance that's
42:42really at the heart of uh the Museum's
42:45Mission and uh there are so many
42:47examples even right here in Hawaii when
42:50we get to um discussing uh the art of
42:53the Pacific um in a later presentation
42:56I'll be talking a bit about Bishop
42:58Museum whose mission is very much the
43:01same right to teach um people around the
43:04world about these wonderful cultures um
43:07and to increase our appreciation of them
43:11so I I I hope that you also have a
43:14chance to visit the the museum at H
43:17Simon
43:18Frasier okay so let's go back for a
43:20second to the
43:23PowerPoint and um
43:27I also so I've been mentioning about
43:29with the revitalization of culture not
43:32only visual culture but language and
43:35along with that comes um uh film right
43:39because of course film is often
43:41considered an art as it should be and in
43:44in um British
43:46Columbia recently they managed to make
43:49an entire film in the Haida language um
43:53not a lot of people speak Haida so they
43:56need to study very hard um they needed
43:59to practice but the idea was to show
44:02that this culture is not dead the
44:04language is not gone it's not extinct
44:08it's not an ancient culture that is only
44:10relegated to the history books or the
44:12museums it's very much a living entity
44:15and um if you have 10 minutes to spare I
44:19would really recommend watching this
44:21clip because you'll hear what the heida
44:23language sounds like it's it's a real
44:25treat
44:28okay so now um I want to talk about one
44:32uh tradition very uh popular with
44:35northwest coast bands and that is called
44:38the Potlatch and the word Potlatch means
44:42to give and I have a bunch of notes here
44:44but basically in a nutshell what a
44:46potlatch is is like a big party it's a
44:50big celebration um where family gets
44:53together and it invites um its neighbors
44:58and it's to celebrate uh the birth of a
45:01child or maybe the passing of a of a
45:05loved one or um a
45:09marriage or if a chief is passing his
45:13rights to his eldest son
45:15so it's a ceremony to um uh to celebrate
45:21an important event in the life of that
45:22tribe um and it's full of feasting it's
45:27full of dancing with masks um with music
45:31and the idea is that the um Family
45:35holding the pot latch gives away a
45:38tremendous amount of its wealth uh it
45:41gives money it gives material
45:44possessions things of value to show its
45:47gratitude to the guests maybe the guests
45:50supported the family at a at a very
45:52difficult time when the family needed uh
45:55monetary support or or Military Support
45:59or just emotional um support it's a way
46:03of giving back and the more you
46:06give in the culture the more you get so
46:12the idea is that um by giving you show
46:17not only your gratitude but it's also a
46:19status symbol right because you want to
46:22be remembered as a good generous person
46:25who um who had the the right values and
46:28who valued family and community and
46:30neighbors and kinship um and and
46:34actually now you would think what is
46:36wrong with that but um the Canadian
46:39government banned hot latches until the
46:441950s if uh Native Americans were caught
46:48celebrating or attending pot latches
46:50they could be arrested yeah I kid you
46:53not why um well a couple re
46:57first of all Christian missionaries
46:59thought that these were haagan
47:01ceremonies and so therefore they should
47:02be
47:03outlawed um they they mistakenly
47:06believed that cannibalism uh took place
47:09during
47:11them as for the Canadian government they
47:13didn't like it because they said um you
47:16know it's uh there are too many people
47:19who aren't working during these
47:21celebrations they should be out there
47:22working and making money and this is a
47:24slap in the face to capitalism because
47:26just giving stuff away you're not
47:28selling it for
47:30money um yeah and but the worst thing
47:34maybe the worst thing hard to say um
47:36that happened not only with the this
47:39band and this was a major part of their
47:41culture but many of the masks that the
47:45um people used to celebrate during the
47:48pot latch that they would wear when they
47:51danced uh were confiscated by the
47:53government and given away to museums and
47:58um this was a tremendous loss to the
48:01people because these masks were part of
48:04the culture they weren't just objects
48:07they contained spirits and I'm going to
48:10come back to that idea in a minute but
48:12um I wanted to give you an idea of what
48:15a pot lash looks like so here you see
48:18all the invited guests who are attending
48:21you see um totems right so um evidently
48:26this Family claim descend from the um
48:30the eagle um and you see all the gifts
48:34laid out in front right so a tremendous
48:37amount of wealth is being transferred
48:39from one group to
48:41another and part of that as I mentioned
48:44a moment ago was the use of these masks
48:47and we're going to look at some of them
48:48now they're called transformation masks
48:51and basically
48:53um here we see a whole bunch of them
48:56lined up in the omista cultural center
48:59but basically coming back to that idea I
49:01mentioned before um native peoples
49:04believed that they could transform from
49:07one form to another from an animal or a
49:10bird to a human and back again and they
49:13have all kinds of myths that are part of
49:17their culture um and that relate to
49:21stories about about such Transformations
49:24or Metamorphoses
49:27and um what we see here in the omista
49:30cultural center which is located on
49:33corand island where I told you I visited
49:36with
49:37husband um they were able to get these
49:41masks back so so what happened was in
49:44the
49:441950s the the Canadian government
49:47finally relented and they said okay you
49:49can you can practice your pot latches
49:51again so at that point um many many
49:54Native people said well give us back our
49:56stuff right you took our masks away you
49:59took our precious objects give them back
50:02and the Canadian government said not
50:04unless you can a show that they were
50:07illegally taken so the burden of proof
50:10was on the native peoples right even
50:13though they had been the
50:14victims and second condition was that
50:17they had to have a place to store the
50:21artifacts which was problematic in many
50:23cases because as I said um many of these
50:26people were very poor so in the case of
50:30uh Corran Island they raised the money
50:33to build a beautiful um Heritage Center
50:37called the omista cultural center and
50:40omista is a word in quak Waka walk which
50:44means the return of something precious
50:47and that's exactly what this building
50:49contains it contains repatriated right
50:53returned objects that were that were
50:55confiscated
50:57illegally um from the people and I um I
51:01was able to take this picture because I
51:03asked permission it wasn't easy I had to
51:05sign a lot of forms but there it is um
51:09because they don't like to photograph
51:11these objects they're sacred
51:14objects and I'm going to show you now um
51:18a little snippet on the um to Cultural
51:22Center because I think um it's a it's a
51:26very important place to visit and it's
51:29very important to bear in mind that
51:31these are not Museum objects these are
51:33living things that contain their
51:35ancestor
51:39Spirits we're so used to just seeing
51:41Museum pieces in a case right but these
51:46go beyond that they are not just objects
51:48for the people let's watch
52:09[Music]
52:29[Music]
52:31a lot of people may or may not know that
52:34this culture was banned by the early
52:35Canadian government and uh from 1881 to
52:391952 around that time that it was a
52:42criminal offense to dance and sing what
52:44you're' seen today
52:58omista means when something's returned
53:00to its rightful owner so like these
53:02masks were wrong wrongfully taken when
53:04they came home they were omista that
53:05they were returned to their rightful
53:07owners this whole part of the building
53:09would represent a treasure box because
53:11in ancient times sacred Mass such as
53:13these would wouldn't be publicly shown
53:15ever except in the dance and the
53:17ceremony this collection here which is
53:20world renowned as the Potlatch
53:23collection it is those objects that were
53:25confiscated by the Canadian authorities
53:27at when they banned the potash ceremony
53:30so it was like 6 years to negotiate for
53:32the return of all the objects that you
53:34see around us as I look around the
53:37objects here and and just think about
53:40some of the families that are here um
53:44the hanu family the hunt
53:46family these are the grouping of Duna
53:50masks this one here is my grandfather's
53:54this is a great legacy in our culture
53:57representing what tribe we come from
53:59what family we come from for thousands
54:01of years of History our culture goes
54:04back at least 10,000
54:08years all of these objects that you see
54:11around us were presented in one form or
54:14another uh even pre flood
54:19[Music]
54:22days the visitors are very important to
54:25us so
54:27if we have something as valuable as this
54:30Potlatch
54:32collection and if we want people to come
54:34to understand it and respect it we have
54:38to invite them to come and visit us
55:12oh
55:15we hey
55:32okay so I think that you could sense
55:34their pride right as they spoke and as
55:38they performed these are such precious
55:41objects in such precious rituals because
55:44they nearly lost think about something
55:47that means so much to you that is that
55:49is connected to your very soul to your
55:53identity as a person right as as a
55:56people that that's connected to your
55:58family that's connected to your
56:00ancestors to your history and then
56:03imagine that somebody comes and tries to
56:06take it away wouldn't it become all the
56:08more precious to you and then imagine
56:11they do take it away but you manage by
56:14some miracle to get it back imagine
56:17right what value it would hold for you
56:20so I I was um actually in that um gift
56:23shop in the um Easter Cultural Center
56:26where um you're able to buy all kinds of
56:29beautiful um um things like uh let's see
56:33I bought this I bought this DVD on uh
56:37the pot latch right because remember the
56:39idea is to educate and to invite people
56:43in to learn about the culture um I got
56:46this one pot latch to give right that's
56:48what the word
56:50means I got this one called box of
56:52treasures which talks about um the
56:55omista culture Center it is the box full
56:57of these
56:59Treasures um and I bought a couple of
57:01really wonderful books that if we were
57:03in class I would read to you from but
57:06kind of hard to do on a video um one is
57:09the quac cudal
57:10Legends so these are some of the stories
57:13I told you about um about a
57:16transformation right from a bear to a
57:19human and Back Again they're really
57:21interesting stories um that they they
57:24teach the children um and so they grow
57:27up knowing their culture and and I got
57:29this one too um Pacific northwest coast
57:32abigal art what am I seeing which talks
57:36all about um about the art and what it
57:40means and the various symbolism behind
57:42it and it's a terrific little book so um
57:46I do want to take this opportunity to
57:48say that if you're really interested in
57:51this particular part of the course that
57:54is indigenous traditions nonwestern art
57:57you might want to take my art 290 class
58:02which um articulates with art 390 over
58:05at Manoa so if you're thinking of transl
58:07uh transferring um it would it would
58:10certainly transfer um but that's where I
58:13concentrate just on non-western Art of
58:17Africa the Americas and the Pacific so I
58:21go into much more detail about um these
58:24various topics so
58:26anyway keep it in mind um I hope for um
58:31a future
58:33semester okay so let me see where were
58:37we um yeah so these are some of the
58:42masks the I'm pointing here to a raven
58:45mask um I'm in the umist to Cultural
58:48Center still and in fact as I mentioned
58:51before the Raven is kind of a
58:53mischievous character in in walk waa
58:57walk Legend he's the guy who stole
59:01fire um and freed the Sun so um he he
59:06has a whole slew of stories that are
59:08very um entertaining to read associated
59:11with him but again right you heard the
59:14woman say this was my grandfather's mask
59:18it it is part of who they are it's not
59:20just an object for display in a case
59:23with a label right none of these objects
59:26were created for that purpose they were
59:28all created to be used and that's
59:32something that you need to keep in mind
59:33in general when you're speaking about
59:35indigenous art is that um for example
59:39The Masks right the objects that they
59:41used in ceremonies they were not created
59:44to be studied by anthropologists and art
59:46historians and and putting museums
59:49that's where they ended up um but that
59:52wasn't their original
59:54purpose here we we have going way back
59:57right at least a hundred years ago we
59:59see um some people wearing traditional
1:00:04costumes with the Raven masks right
1:00:07celebrating their ancestors whom they
1:00:10would believe were
1:00:13Ravens and I mentioned that concept a
1:00:16moment ago of the transformation masks
1:00:18so these are the kinds of masks they
1:00:20wear during the pot latch and I want to
1:00:23um show you what they look like on the
1:00:25outside and on the inside so this one
1:00:28represents an eagle mask it's from the
1:00:30late 19th century we see the eagle
1:00:32feathers which we know are precious and
1:00:35then watch what happens when we open it
1:00:38up it's like magic right so you pull
1:00:41open the cords the Wings open and it
1:00:44reveals a face and whose face is this
1:00:48that is the face of an ancestor your
1:00:50ancestor looking back at you who could
1:00:52transform from a human into an eagle and
1:00:56back
1:00:59again this is a quac quac walk whale
1:01:02mask from alert Bay Corran Island where
1:01:06I was isn't it beautiful so we see this
1:01:10whale we see his fins he's he's
1:01:12breaching he's flying through right
1:01:14coming up out of the water like you
1:01:16sometimes see if you go um on the walk
1:01:19over in Haw Kai right um the makapu
1:01:22lighthouse walk and he has his mouth
1:01:25open right so so they have moving Parts
1:01:28they're beautifully made um this is a
1:01:32quac waa walk Thunderbird mask also from
1:01:36alert Bay where I was Corran Island and
1:01:40watch what happens when we open this
1:01:42one right we see again the face of an
1:01:47ancestor and Thunderbirds are very uh
1:01:49important creatures for Native Americans
1:01:52because they believe that they are the
1:01:54ones who create the Thunder
1:01:56enlightening um and they also are
1:01:59believed to protect babies yeah so uh a
1:02:04lot of interesting associations
1:02:08there and if you're interested in
1:02:10learning a little bit more about um the
1:02:13collections in the museums um I've shown
1:02:16you two already but uh the Muse the
1:02:19American Museum of Natural History at
1:02:21the Smithsonian in Washington has a
1:02:23beautiful collection and this this this
1:02:26little link four minutes is worth
1:02:27watching give you a nice
1:02:31overview so uh before we finish up today
1:02:35I want to touch on another topic that is
1:02:37closely related and that is um
1:02:40nagpra so we've been talking about
1:02:43Native American artifacts that are in
1:02:45museums right but we haven't mentioned
1:02:49things like human remains the bones of
1:02:53people right we've discussed the masks
1:02:55things like that but what of human
1:02:58remains so back in 1990 nagpra was
1:03:03passed and that is a law that stands for
1:03:06Native American Graves
1:03:09protection and repatriation act and in a
1:03:13nutshell what it says is that um if a
1:03:16Federal Institution like a museum or a
1:03:19university um is receiving Federal
1:03:22monies
1:03:24then they must make every effort they
1:03:27can to repatriate human remains um as
1:03:32well as any remain uh as objects rather
1:03:35that are considered sacred to the Native
1:03:37American tribes from whom they were
1:03:40taken so um very important this was a
1:03:43real landmark in um art history because
1:03:47it was a way of saying a way of making
1:03:51amends and a way of showing that we
1:03:55respect
1:03:56these peoples and um they they of course
1:04:00were saying you know we want our
1:04:02ancestors bones back we don't want them
1:04:04lying in some drawer in the Smithsonian
1:04:07right we want to reberry them so as to
1:04:11free their spirit so their Spirit could
1:04:13continue on its Journey because their
1:04:16spirit is not is not um at rest it's not
1:04:19at peace right now that these are not
1:04:22things that are just meant to be studied
1:04:25right because there's fundamentally a uh
1:04:29debate going on between the academic
1:04:31communities and the Native American
1:04:33communities for the Native Americans
1:04:35these are not
1:04:36um these are not objects right to be
1:04:39just studied and and written about these
1:04:42are their grandparents their great
1:04:44grandparents their great great
1:04:45grandparents these are their people
1:04:47these are their ancestors so there's
1:04:50this kind of tug-of-war um between the
1:04:52scientific and academic community on one
1:04:54hand and
1:04:56the native peoples um that these objects
1:04:59belong to so again uh quick video that I
1:05:04think um I think you'll find very
1:05:07touching every time I watch this I I get
1:05:10kind of choked
1:05:12up um and again it reminds me of so much
1:05:15of the conversations going on in
1:05:20Hawaii so watch and they took the 10,000
1:05:23year old mom we
1:05:26remains got Le cave back
1:05:29here here and took him to the
1:05:33university and they were there for 50
1:05:36years and when the law actra came and I
1:05:41went through that thing looking at it
1:05:43and
1:05:44I told the council I'm going to go get
1:05:47that stuff I'm going to see if these
1:05:49guys really being what the law said
1:05:59[Music]
1:06:09nebra is the Native American Graves
1:06:11protection and repatriation act it was
1:06:14passed in 1990 primarily to uh remedy a
1:06:17situation that tribes had discovered
1:06:20that the remains of their ancestors were
1:06:22on museum shelves it's easy to just
1:06:24think oh it's just another law but once
1:06:26you actually start working with the
1:06:29people who this affects it it's really
1:06:32powerful I went up
1:06:35there and I told him I want that stuff
1:06:39return for
1:06:43reburial phone calls letters from all
1:06:46over the country came to my office you
1:06:48can't do
1:06:50that were they're there to be studi
1:06:53they're there to educ in
1:06:57people they want to do study some they
1:07:00want to know how we were alive how come
1:07:02they didn't ask me I'm still here I'm
1:07:04part of
1:07:06this ask me not looking and disturb the
1:07:10bones of my
1:07:12ancestors they don't belong stashed in
1:07:15some shelf in a museum or a university
1:07:18or somewhere else because they belong
1:07:20here and it helps the tribes it gets us
1:07:24back on trapped who we are and got them
1:07:28back and we reped them these were people
1:07:32like it's no longer just the history
1:07:34books that we're looking at we're
1:07:35looking at actual people and their
1:07:39modern descendants you know we can never
1:07:43totally erase what was done in the past
1:07:47um but the fact that we're moving
1:07:50together and we're seeing other each
1:07:51other's point of view really is healing
1:07:54things
1:07:56this world is very different people
1:07:59might think well why do you want to BU
1:08:02like their way of they but for us it's
1:08:06not like that that's where the respect
1:08:09comes in for your
1:08:12ancestors that they have to have their
1:08:15stuff they need to
1:08:17be buried back so they can continue
1:08:21their Journey because as long as they're
1:08:23floating around out there and somebody
1:08:26University or somewhere they're not
1:08:28going to be at rest and that causes
1:08:30problems throughout our lands a great
1:08:33analogy people say is well would you
1:08:35want someone going and you know digging
1:08:37up your grandmother and it's very
1:08:39similar to them because they are their
1:08:41ancestors they are their family very
1:08:43distant family but they are their family
1:08:46and a lot of tribes have a very very
1:08:49strong link to their family they're
1:08:51still around here waiting for this St
1:08:54until they get a b and tell they bear
1:08:57with them and they'll be on their
1:09:04[Music]
1:09:09way very touching isn't it very powerful
1:09:13it it boils down to respect at the end
1:09:15of the day but the beauty of nagra is
1:09:18that it provides um a forum for dialogue
1:09:22between the Native American tribes and
1:09:24the museum Museum so um the museum has
1:09:28been able to work with the people to
1:09:30repatriate some of the remains and some
1:09:32of the artifacts but it's not always
1:09:35that cut and dry because um very often
1:09:38they the museum doesn't know to whom to
1:09:41return these things because um the tribe
1:09:44has moved or they can't find traces of
1:09:47of the people right whose ancestors are
1:09:50there and so um but at least I mean on
1:09:53the bright side
1:09:55a dialogue has begun and uh an era of of
1:09:59mutual respect and a spirit of
1:10:02reconciliation um has started thanks to
1:10:05nagra so so it's good it's all good and
1:10:09let's hope that um that it will
1:10:11continue okay so uh a couple more words
1:10:15here I wanted to just um go off from
1:10:19that for a minute to mention that um
1:10:24yeah um we we see parallels of this in
1:10:27Hawaii like I've said a second ago and
1:10:31um we see um really the conflict
1:10:36wonderfully well I think in this cartoon
1:10:38right so we have modern science here
1:10:41which is the archaeologist right who's
1:10:43going on a site digging up something
1:10:45that's sacred and then uh saying yeah
1:10:48we're just doing a little research but
1:10:51um literally uh crushing right the
1:10:54culture that he's standing on and saying
1:10:57you know not not realizing that it's
1:11:00it's more than just something right to
1:11:03be studied about studied and written
1:11:05about but the other um issue that we run
1:11:08into a lot is the auction houses that
1:11:11want to profit from the sale of Native
1:11:14American artifacts and they have become
1:11:18extremely popular and um extremely
1:11:22expensive and all the big auction houses
1:11:25from New York to London to Paris have uh
1:11:28started to put native um artifacts up
1:11:32for sale um even when they have been
1:11:37petitioned by the tribes not to do so
1:11:39because the tribes will say these are
1:11:41very sacred objects to us and they they
1:11:45can't be sold they have to be given back
1:11:47the auction house wants it's it's money
1:11:50right they want to make their commission
1:11:51from their sale so more often than not
1:11:54the sales go ahead head and I've
1:11:56actually given you two one minute clips
1:11:59of um two auctions in Paris of Hopey
1:12:03tribal masks so Hy um are another Native
1:12:07American tribe and these masks are
1:12:10extremely um sacred to them and it was
1:12:15heartbreaking uh for them to see them go
1:12:17up go up at auction but you know there's
1:12:20not only the tug-of war with the
1:12:22academic and scientific Community but
1:12:24also with
1:12:26with the the the auction houses for
1:12:28profit right there's money to be made so
1:12:31so so the Native Americans are fighting
1:12:33battles on a lot of different
1:12:37fronts and um once again I would invite
1:12:40you to think about uh parallels with
1:12:43Hawaii which we'll be talking about um
1:12:46in a future presentation when we talk
1:12:48about objects that have been repatriated
1:12:51to Hawaii um when we consider efforts to
1:12:57um um extinguish the Hawaiian Culture by
1:13:01uh forbidding Hawaiians from speaking
1:13:03their own language um by forbidding the
1:13:06practice of hola right which reminds me
1:13:09of the the practice of the pot latch so
1:13:12I think uh you'll start to see a lot of
1:13:15sad connections but to end on a positive
1:13:19note um there is that revival going on
1:13:22not only amongst Native Americans but as
1:13:25we'll see very shortly um in Hawaii as
1:13:28well so I hope that uh this
1:13:30presentation's given you some things to
1:13:32think about and um giving you an
1:13:35appreciation for non-western cultures
1:13:38and i' just like to conclude by saying
1:13:40that um 50 years ago you probably would
1:13:44not have been studying Native American
1:13:47art um you would have been focused
1:13:50exclusively on European and Western Art
1:13:53on Greece and Rome and and all those
1:13:55wonderful Traditions but at the
1:13:57exclusion of uh the art of the rest of
1:14:00the world right the world is more than
1:14:03just Europe um so I'm I'm really glad
1:14:06that uh this is a global survey because
1:14:09I think that um these Traditions deserve
1:14:13as much um attention and respect so
1:14:17thank you um for tuning in and I hope
1:14:21that we have lots of uh interesting
1:14:23things to discuss uh when we meet okay
1:14:27take care and I will say bye for now

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