When   I got the e-mail where they asked to work on Art for a New Understanding, I knew that it was going to be a transformative role. Not just for me, but for museums, so one of the biggest blind spots I would say in museums that are dedicated to American art, is the story of Native American art, which has been very formative to the whole reason why this place is here. So, it's deeply meaningful to try to begin to sketch out/up some of those histories to ask that question, to also ask the question as to why that blind spot was there in the first place. For some Native artists, it was a little bit contentious, because they don't necessarily want their work to be understood as American. Because their work and their practices predated the very formation of the United States as a country, in a very specific kinds of states as well. so, we had to bring that question of cultural determination, sovereignty into it, too. I think with part of that, there is a great responsibility. Because when you are trying to kind of correct a historical record, you have to think about who you are representing, how and why, and also for whom. I think those are the questions that really stayed with me as I was working on this. I am really hoping now, that this exhibition actually is kind of a starting point for others.

I think any kind of exhibition is a survey, and this is a survey of Native art both in the US and Canada since the 1950s, you hope that it sparks something. I would say that these kinds of surveys of which we included over 40 artists would spark something in terms of not just the question of why am I not seeing this kind of work in other museum exhibition that I have been to, but also perhaps someone especially a Duke student will look at an artist, like Spider Woman Theater and think, why hasn't there been an in-depth study of their practice? You know, they are the longest running women's theater in the US, and they have a really important history that needs to be known, so I think at the very best exhibitions can spark something, not just land to the general knowledge, but in fact, lead to other projects, perhaps other dissertations. I think that is why it was really important for this exhibition to come to a university campus. It originated at Crystal Bridges, which is a museum that is in Bentonville, Arkansas, kind of very different context than Duke, but I always hope that people be surprised from what they see. This is something we also anticipated at Crystal Bridges, because I think especially for Native American art, it carries a lot of preconceptions with it. I hope that those preconceptions are thrown out the door as you soon as you step into the first room, when you realize that one of the biggest things that these artists who were working in the 50s up until now wanted to be understood as was in dialogue with their peers, whether in the 50s with modern artists or now with contemporary artists. To see their work as shaping that field in a very definitive way.

One of the responses that we had right from the beginning was 'wow, that is so colorful' but when you look at the history of Native American art, that should not be a surprise, considering that if you think of something that is elaborately beaded , it's incredibly colorful, it's incredibly abstract, has its own very defined ideas of what a Native aesthetic is. I thin k that the color might be surprising to some, and maybe a lens to the idea of something that is euphoric. I also think that, artists are approaching a lot of what they do with a great deal of humor. The only way you can sort of talk about some of the questions they are talking about, which is the formations of this land , and potentially dispossession sometimes through the lens of humor, because that is what brings us together.Ê

When we were organizing ÒArt for a New Understanding,Ó it was also at the time of standing rock and the water protectors, so one of the questions that we had was thinking about the histories of Native American activism but also thinking about why is it this very moment of time that everyone is all of a sudden interested about a lot of issues that Native artists have been talking about for ages, for decades. That thinking about land, thinking about rights of water, not just our rights to water as human beings, but the rights of water itself, which is a kind of shift, I think in perspective. In part I think there is a renewed look because people are starting at the world a little bit differently, we are starting to think about our impact on the world differently at this moment in time, and as a result, we are starting to think of our past differently too.Ê

When I was young, there actually weren't any museums, there was a civic museum, but it focused mostly on pioneering history around the Alaska Highway. But even from a young age, I thought there can be space for other kinds of representation and other kinds of voices. That is why i got into being a curator, transitioned from being an artist to a curator because I though always that art has a possibility to be a space for freedom. For freedom of expression, for freedom of different voices and I felt that if I was to work from the inside, then I could make the kinds of exhibitions that I always wanted to see.

There are a lot of artworks I feel connected to, because they are favorites, that's why you see them on the wall, they are works that I have thought for a long time, and I think that holds true for the other curators as well. I am always proud when I can walk into an exhibition and see artist like Daphne Odjig, who was one of the co-founders of the Woodland School with works in the 50s that were pretty racy. Then, an artist like Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun and this single painting that was inspired or painted in reaction to a clear-cut, is his most famous image, and it was shown in an exhibition that for me, it was really important, and that was in 1992 in Canada. It was called 'Lands, Fear, Power: First Nations of the National Gallery of Canada" It's an image that I even saw when I was in high school, and the opportunity to include it in an exhibition was really unprecedented.Ê

We live in a moment when things are increasingly polarized. One of the ways to get past that idea of polarization is to actually think about how we can have collective understandings. If you meet someone for the first time, try to understand where they are coming from. I would say never project a misunderstanding, I think that those fuel stereotypes. But, always just meet people where they are at, and that includes yourself.