Indigenous Peoples’ Day | Celebrating Contemporary Native Artists
Indigenous People’s Day was created to honor and celebrate Native Americans, First Nations, and Indigenous peoples, their history, and their cultures, while also highlighting the continued effects of colonialism and systemic racism faced today by Indigenous people throughout North America and especially in Illinois, which was named after the native Illini people and is the ancestral homeland of dozens of Tribal Nations. Today we celebrate a collection of Native artists, designers, and creators who have made their voices heard and showcased their lived experiences through art, and continue to inspire new generations and advocate for a better world.
Marie Watt
Marie Watt, Turtle Clan member of the Seneca Nation, has stitched up her own unique place in the art world, basing much of her artistic practice on the organic experiences of sewing circles. Her interdisciplinary work draws from history, biography, Iroquois protofeminism, and Indigenous teachings; in it, she explores the intersection of history, community, and storytelling. Her large-scale artworks are a collaborative effort between herself and others in her community, as well as an introspection on tradition and gendered rituals.
“Sewing is such a basic matrilineal thing within tribes and what women do,” she says. “I think what drew me most to the sewing circles was just seeing the conversation that happens when your eyes are diverted and you’re working with something that’s regimented and then stories flow.”
Through collaborative actions, she instigates multigenerational and cross-disciplinary conversations that might create a lens and conversation for understanding connectedness to place, one another, and the universe. Watt serves on the board for VoCA (Voices in Contemporary Art) and on the Native Advisory Committee at the Portland Art Museum, and in 2020 became a member of the Board of Trustees at the Portland Art Museum. She is a fan of Crow’s Shadow, an Indigenous-founded printmaking institute located on the homelands of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, as well as Portland Community College.
Wendy Red Star
Raised on the Apsáalooke (Crow) reservation in Montana, Wendy Red Star spent her career upending stereotypical portrayals of Native Americans in photographs, sculptures, videos, fiber arts, and performances. Posing herself in many of these photographs, her humorous and surreal send-ups of stereotypical Native American imagery highlight the problematic and highly flawed nature of these portrayals as well as reclaim them. She also uses many of her works to highlight the systemic erasure of Native cultures, such as the Apsáalooke language—spoken today by just 3-4,000 tribal members primarily living in Montana—because of measures enacted by the US government in the 19th and 20th centuries that required Crow children to learn and speak only English at the boarding schools they were required to attend.
Red Star’s penchant for stirring up controversy through her art began in school. “I was erecting teepees around campus,” she said. “I had discovered that Bozeman, Montana, was Crow territory. I wanted everybody to know that this was Crow territory. I didn’t even think of it as political. I just thought, this is true. It wasn’t until years later that I realized they are saying it’s political because it’s against the colonial standard. I don’t aim to do political work, but it becomes political because it’s talking outside the colonial framework.”
An avid researcher of archives and historical narratives, Red Star seeks to incorporate and recast her research, offering new and unexpected perspectives in work that is at once inquisitive, witty and unsettling. Intergenerational collaborative work is integral to her practice, along with creating a wider forum for the expression of Native women’s voices in contemporary art. Speaking on history and representation, she says, “It is critical to preserve and pass along culture, heritage, and shared values while also providing future generations with a sense of identity, solidarity, and empowerment.”
Jason Hurd
For architect, Jason Hurd, the Dakota Dunes Hotel was more than just another client project. Traditional Dakota territory encompasses a large part of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and the upper Midwestern United States, and its history is as vast as its landscape. Following the buffalo, Dakota people led by Chief Whitecap (Wapaha Ska), made seasonal rounds through the Prairies until the 1870s, when the Canadian government forced them onto reserve lands. The Whitecap Dakota First Nation, now settled slightly south of present-day Saskatoon, is a progressive, 600-person community that strives to preserve its long history and culture in a meaningful and modern way.
Hurd, who is Métis and whose family line hails from the Prince Albert region since the 1870s, has worked in cities including London, Melbourne, New York, and San Francisco, before returning to Prince Albert in 2009 to aid in many First Nations projects. Working closely with the client team and a local Indigenous graphic designer, Hurd’s firm developed an architectural design strongly influenced by the Dakota connection to the land and the four elements. From the lobby to the rooftops, the hotel serves as a uniquely meaningful cultural landmark as well as a viewport to the breathtaking dunes that are distinctive to the region.
Hurd envisioned the space as being conducive to indoor and outdoor celebrations and ceremonies as well, showcasing the heart and spirit held within the Dakota First Nation community. “The community hosted ceremonies there for Truth and Reconciliation Day, with a tipi encampment, dancers and food—everything happening in that outdoor space, with people sitting on the embankment,” he says. “It was very much how we hoped it would function, and it made me very happy.”
Louise Solomon
While much of the Indigenous population still continues to live on reservations, Ojibwe jewelry designer, Louise Solomon, is redefining what it means to be an “urban native.” Solomon, who is from the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, was born and raised in downtown Toronto. Her fine jewelry label, Hand of Solomon, was launched in 2013 and reflects the designer’s upbringing in the city. It fuses elements from her culture—birchbark work, moose hair tufting, fish scale art—with modern motifs, like precious metals and gems. “A biomechanical look is my favorite—a piece that is grounded in nature, but has a futuristic look,” said Solomon. “I aim to bridge both spaces, and show what being indigenous in this time and space means to me.”
Solomon studied jewelry design at Toronto’s George Brown College. Though she grew up in the city, she said she has never felt disconnected from her heritage. “I may have been the only Indigenous student in my school, but it never was a problem,” said Solomon. “Seeing my friends’ beautiful cultures and traditions sent me on the quest to learn more about mine and reach out to elders and knowledge keepers, who have given me a better understanding of who I am.”
By showcasing a more urbane take on her culture, Solomon hopes her nontraditional approach will shed light on the diverse backgrounds and teachings indigenous people hold, and begin to demolish generic stereotypes. “The more we talk about cultural appropriation and bring it to light,” she said, “the closer we can come to reconciliation.”
Cara Romero
Photographer, Cara Romero’s powerful, glossy images shine a light on contemporary and traditional roles, particularly among her Chemehuevi tribe. “Most Californians do not know this history, and do not understand modern Native struggles for recognition and cultural landscape preservation. We are literally invisible,” she says.
An enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Romero was raised between contrasting settings: the rural Chemehuevi reservation in Mojave Desert, CA and the urban sprawl of Houston, TX. Romero’s identity informs her photography, a blend of fine art and editorial photography, shaped by years of study and a visceral approach to representing Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural memory, collective history, and lived experiences from a Native American female perspective.
“As an Indigenous photographer, I embrace photography as my tool to resist Eurocentric narratives and as a means for opening audiences’ perspectives to the fascinating diversity of living Indigenous peoples. My approach fuses time-honored and culturally specific symbols with 21st-century ideas. This strategy reinforces the ways we exist as contemporary Native Americans, all the while affirming that Indigenous culture is continually evolving and imminently permanent.”
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Considered an esteemed elder in the Native art world, Smith has been creating her uniquely complex abstract paintings and prints since the 1970s. Her Native name, “Quick-to-See,” was bestowed by her Shoshone grandmother as a sign of the artist’s early ability to identify the world around her. This innate visual talent can be seen clearly in the way Smith appropriates pop cultural imagery and combines it with her own personal and political symbolism.
In the initial stages of her career, Smith’s painted landscapes inevitably contained a “portrait” of her horse, Cheyenne, shown with tepees, tools, pottery, and other Native artifacts. Eventually, Smith began to incorporate collage elements into her paintings, adding bits of calico and muslin fabric and wire mesh over which she lavished paint. The resulting surfaces acquired a texture and topography reminiscent of the landscapes she was depicting. Smith is part of the new generation of Native American artists who are helping to redefine their culture’s relationship to contemporary American life and its harmful past. She lives and works in Albuquerque, in close proximity to the land that inspires much of her art.
“I look at line, form, color, texture, in contemporary art as well as viewing old Indian artifacts the same way,” she says. “With this I make parallels from the old world to contemporary art. A Hunkpapa drum becomes a Mark Rothko painting; ledger book symbols become Cy Twomblys; a Naskaspi bag is a Paul Klee; a Blackfoot robe, Agnes Martin; beadwork color is Josef Albers; a parfleche is Frank Stella.”
Jeffrey Gibson
Jeffrey Gibson, a Choctaw/Cherokee multidisciplinary artist, feels like he’s been stuck in the same conversation for 20 years. “That conversation is related to the histories of anthropology and ethnography and museology, there’s no lighter space for Native people to talk in public,” he says. “I know the joy of being with my family, memories of being with my grandmothers and my aunts and uncles, laughter and food and humor, a place to put down these overbearing traumatic histories and literally just breathe and laugh. I would like for that to start existing in the way that people perceive Native people, that we’re not always spotlighted with these hugely traumatic, problematic histories that really don’t offer any resolve.”
Born in Colorado, Gibson’s family moved frequently, which helped influence his cross-cultural aesthetic. Through his paintings and sculptures, he employs traditional Indigenous handcraft techniques like river cane basket weaving, intricate glass beading, Algonquian birch bark biting, and porcupine quill work. These methods are used to create dazzling objects like beaded punching bags, signage that reads like woven blankets, and 12-foot-tall fringe curtains that tell stories through color.
His work also centers on his identity as a queer Indigenous man in exhibitions like “Infinite Indigenous Queer Love”, where he hopes to center a different conversation regarding what Indigeneity could look like through light, color, and airy textures. The evolving intersection of LGBTQ+ and Indigenous identities is a subject that hits close to home for Gibson, as he works to highlight the struggles and conflicts of both groups within our current patriarchal societal and political structure.
Jason Surkan
Imbued with a love of architecture from the age of 13, where he grew up in the Treaty 6 territory near Kistapinânihk (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan), Jason Surkan’s architectural journey is one of constant exploration as well as a close connection with home. Surkan is a member of Fish Lake Local #108. His current architectural work allows him to live in his homeland, where his artistic approach is grounded by Elders such as Maria Campbell and inspired by the efforts and ingenuity of ancestors who used their environment for materials. With each new endeavor, he asks: “What is a contemporary Métis architecture?”
For the Round Prairie Elder’s Lodge, a project for the Central Urban Métis Federation Inc. (CUMFI) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Surkan took a lived-in, community- and equity-focused approach. “Architecture should respect and give back to the land on which it sits,” he says. Drawing on local materials and traditional Métis construction techniques, the Lodge is a bright and colorful historical landmark as well as a contemporary ode to the living warmth of its community.
The themes of historical Métis homes continue through to the outdoor landscape, which features a central hearth to encourage community gathering. In this way, Surkan and his team have flipped the colonial experiences of Métis visibility. In the past, says Surkan, Métis homes often took on a European appearance from the outside, while maintaining egalitarian and open spaces inside that were reminiscent of tipi life. Outside the Round Prairie Elder’s Lodge, Métis Elders will now take their place in the sun, enjoying their final journeys as proud Métis supported by one another, and by a place designed with love for the Nation.
Ways to Celebrate Indigenous People’s Day in Chicagoland
In addition to learning more about Native American culture and history via organizations like the American Indian Center Chicago, there are many ways to honor Indigenous history and push for positive change. Below are 3 ways you can take part in Indigenous Peoples’ Day and support worthy causes for Indigenous rights:
Officially Recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day
The Indigenous Peoples’ Day Coalition-Illinois with more than 195 supporting groups, is pushing for Cook County, Illinois to officially change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Join their efforts to codify this change at the link below.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day at the Chicago History Museum
Curators at the Chicago History Museum will host an afternoon of Indigenous Peoples’ Day events at the museum, 1601 N. Clark St., starting at 1:30 p.m. Guests featured will include Indigenous scholar Starla Thompson and Dr. John Low. Find out how to attend below:
Indigenous Peoples’ Day Fest
The city’s first Indigenous Peoples’ Day festival continues 6:30-10 p.m. Monday at the Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln Ave. The two-night fest, sponsored by Sky People Entertainment and the Old Town School of Folk Music, features musical performances and dancing by Indigenous artists, showcasing a variety of Indigenous rock, EDM, hip-hop, Latin fusion and more. Admission is free and donations will be accepted at the door. You can reserve tickets online here.