First American Art Magazine No. 5, Winter 2014 | Page 8

Editor’s Greetings

T

HE NATIVE ART
WORLD is vast. There is a
dizzying variety in media,
aesthetics, philosophies,
perspectives, and general approaches
to Indigenous art—how can one
grasp them all? Today, over 52 million
Indigenous peoples live in North and
South America, and an estimated 650
to 930 Indigenous languages are still
spoken. Tens of thousands, if not
hundreds of thousands, of Native
artists are actively creating new works
on two continents.

Our profiled artists range from
emerging to mid-career to well
established in their professional
lives. They work in a broad array
of media—glass, basketry, painting,
printmaking, photography, textiles,
installation, and more. Native peoples
excel at using a wide range of tools
to communicate their points of view.
Our faithful readers may have noticed
that we always showcase the work of
two women and two men in each issue.
Balance is important, as many of our
dances reveal.

Such a broad cultural expanse is
daunting, but also exhilarating. Most
of all, it is humbling. No one can be
the expert of all Native art. We are
all beginners, learning and exploring,
with so much more to understand.

Alutiiq scholar and author Nadia
Jackinsky-Sethi writes about fish skin
as an artistic material, highlighting
how important other species are to
our lives. This shimmering, multihued
textile is both aesthetically pleasing
and practical for its durable, flexible,
and waterproof qualities. Artists
and institutions are partnering in
research, so that artists can bring this
labor-intensive but fascinating artistic
material back to their communities.

First American Art Magazine shares this
unfolding process of inquiry into the
myriad expanse of Indigenous art. We
are grateful to our writers who have
no shortage of superb artists or subject
matter to cover.

Heidi McKinnon, Executive Director
of Curators Without Borders,
shares an introduction of Mapuche
silverwork in southern Chile. The
Mapuche successfully resisted invasion
by both the Inca Empire and the
Spanish and inspire tribes across the
hemisphere. Her article shows us the
importance of understanding an art
from its community context. Among
Mapuche people, the exquisite jewelry
isn’t a decoration for the wealthy
few, but prayers and invocations for
protection.
As an avid student of precontact
earthworks, I have long read about
the monumental tumuli in Ohio,
but nothing prepared me for actually
seeing them in person. Ohio is the
center of earthworks in every possible
iteration—conical, platform, and
effigy mounds and circular, square,
even octagonal enclosures. It took
b