Exhibit Essay: Life Stories for New Generations: The Living Art of Oregon Tribal Regalia

Abstract

EXHIBIT ESSAY Life Stories for New Generations The LivingArt of Oregon TribalRegalia byRebecca J. Dobkins INDIGENOUS PEOPLESfrom oppo site sides of thePacific Rim gathered at the Willamette University campus on September 23, 2005, to celebrate the opening at theHallie Ford Museum of Art of Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread, an exhibition of contempo rary and traditional Maori weaving that included ceremonial cloaks and other prized garments. A Procession ofNations welcomed the Maori people of Aotearoa (New Zealand, the 'land of the longwhite cloud' in theMaori language) to the ancestral homeland of theWillamette Valley tribes. The Maori delegation ritually requested permission to enter the territory of their indigenous hosts, and repre sentatives of Oregon's Native nations granted that permission with songs and prayers of respect and welcome. ForWillamette Valley tribes, thisocca sionmarked the first time inmodern history that a "foreign" nation had asked permission to enter their terri tory. The ceremony contrasted sharply with the actions of the Methodist mis sionaries who had entered these very homelands amere hundred and sev entyyears before and had founded the IndianManual Labor Training School, which eventuallymetamorphosed into Willamette University. The Maori and their taonga, or cultural treasures,were not arriving at theHallie Ford Museum by accident. The visitwas set intomotion decades earlier in the 1980s, through the friend ship of Warm Springs artistLillian Pitt andMaori artistDarcy Nicholas. The two had met inNew Mexico, when Nicholas was in theUnited States as a Fulbright scholar, studying Native American art. Out of thatmeeting grew a deep and enduring friendship thathas rippled out to include literally hundreds of indigenous artists and non-indigenous supporters (such as myself) in a series of exchanges and gatherings in both New Zealand and 420 OHQ vol. 110, no. 3 ? 2009 Oregon Historical Society 9 Io "!? TI 1 P R B n ? 8 9 I Alfred "Bud" Lane III (right) of theSiletz tribe performsa smudging orpurification riteas part of theopening ceremony welcoming the Maori delegation to the Willamette Valley on September 23,2005.Maori artists Darcy Nicholas andMark Kopua lookon. North America. The Eternal Thread was the latest,and perhaps most ambi tious,manifestation of this fellowship of theRim. In late 2003, Pitt called me, urging theHallie Ford Museum to consider hosting The Eternal Thread in 2005. She had been in touchwith Nicholas, who as the director of the Pataka Museum ofArts and Culture inNew Zealand, was the exhibition organizer along with theweavers of Toi Maori, the national Maori arts organization. Nicholas was seekingNorth American venues for The Eternal Thread and specifically wished to identifyPacific Northwest museums in order to build upon the pre-existing relation ships theMaori had with the region's indigenous artists, such as Pitt, Rick Bartow, and Joe Feddersen, and with institutions such as the Longhouse at The Evergreen State College inOlym pia,Washington. The Burke Museum at theUniversity ofWashington and The Museum atWarm Springs had already been secured as venues, but theMaori sought one more location. In 2003, Pitt had worked with me and other museum staffformonths, preparing her one-person show Lil lian Pitt: Spirits Keep Whistling Me Home for exhibition at the Hallie Ford in early 2004, and she trusted us Dobkins, The LivingArt ofOregon Tribal Regalia 421 ^^ - ^jfiiiiini?Mfa?fitfiP^fiM^^^^^nM^^^^^B Waana Davis (left),Chair ofToiMaori, New Zealand's nationalMaori arts organization, exchanges a traditional Maori greetingwith Siletz elderAgnes Pilgrim at theopening ceremonyon September 23,2005. The greeting,called a hongi, representsthe passing of thebreathfrom oneperson toanother and isexchanged between hostsand guests at theclose of formalMaori welcoming rituals. in the handling and interpretation of Native American art. She thoughtwe were exactly the kind of venue that Nicholas was seeking, one that could warmly facilitate visits between the Maori, local tribal communities, and the public. So, Pitt started simultane ously working on us at theHallie Ford and on convincing Nicholas thatwe were worthy of thishonor. By December 2003, Pitt's interces sions had cemented the partnership. By February 2004, Iwas off toNew Zealand to spend twoweeks as a guest of theMaori people for the premiere of The Eternal Thread at the Pataka Museum in Porirua City. Staying at a seaside marae, a traditional com munal house similar to a Northwest Coast longhouse, I...