First American Art Magazine No. 0, Spring 2013 | Page 9

W

Editor’s Greetings

elcome to the pilot issue of First American
Art Magazine! This is a labor of love and
necessity. Many pockets within the Native
American art world have amazing dialogue
about Indigenous art, but I don’t see the much needed
cross-cultural platform for these different conversations.
Hopefully, this magazine will hopefully draw more people
into the conversation, about Indigenous art, Indigenous
cultures, and the issues we all face today through the lens of
art.
What makes Indigenous art so challenging to write about
is exactly what makes it so
important.

Why the Americas? Too often Native peoples of the
Americas are divided by language barriers established by the
people that colonized us. For millennia, we interacted and
exchanged ideas and practices that span both continents—
North and South America—from cultivating maize and
tobacco to creating Indigenous language websites. We
have a lot to learn from each other. Our histories haven’t
stopped. Recently, Native and non-Native people from
innumerable countries have acted in solidarity with the Idle
No More movement, resisting attempts by the Canadian
government to strip Aboriginal peoples of Canada of their
sovereign rights.

I grew up in the Oklahoman
Indian art world; my parents
Native art is holistic. It is not
were curators and activists. At age
separate from daily or ceremonial
six, I remember sorting art show
life; it’s not on a pedestal—
invitations by zip code at the
it’s interwoven into our lives,
Center of the American Indian.
from the dance regalia made by
When I was seven, my family
relatives to an exhibition space in
lived on Bacone College campus
a tribal health clinic. While this
in Muskogee. I visited Dick
makes the art difficult to define,
West, Cheyenne artist and art
it also keeps art relevant and
director, at the Ataloa Lodge. In
meaningful in the real world.
high school I rebelled against art
and actually flunked an art class.
Native art is diverse. There
Later on, as a bike messenger in
are thousands of Indigenous
San Francisco, I was starved for
tribes, nations, and villages
Native cultures, and, while doing
in the Americas, who speak
deliveries, discovered first the
thousands of different languages.
Zuni Pueblo’s cooperative gallery
To respect Native peoples is
on Union Street and then the
to respect cultural sovereignty
American Indian Contemporary
and people’s inherent right to
Arts gallery. AICA’s traveling
express their own culture,
exhibit, Indian Humor,
America Meredith, Bringing Harmony into the
religion, and worldview. Each
convinced me to go to college. I
World, 2008, gouache on paper, 21 x 16 in.
group has individuals with
was considering the Institute of
their own perspectives. This
American Indian Arts and saw
diversity is our strength. It’s a
in
the
show
catalog
that
most
of the participating artists had
challenge to come to grips with such a dizzying range of
attended IAIA. Art can change the course of people’s lives.
viewpoints, but too many people have tried to lump us
into an undifferentiated stereotypes. We have a right to be
ourselves, and, as art writers, the challenge is to allow artists
and curators to express their viewpoints.
We don’t all agree, and we don’t need to. The world of
Indigenous art is richer because of the wide variety of
perspectives. Different writers reach different communities.
My goal with First American Art Magazine is to put these
different communities in touch with each other—sharing
information about artists, exhibition