They Were Called Kings, Arches watercolor paper, archival ink, acrylic paint, gold foil, 7" x 8.5" x 13.5" each basket (set of three), 2013.
“her work both deconstructs and reconstructs the multiple histories oF Native experiences. These vessels have carried aspects oF culture For centuries and they continue to transmit her own heritage and that oF other Native peoples to current and Future generations.”
pictures of shelves of the collection. She did the same with several other museums and their collections, to show “our relationship to what’s in the drawers.” The contents of those drawers, in many cases, were acquired through hundreds of years of colonization and exploitation. Yet, understanding and respecting the histories from which these objects came is often a first step toward rec- onciliation and awareness. Her most recent work addressing repa-
triation is entitled Right to Remain(s). Wo- ven out of X-rays and frosted vellum with the single-weave technique and mountain- design pattern, it is what Cherokee basketry terms “coffin-shaped.” The vellum paper contains handwritten contemporary and historical quotes describing the relation of Native peoples to the earth on which they are located.
Goshorn says, “I quoted a friend of mine
in North Carolina; when she swept her hand around, she said, ‘Even the dust here is Chero- kee.’” A centuries-old statement from a Crow man proclaims, “You would have to dig very deep to get to the natural earth because we are walking on the bones of our ancestors.” “This piece talks about these bones as the
deed or the title that gives us the right to be- long in our homeland and the right to occupy the same land as our ancestral remains,” says Goshorn. It also discusses the right of indig- enous people to reclaim ancestral remains from museums and private collections and to return them to the ground. The basket con- tains two LED lights which, when lit up inside the basket, illuminate the X-rays of bones. When turned off, the basket looks completely different, almost as if there were two separate pieces. Goshorn asserts that is in both the
“right to occupy” and in the “returning to the ground” that the proper reverence and ven- eration of the remains of the living and the dead rests. “I’ve had people tell me it’s like I’m re-
weaving history, that I’m presenting it in a new way,” says Goshorn. “That was never my original intent. I’m always happy when people make their own conclusions. It all just kind of fell together. I didn’t really plan any of this.” Yet her work both deconstructs and reconstructs the multiple histories of Na- tive experiences. These vessels have carried aspects of culture for centuries and they con- tinue to transmit her own heritage and that of other Native peoples to current and future generations. X
Theresa Barbaro is a freelance journalist based in New York and contributes to education and programming at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center in New York City.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 35
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