Watch recordings of this virtual symposium.
Join us for a symposium co-hosted by the Field Museum, Northwestern University, and the Newberry in which artists, archeologists, curators, and scholars will discuss how Native people engage with and challenge archives and museums through art, community-based practice, scholarship, and curation.
Taking the hosting institutions as a starting point, participants will specifically consider the materials donated by Edward E. Ayer, whose collection of Indigenous cultural material is a significant portion of the Field Museum’s and the Newberry Library’s holdings.
While most scholarly research has focused on highlighting Ayer’s contributions in “salvaging” Indigenous culture, Indigenous activists, visual artists, anthropologists, musicians, writers, and leaders have also intervened in the use of and access to these collections throughout the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
This symposium privileges these interventions, highlighting how Indigenous peoples have reshaped archives and museums to reflect the needs and interests of their communities rather than those of public institutions.
Schedule (all times CST):
9:30 am: Introduction: Heather Miller (Wyandotte Nation from Oklahoma), Executive Director, American Indian Center of Chicago
9:40 am: Poem: Storme Webber (Two Spirit, Alutiiq/Black/Choctaw)
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9:50-11:30 am: Panel 1: Interventions Within Non-Native Cultural Institutions
Moderated by Alaka Wali, Field Museum
Participants:
Samantha Majhor (Yankton Dakota), Marquette University;
Meranda Roberts (Northern Paiute/Xicanx), Field Museum;
Nina Sanders (Apsáalooke), Curator of Apsáalooke Women and Warriors at the Field Museum;
Eli Suzukovich (Little Shell Band Chippewa-Cree), Field Museum
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11:45 am to 1 pm: Panel 2: Contemporary Interventions from Indigenous Artists
Moderated by Kelly Wisecup, Northwestern University
Participants:
Chris Pappan (Osage, Kaw, Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux);
Frank Waln (Sicangu Lakota);
Andrea Carlson (Ojibwe);
Santiago X (Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana (Koasati) and Indigenous Chamoru from the Island of Guam U.S.A (Hacha’Maori));
Teresa Montoya (Dinè);
Debra Yepa-Pappan;(Jemez Pueblo/Korean), Field Museum
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1 to 1:30 pm: Lunch Break
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1:30 to 3 pm: Panel 3: Just Futures for Archives & Museums
Moderated by Meranda Roberts
Participants:
Analú María López;(Guachichil/Xi’úi), Newberry Library;
Heather Bruegl (Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican and Oneida), Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation;
Margaret Bruchac (Abenaki), University of Pennsylvania;
Stephanie Mach (Diné), University of Pennsylvania;
Rose Miron, Newberry Library
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3 to 3:15 pm: Concluding remarks: Kelly Wisecup, Northwestern University
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