search.noResults

search.searching

note.createNoteMessage

search.noResults

search.searching

orderForm.title

orderForm.productCode
orderForm.description
orderForm.quantity
orderForm.itemPrice
orderForm.price
orderForm.totalPrice
orderForm.deliveryDetails.billingAddress
orderForm.deliveryDetails.deliveryAddress
orderForm.noItems
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


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100