#jolene rickard

[armchairarchivist]

Jolene Rickard, Photo

[josieandthepussycatsofficial]

These beaded pieces were closely linked to the visitors’ experiences at the falls. By the mid-1800s, Niagara Falls was surrounded by tourist traps, hucksters, and amusements. An “Indian” souvenir was part of the trip. The beadwork meant economic and cultural survival for the Ska ru re. For the tourist, it was a connection to the mysterious force buried in the carnival atmosphere around the falls. Today a piece like the one represented in my photo-collage would be sold for around $125.

As I look at this image of my great-grandmother Flossie and her friends in the Indian Village at the New York State Fair, I chuckle at those silly bark booths and marvel at her willingness to continue this kind of inevitably lopsided cultural exchange. The money put down on the table is merely a token. What is really being purchased is a momentary release from the crimes of the past.

-Jolene Rickard, “Cew Ete Haw I Tih: The Bird That Carries Language Back to Another” Partial Recall

[abtec]

Jolene Rickard | The Photograph as Resurgence

On February 10th, 2017, Jolene Rickard, P.h.D. came to Concordia University to speak as part of the Future Imaginary Lectures.

Jolene is a visual historian, artist and curator interested in the issues of Indigeneity within a global context. She is from the Tuscarora Nation (Haudenosaunee), is the director of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program and Associate Professor in the History of Art and Art Departments at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. She and Skawennati have known each other since 1999, when Jolene contributed an essay for CyberPowWow 2.

The evening started off with warm welcomes from Skawennati, Martha Langford representing the Speaking of Photography series, Heather Igloliorte and an introduction from Jason Edward Lewis who agreed with Jolene’s self-identification as someone who is “always looking for the window left unlatched.”

The lecture touched on various connected topics, such as the relationship between memory and photography, beadwork, cosmology, the concepts of resurgence and sovereignty and the creation story.

Photographs can share information and keep history. The importance of beadwork and its economic, political and cultural significance to the Haudenosaunee people could be seen in the images Jolene showed. The photo of Seneca woman Caroline Parker in her intricately beaded outfit and Jolene’s own works in exhibitions like Across Borders: Beadwork in Iroquois Life were excellent examples. Photographs are also important because communities can collect them if they cannot get access to the physical items they represent.

Jolene noted that she is very interested in when specific articles appear in Indigenous expression. Why do certain artists focus on certain objects and topics at certain times? For example she spoke about the need to create work about the recovery peace after a violent period in time. She considered the concept of resurgence emerging in Indigenous intellectual landscape as a strategy for empowerment and action. The desire to represent ceremony in space and in a future context was also explored.

She mentioned that at one point she was discouraged from going back and forth between making, critiquing, writing, thinking and doing but now more people understand that “we’re idea makers and we find the best way to locate the idea.” Originally, knowledge and stories were shared orally until new tools were discovered. Over time, various alternative forms of expression have been used; such as, carving, beadwork, photography and more.  

This transformation continues happening as projects like Skawennati’s machinimas showcase stories in a form that could not have been imagined generations ago. Jolene spoke about Skawennati’s new machinima She Falls for Ages, saying that it generates a new way to understand the Haudenosaunee creation story in current times. In her opinion, it also celebrates women’s bodies and claims the arrival of Indigenous people to Turtle Island as an act of empowerment.

The Q&A session after her lecture brought up some interesting discussion. She clarified that she isn’t suggesting that the present be ignored, but wondered instead how much information can be shared and how the creative process can help to open new possibilities.

There was a lot of great imagery and topics explored in-depth during this talk. Jolene is a charismatic speaker and best explains her work and the pieces she has chosen to present.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to hear about all our upcoming Future Imaginary Lectures.

[madforfashiondude]

The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian Presents Unprecedented Retrospective “Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist”

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian Presents Unprecedented Retrospective “Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist”

Smithsonian Exhibition Highlights Multi-Dimensionality of Celebrated Painter’s Art For nearly five decades, Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee, b. 1935) has charted an artistic career that is not bound by singular definition. While her early work with Native themes celebrate heroic American Indian leaders with stately, abstract compositions and her more recent heroically scaled paintings recast American…

View On WordPress

[cornellcas]

“The museum understood a core value of indigenous people was food. The nourishment of the body is as important as the nourishment of the mind or spirit,” she said. “And if we look at history, the foods from the Americas changed the world. There are many lessons to be learned in the Mitsitam Cafe.”

Jolene Rickard, associate professor of the History of Art and director of Cornell’s American Indian Program, commenting in this Washington Post story on the National Museum of the American Indian’s restaurant, the Mitsitam Native Foods Café. The story focuses on the museum’s challenges, including confusing displays and poor visitor numbers, with several travel guides saying the cafeteria is the main reason to visit. 

[cornellcas]

History of Art professor joins in symposium on Native American artistic identity

Jolene Rickard, associate professor of the History of Art and director of the American Indian Program at Cornell, is taking part in a panel discussion this weekend in Santa Fe at the Institute for American Indian Arts.

Rickard has been conducting research in 16 different countries culminating in a new journal on indigenous aesthetics. Find out more about the discussion here. 

[elisaharkins]

[tundrakatiebean]

So, I always see quite a few posts about the cultural appropriation of Native American items and patters on my dash. Today I saw more than a few when I scrolled back through. 

I have an article from a class I took a while ago that was in the Anthropology of Art Reader, edited by Howard Morphy and Morgan Perkins (ISBN 9781405105620) by a Native American woman named Jolene Rickard titled "Cew Ete Haw I Tih: The Bird That Carries Language Back to Another"

It is about her interpretation of cultural appropriation, not just in the traditional Native patterns on modern clothing, but the alteration of Native cultural icons by Natives to continue some form of their cultural tradition under modern pressures.

If you would like to read it I've uploaded a PDF copy here