First American Art Magazine No. 17, Winter 2017/18 | Page 10

EDITOR’S GREETING
T
America Meredith
(Cherokee Nation),
God Gives the World
to Arapaho Children,
2004, acrylic and mica
on steel, 36 × 16 in.,
private collection.
HE RELATIONSHIP
between Indigenous commu-
nities and the nation-state has
long been complicated. These
relationships rise to the fore in this
issue, as do the visual arts being a way
for Indigenous communities to engage
with international populations.
The Garinagu are an Indigenous
society descended from Carib, Arawak,
and West African peoples. In the late
18th century, British colonists removed
the Garinagu from their homes in the
Lesser Antilles to an island north of
Honduras. From there, the Garinagu
migrated to Guatemala, Belize, and
Nicaragua. They are both African
diaspora and Indigenous diaspora that
meet the challenge of maintaining their
cultural identity despite their commu-
nity spanning several nation-states.
Peter Szok focuses on the Garinagu
in Belize to explain how Benjamin
Nicholas (1930–2012) and his fellow
Garifuna artists have used painting as
a strategy to assert their identity both
within their own communities and to
the outside world.
Just as Indigenous peoples span
international boundaries, so does their
participation in the art world. Andrea
L. Ferber explores world Indigenous
artists’ participation in documenta
14, a quinquennial art fair established
in Kassel, Germany. This year docu-
menta took the daring step of creating
a parallel fair in the beleaguered
Greek capital city of Athens. While
criticisms have rained down freely
upon the organizers, documenta 14
still offers much for us to celebrate. By
inviting Candice Hopkins (Carcross/
Tagish) to curate, documenta 14 gave
concrete power to an Indigenous
voice. As Ferber leads us through the
Indigenous contributions to the Kassel
and Athens fairs, Hopkins’s choice to
feature the late Kwakwaka’wakw carver
Beau Dick’s series of m asks stand
out as an Indigenous artist showing
an Indigenous art form on a world
stage. This matters, because all too
8 | WWW.FIRSTAMERICANARTMAGAZINE.COM
often contemporary Native artists are
required to conform to the prevailing
Western art practices in order to gain
access to such a platform.
The humble Indigenous art media
of Wixárika (Huichol) beadwork is
contextualized in Kevin Simpson’s
moving account of his friendship with
Jacinto López Ramírez. This Wixárika
spiritual healer passed on in 2007, but
not before making his contribution to
Wixárika art. This unique practice of
inlaying glass beads in beeswax has
roots in ceremonial offerings, and grew
out of the Wixáritari’s need to fund
their increasingly difficult pilgrimages
to their sacred site of Wirikuta to
harvest their ceremonial medicine.
Now an internationally recognized art
form, it can be found far beyond the
borders of Mexico.
Utilizing the visual arts as a way
for Indigenous communities to remain
in their homelands and maintain
their ceremonial and daily cultural
practices is continued in Staci Golar’s
article about the Keshi Foundation, a
nonprofit organization with a mission
to develop “pathways and opportuni-
ties to benefit the people of the Zuni
Pueblo, NM, through their arts and
education.” Zuni is the largest pueblo
in New Mexico and Golar writes that
seventy percent of the tribe is engaged
in the arts as a primary or secondary
source of income. While the art market
is often viewed with suspicion, or as
somehow tainted, the reality is art sales
can and do help Native families live
on their own land and helps parents
provide for their children. To this
end, the Keshi Foundation created the
Zuni Show, an art market that proved
successful in its first year and built on
that success in its second. The foun-
dation’s ambitions continue to grow
and include plans for the possibility of
free Wi-Fi at the pueblo, allowing Zuni
people to connect to the world and to
provide opportunities for their people
on their own terms.
—America Meredith