GS: How do you plead the cause of your museum? It is an instruction center, teaching Navajo language, culture and history. There are several reasons for that. The design of the museum is the same. For the Navajo culture, there is a law of energy that exists. Yes, but is it the same? HW: The idea of preservation and methodology for preserving are seen as contradictory, a sacrilege to the tradition. And now it is only 6 nights or days, sometimes less, down to one day or two. During the Reagan administration, funding was lowered. Ceremonies are done here. English-language Poetry and the Pictorial, State and Culture in the English-Speaking World, Opera and National Identity in the English-speaking world, Driving Innovation in Anglo-Saxon Economies: Comparative Perspectives, Aspects of the Irish Book from the 17th Century to the Present Day, Biography versus Fiction: The Value of Testimony, Opera and Society in the English-speaking World, The United States through the Prism of American and British Popular Music, Higher Education in the English-speaking World, Images of Derision, Images of Exaltation in the British Isles from the 18th to the 20th Century, Intellectual Property, Copyright & Plagiarism, A digital resources portal for the humanities and social sciences. We have travelling exhibitions from the Smithsonian, but they are hard to fund, and we have no security system, it’s one of the requirements before they loan their collection. When it rains, we say that they mate. This college has always had funding problems for the past 27 years. There are some for other blessings: for good fortune, for education, for graduation or birthday. But the reality is first that they haven’t and second that, when there is a little money, the museum is the last one to get any. Most tribes thought museums would generate funding. It s one of the largest exhibits of fine Navajo rugs ever displayed at a museum, and the only word that can describe it for Navajo Nation Museum director Manuelito Wheeler is overwhelming. We don’t have a separate building for religious purposes. It is very important in our culture and spirituality. For us it is just like that. But some people working here were rejecting that: “Medicine bundles are used in prayers, in ceremonies”. People sleep on the West side. Education has changed… Everything has changed…. The items will be on loan as part of the museum's planned exhibit on Chief Manuelito, which will open with a public reception at 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 27. Cecilia Nowell . We have several medicine men that teach them and we have at times ceremonies for the faculty and bring them out. Now, many of our students do not speak the language, do not know much about our culture. We are part of that order, which is perfect. There is an interrelation, the way the sun travels across the sky and it introduces changes. 3 0 obj And both work together. Who can decide? They made us believe that tradition is the enemy of progress. They often come from a society that looks differently at the world, that reflects on who you are and on your behavior differently. And people do not realize that, but one day that is going to be gone. Everything on earth is affected by that. Museum curator Clarenda Begay concurred. Experience as a museum professional, cultural arts producer and curator confirmed her belief of the inherent power of utilizing cultural learning as a tool to engage and build stronger communities. This college was started then and the Navajo people had a program to build Navajo cultural centers. Navajo Historic Preservation Department. We have the sky, the sun, the stars in relation to the earth. It is holistic. So we are not going too well. If we tamper with them, you can be affected negatively. The Portland Art Museum's Native American art collection dates back to 1948. The spiders know how to use their powers. But it did not work. <>>> It saw it as an obstacle and tried to lead us to the American mainstream. On the North side, we have the medicine bundles to protect us. Working in … Gérard Selbach (GS): Essentially I am doing research on the reasons why Native Americans have been opening museums, “tribal museums” as they are sometimes called, and on whether Native curators have implemented a specific museology in tune with their beliefs and rites. Who has control over the conservation?” It was decided it would be the Navajo Nation and its representatives. Hearing the great Autry Museum of the American West president, W. Richard West, Jr. (Cheyenne Arapaho Nation), discuss the state of museums, or Navajo Poet … 1Harry Walters was appointed as the museum director and only curator on the opening of the Diné College, Diné meaning “Navajo” in Navajo language. It is Western thinking that considers separation between religion and science. 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GS: So, this is what you teach your students on this campus. The Museum's education program is implemented by our Education Curator and Navajo Cultural Specialist. Between 1977 and 2007, the Navajo Zoo was managed by the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department as the number of animals and enclosures grew from the single black bear to over 100 … The Curator will oversee the presentation of the Fall 2021 incoming traveling exhibition, Color Riot!, from the Heard Museum, featuring Navajo textiles from c. 1860 to 2018. I am currently working on two museum projects: the National Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, VA, where I am their Special Materials Expert assisting in the expansion of their WWII Navajo Code Talker display and, the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, AZ, where I am currently designing an exhibit of Kenji Kawano’s photographic work on the Navajo Code Talkers. For example, you have Indian museums run by non-Indians, like the Smithsonian museums, or Indian museums run by Indians for Indians, and they are not going very well, like everything else in the country, like education or businesses, because, if you want to know, we are at war with the government. Weaving is the only art where designs and colors are at discretion. The modern Navajo Nation Museum is located in Window Rock and is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the rich and unique culture of the Navajo Nation. GS: Has NAGPRA improved the lot of tribal museums? We are allocated between one and two million dollars. When there is a shortage of money, people say: “Why do we have a museum? So we now have thousands of tapes that are very valuable for instruction. There is no conflict. We are two people in one. It is still in force and it has worked against us. In the Navajo Nation, Anarchism Has Indigenous Roots. Rich in history, the Navajo are beautiful! Good morning, I'm Mandy Larkin, the associate curator of public programs at the museum and welcome to the the Navajo Nation and the nineteen pandemic with Professor Jennifer Dale on February 20th at 11 AM will host a free online talk called far from isolated resilience and adaptation among the in the twentieth century with how Samu Miguel Chavez He is a PhD candidate in … Our bodies, the sun, the stars are internal organs of the sky, just like the canyons and rivers, lakes are the internal organs of the earth. She previously organised numerous exhibitions as Associate Curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, New York City and Washington, DC. Rapheal Begay is a photographer and curator from the Navajo Nation. But I don’t hear that very often now. Check out the artifacts and buy a memento of your travels! You make a mistake intentionally. HomeNumérosVol. Weaving connects Father Sky and Mother Earth and comes from the various elements recognizable in the designs and colors used: rain, rainbow, mist, dawn, night. CRCS issues permits to conduct cultural resource investigations and collect ethnographic information on the Navajo reservation. According to our beliefs, the Spiderwoman taught the Navajos how to weave. This museum should be a special place to teach this. In the old days ceremonies lasted nine nights or days. Our traditions teach the soul and education teaches you skills that bring bread on your table.” This is the way we see it. Les contenus de la Revue LISA / LISA e-journal sont mis à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International. This Tribal Park is the current home of the Navajo Zoo, Museum, and Parks and Recreation Department. Ceremonies are called upon to help both sides to work together. endobj Our bodies are replicates of that order. When there are illnesses, it is because we transgress against this order. However the competition is very high. The ceremonies take place there. GS: Why have so many tribes opened museums? On the South side, the classrooms where knowledge is transmitted, where you have computers, tools, farming tools and others. In 2017, he obtained his BFA in Art Studio with a minor in Arts Management and Certification in Museum Studies from the University of New Mexico. Beside publishing articles and contributing to conferences, he has published Les Musées d’art américains: une industrie culturelle (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2000) and is about to release Les Musées amérindiens: du vol du sacré à la métaphore identitaire (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2004). HW: Yes, and the campus is organized in the Navajo hogan manner. They took a lot of Navajo stories on tapes. They will be better persons. They learned 500 songs or chants, now only a dozen. Local taxes do not exist. Medicine bundles have powers of healing when used by a qualified medicine man in ceremonies. My son is an engineer and he asked me one day: “Who is right? x���r����3��^p�3��e;Qc+�l�ӱ� �Х� ����{.��]�"yh;�H`���s���٦��i����O��}s}�.��'���O���nO�6������V����g������I��E����#�d���2ͤNJ��%����Q���~z�����|!���/�j�\�/�ٯ�%�'�����K8����*�p�}�H��>��Ȝájv�\�;�?�� 9m�E����r�ڪ��VI=}mw+'����k��;k������/�?/�L`����y�����u�E=[����?��Q�j��:U��+�U�DR�u*�Y{��[8l�(4x��9�q�N��vs=_T3~�4+X�$����6 Navajo Nation Museum is a museums and institutions company based out of Highway 264 & Post Office Loop, Window Rock, Arizona, United States. There are not two different entities. It is an interesting museum/library/gift shop/lecture hall. Anyway our main problem is, and has always been, money. There is always a loose thread at corners to suggest continuity, there is no end. The same goes for Loomis, the artist credited on about a dozen drawings at the Lander Pioneer Museum. When they left they gave us songs, chants, prayers. 2-��(4��oQr�?�� �,�U�,l����T!H=���4��1�E�Ry�eZ�ik�>���ܷ�Ryˤ�"���7D�/�T�B�g��|���|)��<4� �r�����{��˘�UyZ�! Les nouvelles aires culturelles des minorités en paroles : entretiens amérindiens, Interview with Harry Walters, Navajo, Director of the Diné College Museum, Tsaile, AZ, USA, October 29, 2000, “Interview with Harry Walters, Navajo, Director of the Diné College Museum, Tsaile, AZ, USA, October 29, 2000”, New Avenues in Paul Auster’s Twenty-First Century Work, Bypassing Confusion to Understand the Trump Phenomenon, The Specificities of Kitsch in the Cinema of English-Speaking Countries, “Based upon a Life”: The Biopic Genre in Question, Capitalism, Education and Research: The Anglo-Saxon Model Reconsidered after the Financial Crisis, Identity and Alterity in the English-speaking world (16th-18th centuries), Anglo-Saxon Capitalism and the English-Speaking World: Paradigms Reconsidered, The UK’s Political Landscape in the 21st Century: Players, Strategies, Achievements. The effort took three years as translators searched for ways to marry intergalactic Star Wars speak with a communication form grounded in ancient and often earthly traditions. =���� ���vs�7x�ᬳt�(�J����LK���vn��"�_�)f�O�ݢç��=pq�gi���,Re����p����[d�F��~H���r�_B�g�u?��w@� Harry Walters (HW): It is true that the idea of a museum is quite new to us. Video. Life changed dramatically afterwards. Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock: Hours, Address, Navajo Nation Museum Reviews: 4.5/5 Gérard Selbach, “Interview with Harry Walters, Navajo, Director of the Diné College Museum, Tsaile, AZ, USA, October 29, 2000”, Revue LISA/LISA e-journal [Online], Vol. When we have a problem to solve, we turn to the medicine man. HW:  One good reason for the existence of the museum is that what is preserved in the museum, like ceremony paraphernalia and records of ceremonies, is still used and practiced. We also have a traditional Navajo rug. Navajo ceremonies are related to that. There are many ceremonies for each illness: hearing, headache, etc.. That works against us. GS: How are your culture, traditions and beliefs transferred into the way you exhibit artifacts? The works are innovative to include traditional and contemporary designs and technique states Clarenda Begay, Museum Curator. Before we open an exhibition, we consult the medicine man to know if we do not infringe any sacred rule. We don’t have that. We have to accept that. The body replicates that. He is also a contemporary art critic with . The relationship with the government was done to protect Indians from landswindlers. Mission Statement: Striving to achieve Hózh? GS: How do you resolve the issue of conservation? We have gradually been downsized from six to one floor, and the rest of the building has been turned into classrooms. for the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, Arizona. HW:  We are part of the college, the Center for the Diné or Navajo people. II - n°6 | 2004, Online since 30 October 2009, connection on 15 January 2021. The photography of Diné photographer Rapheal Begay presents an account of the Navajo Nation—without ever directly portraying any people—by focusing on the land and the material and visual culture of the people. It is also a teacher-training center in language for the Navajo Nation. The sixties were a timeline: it was the last “traditional period”: women were still wearing the traditional Navajo dresses, people would still use horse-drawn wagons and live in hogans without electricity and running water. And all creatures live these changes, the cycle. They are kept in storage and slowly deteriorate. But we are eligible for Federal aid from the NEA, NEH or IMLS. It has never been in our culture and the word does not exist in any of the Indian languages. Les musées amérindiens : des lieux de mémoire ou d’anti-mémoire ? Arts and American Minorities: an Identity Iconography? through contemporary and traditional exhibits, programs and tours; to promote our Diné culture, language, history and sovereignty. �'ͪd�>~t�æ6sn��d��s?7,�7(�`?���� ˼��O�������rGba��Ar誺0��c"@.f݊\?s���5��mO��Fly�)k�'��0 ��?W��Y2�!pY�n[k8� The profession of curator, with its opaque requirements, seemed inaccessible, despite her own education and experience. -Pv��3lk��iD���-�����$y@~�@�l`��^���/�ߓ4�ÞH��@o"C�q���9�Ê��zt_Y�[��"����vӠ�S����v�/�!���Ɯ���'1_^�0L���d�E�v��r��f��+){F�;jh��L���1WW�`��#�i�v��a��B�o�j��6��`Akn�aI1�8H They can release negative powers. HW: We follow the laws of conventional museum practices in exhibits, care of collections. Beyond the Horizon: Re-imagining Ireland? If you are in the area, please stop by! A poet, filmmaker, and weaver who grew up on the Navajo Nation Reservation in Arizona, she had aspired to play a role in supporting and preserving the work of Native American artists like herself. “It was a disservice”, they said. We do not pay State tax but Federal tax. Navajo Nation Museum. GS: Do you have a collection of your own? It affects us very much. Curators' Corner Ask Smithsonian ... Covid-19 Relief Fund distribute food and other essential supplies to isolated communities and farmsteads on the Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation. Do we need one?”. The Navajo Nation Museum is home to a few non-profit events that I have been involved with over the years. Kevin Gover is the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and a citizen of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. (Portland Art Museum) After a three-year lapse, the Portland Art Museum once again has a curator … HW: After the Repatriation Act was voted in 1990, there was a hot issue: “What is sacred? URL: http://journals.openedition.org/lisa/2815; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/lisa.2815, Dr. (Paris V, France)Gérard Selbach, assistant professor at the University of Paris 5, France, and researcher at the CERLIS-Paris 5 and the National Scientific Research Center (CNRS), has as a main field of research American art, art museums, Native American museums and museology. “I want them to be able to do artwork,” Begay said. The Navajo Council makes laws and now talks of taxes. Clarenda Begay | Window Rock, Arizona | Museum Curator at Navajo Nation Museum | 223 connections | View Clarenda's homepage, profile, activity, articles Site map – Intellectual Property, Copyright & Plagiarism – Legal information & credits – Hosting – Syndication, OpenEdition Journals member – Published with Lodel – Administration only, You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search, Entretien avec Harry Walters, Navajo, directeur, Diné Community College Museum, Tsaile, AZ, États-Unis, Native American Museums: “Places of Memory or of Anti-Memory?”, Art contemporain amérindien : Trois portraits d’artistes sans masque, Exhibition: the new cultural areas of minorities in images, Entretien avec Joanna Bigfeather, Cherokee, directrice, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum (IAIA), Santa Fe, NM, États-Unis, Entretien avec Vernon Haskie, Navajo, artiste joaillier, Lukachukai, réserve de la nation navajo, AZ, Etats-Unis. 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