National Native American Heritage Month
November is National Native American Heritage Month, and in honor of that, I wanted to highlight images from An Indigenous Present, edited by Jeffrey Gibson and Jenelle Porter. Published in 2023 by BIG NDN Press and DelMonico Books, this book brings together contemporary Indigenous artists, writers, designers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, choreographers, and more. It shifts the focus from the historical past to the vibrant reality of Indigenous creativity happening right now.
Jeffrey Gibson (b.1972), who is of Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee descent, envisioned this collection as a space where Indigenous artists could be seen in their full complexity, innovative, experimental, collaborative, and deeply rooted in identity and community. Rather than fitting artists into outdated categories, the book celebrates diversity in thought, form, medium, and cultural experience. It shows how Indigenous creators influence one another while maintaining their individual stories and practices.
As a descendant of the Mohican Nation Stockbridge-Munsee Band, it’s meaningful to see Indigenous artists not only preserved in history but also actively shaping the present and future of art, storytelling, and culture.
-View more from our Native American Literature Collection
---Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant
We acknowledge that in Milwaukee we live and work on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Menominee homelands along the southwest shores of Michigami, part of North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee, and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida, and Mohican nations remain present.
