Audio Stop 730

NARRATOR: 

Welcome to the exhibition, The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans. 

What does that mean, “The Land Carries Our Ancestors”? We asked exhibition curator, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation in Montana, what it means for her.

JAUNE QUICK-TO-SEE SMITH: 

It means that we've been here since the creation time. 

Sometimes we say at Native gatherings we are still here, but I wanted it to be more specific than that. So saying that the land carries our ancestors is like saying that the land carries our DNA, that we've been here since time immemorial.

NARRATOR: 

Smith is an artist and cultural arts worker. She hopes this exhibition will highlight not just the diversity of contemporary Native American art, but also this deep connection to the land – especially in this time of environmental crisis.

JQTSS: 

Everything about our lives has changed.

Summers are longer.  They're hotter.  We have fires.  There are floods.  There are extreme storms.  Our whole natural world has changed.

I want visitors to see that there are a lot of really wonderful Native artists, and it's not just about pottery, weaving and jewelry.

I want them to see holistic interpretations of the natural world.  I want them to see that everything is connected.

NARRATOR: 

This connectedness is perhaps best expressed by Smith herself, in her poem titled “Chant with Me:”

JQTSS: 

I am a drop of rain.  I am the mist in fog.  I'm the glint on wood tick.  I am a grain of manoomin.  I'm a hair on grizzly.  I'm a scale on salmon.  I'm a thread of black moss.  I'm the yellow eye of the coyote.  I'm the pollen on corn silk.  I'm a bract of bitter root.  I'm the shaft of a feather.  I'm the whisker of wolf.  I am the sphagnum in muskeg.  I'm the wattle on a tom.  I'm the calyx on a serviceberry.  I'm the speckle on magpie egg.  I'm the stick and mud of beaver.  I'm the keratin of elkhorn.  I am related.  I am related.  I am related.  I am related.

NARRATOR: 

Enjoy your visit.