Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum Community Day

Bring family and friends of all ages to celebrate Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum, a wide-ranging BMA initiative that significantly increases the presence of Native voices, experiences, and artworks across the Museum.

The afternoon festivities include performances by Uhwachi-Reh Dance Troupe, a Baltimore-based Native American dance company, and a special tour of the exhibition Dana Claxton: Spark led by the artist. Mark Tayac, Chief of the Piscataway Indian Nation, will give a tour of his work Traditional Beaver Pouch Bag (2024) included in the Preoccupied exhibition Finding Home. Learn about Native American beadwork and create a beaded wearable or jewelry in the Joseph Education Center Studio with guest artist Nina Gover Brooks. Local Native artists and organizations will be available to talk about their work and offer items for purchase. Illustrated guides to East Baltimore’s Historic American Indian “Reservation” will be available for pickup.

This program has been developed with guidance from Louis Campbell (Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina), who also served on the 10-member Community Advisory Panel for Preoccupied.

Schedule

10 a.m.–5 p.m.

All Museum spaces

Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum includes nine exhibitions, an audio guide, new displays for objects that depict Native subjects and espouse colonialist perspectives, and updated interpretive labels from Native leaders and artists on artwork throughout the museum.

1 p.m.–5 p.m.

Joseph Education Center Studio

An intro to Native American beadwork, taught by artist Nina Gover Brooks

1 p.m.–5 p.m.

Makers & Organizations in Antioch Court

Baltimore American Indian Center
Athena Begay
Nina Gover Brooks
Emilyn Bauer Burns
Crushing Colonialism
Andrea Medley | Xuhl Creations
Ebony Gray Oxendine
Kim Richardson
Mark Tayac
Raine Valentine
Sierra Waterman-Wells
University of Maryland Native American and Indigenous Student Union (NAISU)

1 p.m.

Contemporary Gallery, 2^nd Floor, Finding Home

Mark Tayac in-gallery tour

2 p.m. & 4 p.m.

Fox Court

Uhwachi-Reh Dance Troupe performance

3–3:20 p.m.

Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Gallery

In-gallery tour led by artist Dana Claxton

Participants

Baltimore American Indian Center

The Baltimore American Indian Center (BAIC) is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1968 with a mission to “assist and support American Indian and Alaskan Native families moving into an urban environment and adjusting to the culture change they will experience.” Following WWII, the neighborhood surrounding the BAIC became populated predominantly by American Indians and was referred to as “the Reservation.” To support this Native American community, the BAIC provided services that included education, skills trainings, workforce development, child care, after school arts and seniors programs, as well as health and healing services. Over time, much of the American Indian community in Baltimore moved out of the city seeking more affordable housing and sustainable job opportunities. This demographic shift prompted BAIC to prioritize cultural heritage preservation and education programs, with health, housing and employment-related services provided on an ad hoc basis. While the BAIC was founded by Lumbee Tribal Members, the Center is open to Native community members from all tribes and nations; we continue to serve as a hub for the American Indian community’s social and cultural activities. With 78% of American Indians and Alaskan Natives in the U.S. living outside of tribal territories, our organization is an essential resource. The BAIC is one of two resources in the greater Baltimore area where Natives can learn what it means to be American Indian and that educates non-Native people about the myriad cultures and legacies of American Indian and Alaskan Native peoples. Our organization provides a welcoming, safe space for the Native community to gather; a place where people are treated with dignity, respect and understanding, and where cultural practices are kept alive.

Athena Begay

Yá’áť’ééh abiní! Athena Begay yinishyé. Hashtłʼishnii nishłį. Nakaii báshishchíín. Tł ‘ízí lání dashicheii. Nakaii dashináli.

Hello friends. My name is Athena Begay. I am born of the Mud clan. My father is Hispanic. My maternal grandfather is Many Goat Clan and my paternal grandmother is Hispanic. This is how I am Diné.

My mother taught me how to sew when I was a teenager. She taught me that our family has always been creative and how things made with our hands are beautiful. My love of sewing started when I was apart of a Navajo singing group. I love sharing my culture with others and creating modern clothing for indigenous people.

Nina Gover Brooks

Nina Gover Brooks is an active member of the Tuscarora Nation, Wolf Clan located in Upstate New York and North Carolina. She is an Indigenous artist and crafter with a passion for educating others of the artwork and history of Indigenous American people. Nina comes from a lineage of proud Indigenous Educators and active members in the community. The history Nina teaches is as old as time here on Turtle Island.

Louis Campbell

Louis Campbell (Lumbee and Blackfoot) was born in Baltimore though the majority of his family lives in North Carolina. He is a Northern Traditional dancer who has performed at powwows for 23 years, but has been following his culture since birth. His goal is to spread truth and knowledge about Native American culture and to keep his tribe’s traditions alive through their children. He recently discovered that his mother is part Nanticoke, a tribe located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Campbell lives in Baltimore with his wife and two children.

Emilyn Bauer Burns

Yá’áť’ééh shik’éí dóó shidine’é! Emilyn yinishyé. bilagáana dóone’é nishłį. Tódích’íi’nii báshishchíín. bilagáana dashicheii. bilagáana dashináli. Akótéego Diné asdzáán nishij.

Hello family and friends! My name is Emilyn. My mother is of Irish heritage and my father is mixed Dinè and of German heritage. I am born of the Bitterwater clan. This is how I am a Navajo woman.

I was born in Crow Agency Montana and grew up on Northern Cheyenne and Crow land in western Montana. I am currently living as a guest on Piscataway & Sasquehannock territories. I love freehand brick stitch variations and long dangle earrings. I draw inspiration from the lands around me and where I grew up in both the plains and mountains. I love working to create unique pieces and no two earrings I make are the same. Ahéhee’!

Dana Claxton

Dana Claxton (Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation; b. Yorkton, Canada 1959) is a critically acclaimed artist, who works in film, video, photography, single/multi-channel video installation, and performance. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, among other institutions, as well as at the Sundance Film Festival. She has received numerous awards, including the Audain Prize for the Visual Arts (2023), Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2020), the Scotiabank Photography Award (2020), and YWCA Women of Distinction Award (2019). Claxton’s work is held in public, private, and corporate collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, Eiteljorg Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, University of Toronto, and the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery. She is Professor and Head of the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory with the University of British Columbia.

Crushing Colonialism

Crushing Colonialism’s mission is to uplift and tell the stories of Indigenous people through media and traditional storytelling. We produce international reporting and organizing to inform and empower marginalized community members, create professional opportunities, and advocate for the just funding and employment of Native artists, media workers, and storytellers. In doing this we control our narratives in order to crush colonialism.

Andrea Medley | Xuhl Creations

Andrea Medley (MPH) (Jaad ahl’ K_iigangaa) is from the Dadens Yahgu ‘laanas Raven Clan, Haida Nation. She is of Haida and mixed white settler ancestry and was fortunate to grow up in her home community of Gaw Tlagée, on Haida Gwaii. She has been practicing traditional artwork since 2016, beginning to work with leather and fur and incorporating beading into her work in 2018. As part of her raven-clan tendencies, Andrea has a love for all things bright, shiny, and colorful, which is the inspiration behind her artist’s name, Xuhl Creations; xuhl is a Haida word that means “to be shiny.” She loves creating contemporary designs with traditional materials, and with earrings she believes “the bigger the better.” Outside of beading, Andrea enjoys reading, singing, live music, and writing.

Ebony Gray Oxendine

Ebony Gray Oxendine is a proud and participating member of the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina. Ebony has spent her entire life learning the teachings and traditions of the native people of North Carolina, often visiting her family’s homelands. She is a Native American crafter and jingle dress dancer, known as “the healing dance.” Ebony is very passionate about keeping the Native American culture alive through dancing and gathering with her community.

Mark Tayac

(Chief of the Piscataway Indian Nation)

Mark Tayac is the 29th generation hereditary Chief of the Piscataway Indian Nation and a member of the Beaver clan. Tayac currently resides in Port Tobacco, Maryland. Tayac is a traditional knowledge keeper and artist who works primarily with wampum, metal, and animal hides to create jewelry and culturally-informed contemporary works. Tayac travels across the region each year with the Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers and often sells his works in the regional powwow circuit.

Uhwachi-Reh Dance Troupe

Uhwachi-Reh Dance Troupe is a Baltimore, Maryland based Native American Dance Company. To learn more and bring Uhwachi-Reh to your community, email Louis Campbell at louis0475@gmail.com or text 443-615-6318.

Raine Valentine

Raine Valentine, a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Anishinaabe of North Dakota, is an intuitive Spiritual teacher and creative arts director who pulls from her Native American lineage to facilitate a space for all to connect with their higher selves. She sees art as a powerful tool, not just for gratification of self-expression, but as a vehicle of personal and collective transformation. She believes art is prayer, a sacred and vital discovery of one’s own special presence in the world. She has been teaching middle school art for 17 years in Baltimore County, Maryland where she facilitates a space for her students to create, explore, experiment, question, express, and reflect. Raine is also an associate professor at Notre Dame of Maryland University, sharing methods for teaching in the secondary classroom with graduate students who will one day become art teachers. When not teaching in a school setting, Raine hosts art workshops for all from her studio in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, as well as at conferences, and other educational centers.

Sierra Waterman-Wells

Senajewen is an Indigenous-owned, hand-made small batch shop based out of Frederick, MD. Senajewen encourages all to shop Indigenous and decolonize one’s wardrobe, especially ear lobes! The foundation of Senajewen was created by one’s love of traditional bead weaving techniques with tiny seed beads and adding a modern or personal twist. From jewelry, glasses cases, pet portraits, home decor, and accessories, Senajewen offers beaded pieces for all walks of life. Senajewen alongside offering handcrafted items, also hosts classes and artisan markets. Owner and beader Sierra Senajewen Waterman-Wells (she/her) is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She’s been beading on and off since childhood, and is a third generation silversmith. Her inspiration comes from the great outdoors, her midwestern upbringing, and the nostalgia she has from girlhood. Sierra is a luthier (violin repairist) by day, and enjoys her evenings and weekends playing music with her husband Freddy, while keeping their cats entertained (and out of her beads). She also enjoys having craft nights with friends and family both locally and virtually

University of Maryland NAISU

The Native American and Indigenous Student Union (NAISU) is dedicated to enhancing and inspiring the community of Native American and Indigenous students and those who appreciate Native American and Indigenous cultures. Our mission is to increase visibility and raise awareness of Native American and Indigenous cultures and to discuss affairs facing Native American and Indigenous students and the community. We open our group to anyone who would like to better understand the historical and modern conditions of Indigenous peoples and to experience and celebrate the Native cultures of the Americas, while forming friendships and connections with other students. We aspire to equally acknowledge and represent all Native/Indigenous tribes, civilizations, communities and cultures of North and South America.

Image: Uhwachi-Reh Dance Troupe