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Museums Video Package by Amber Zafar.mp4

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This interview was featured in a Video-package about online exhibitions.

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Lingerie maker Victoria's Secret's annual fashion show is typically an extravagant display of all the ways that underwear can tip into costume. This year one leopard-print outfit featuring a Native American headdress has the retailer apologizing profusely.

The controversial number was modeled by Karlie Kloss, who was bedecked with turquoise jewelry along with the headdress made of red, black and white feathers at the Nov. 7 runway show.

The headdress, also referred to as a war bonnet, is traditionally worn during special occasions by men who have done brave deeds in battle. So it's not unexpected that some members of Native American communities were outraged that it was used instead to glam up scantily clad models.
Quiz: Do you know your premium jeans?
Ruth Hopkins, a columnist for Indian Country, said that "making a mockery of Native identity is unacceptable."

"After years of patronage and loyalty to the Victoria's Secret brand, I am repaid with the mean-spirited, disrespectful trivialization of my blood ancestry and the proud Native identity I work hard to instill in my children," she wrote. "Well, I've got news for you, Victoria's Secret. Consider yourself boycotted."

"This Native girl is ready to go commando," Hopkins added.

In response, Victoria's Secret apologized via Twitter and said the outfit won't be shown during next month's TV broadcast of the runway show.

"We are sorry that the Native American headdress in our fashion show has upset individuals," the tweet says.

Kloss also apologized via Twitter and said she fully supported the retailer's decision to cut the outfit from broadcast.

Victoria's Secret is just the latest retailer getting in trouble for appropriating Native American imagery. Paul Frank recently yanked all items inspired by Native Americans after hosting a "powwow" night with celebrities and workers sporting feathered headbands. Urban Outfitters last year faced heavy criticism with a Navajo-themed line of apparel and accessories that included a flask and undies.
ALSO: Toy retailers get early start on holiday season As Black Friday sales drift earlier, some people push back Target, Neiman Marcus unveil holiday collection with top designers
Follow Shan Li on Twitter @ShanLi

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Victoria's Secret apologizes for use of Native American headdress

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Lingerie maker Victoria's Secret's annual fashion show is typically an extravagant display of all the ways that underwear can tip into costume. This year one leopard-print outfit featuring a Native American headdress has the retailer apologizing profusely.

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In this op-ed, Heather Davidson explains the normalized racism Native people witness every day.

I am Dena'ina Athabascan and Unangan (Aleutian), an Alaska Native living in California. As a Native person, there is not a day that passes where I don't come across some form of exploitive, anti-Native behaviors in play. Not a day.

Native imagery is everywhere in the United States. Our images, symbols, and cultures are used as commodities and novelties. Natives are used as logos, from butter packaging to cigarettes to baking soda to clothing. Natives are used as Halloween costumes. Native tribe names are used by the U.S. military as names for weapons. Native tribe names are used as names for vehicles. Natives are used as mascots for sports teams.

Racism toward Native people is normalized, so much so that many people do not see it as racism at all. Racist stereotypes of Native people are seemingly ingrained into the psyche of people starting in childhood, some subliminal, some direct.

Most of this Native imagery is constructed and controlled by non-Natives. While there is a constant omnipresence of such imagery, it is severely lacking real Native representation. People see more Native depictions created by non-Natives in media than they do of real Native people. This is how negative stereotypes and misconceptions are formed. This, whether consciously or not, embeds the notion that Native cultures are here for consumption. It suggests it is perfectly normal and acceptable to use Natives for products and profit, and to most people, it is - except to the very people being exploited.

Sports mascots based off of Native imagery started in the 1900s, a time when Native people were being subjected to " civilization regulations," which essentially outlawed us from practicing our cultures, languages, and religions.

Professional sports teams as well as thousands of schools use Native-themed mascots and names. I believe schools are often where children are first introduced to these acceptable, normalized forms of racism; they learn that what would be considered inappropriate and racist to other races and cultures doesn't apply to Natives for some reason. Proponents will say mascots "honor" us. But when actual Natives say otherwise, the same people "honoring" us will often dismiss us or start arguments. Quite the honor!

We're told it's not a big deal, we're too sensitive, and that we should worry about bigger issues. What many don't comprehend is that all of these issues concerning Natives and Native identity actually connect, converge, and come full circle. When we are seen as fictional characters, it dehumanizes us; when we're not seen as people, the potential for violence toward us increases. It's not "just a mascot" when these mascots perpetuate harmful stereotypes and actually generate more racist sentiments about Natives. Mascots have been shown to) have a negative impact on the self-esteem of Native children. Native students report that when they attend schools with Native mascots or team names, they are often victims of bullying. Native mascots monolith the varied, distinct tribes and nations spread across the Americas into one cliché mockery.

The NFL has a team called the Redskins, a dictionary-defined slur. The term originated from the practice of settlers collecting bloody Native scalps for bounty in the late 1800s. The MLB has a team called the Indians, and their mascot is Chief Wahoo, a grotesque red-faced "Indian" caricature. The team did state they will no longer feature Wahoo on their uniforms next year, but they will remain the Indians. These racist portrayals of indigenous peoples used under the guise of honor is the norm - a tradition, they say.

Native activists have been protesting these mascots and pointing out their degrading impacts since the 1960s. Many may try to label the campaign to change names and mascots as a politically correct crusade or a liberal cause, thus diminishing and erasing the Native cause, but that's their goal. Native mascot supporters don't want to hear or see real Natives - they apparently prefer their Natives fake and mute, rendered how they see fit.

Halloween costumes are a booming business and often feature "Native" outfits, though our cultures and people are not costumes. The sections of "Native" costumes at party stores and on thousands of online retailers are profits produced by racism, even though proponents say it's not intended to offend. Once again, these so-called little issues intercross and fuel the so-called bigger issues, which don't separate but blend and eventually combust.

These costumes are packed full of offensive, inaccurate stereotypes. The men's costumes usually play off the noble savage, brave warrior tropes, with names like "Fringed Savage," "Chief Long Arrow," "Brave Wolf Warrior," and "Primitive Tribe Indian." The women's costumes are usually hyper-sexualized, with names like "Sexy Tippin' Teepees," "Tribal Trouble," "Indian Mistress," "Sexy Native Princess," "Indian Tribal Tease," and "Pocahottie." What these costumes insinuate about Native women is very clear and very damaging, considering that Native women experience the highest rates of violence and sexual assaults out of any racial group in the United States. In both the U.S and Canada, there's an epidemic of a disproportionate amount of missing and murdered Native women and girls, which now is represented by a hashtag on social media, #MMIW.

One in three Native women will be sexually assaulted or raped in her life. Statistics say about 86% of these assaults are committed by non-Native men. While part of this is due to non-Native men preying upon Native women because they're unlikely to be prosecuted because of tribal sovereignty policies and jurisdiction laws, how we're viewed is also a factor. The over-sexualization of Native women objectifies us. When we are fetishized and exotified to the point that we lose our humanity, violence ensues.

I am not implying that clothing, costumes, or a lack thereof cause sexual assaults; however, these costumes produce dehumanizing effects. Plus, they're just tacky, majorly disrespectful, and racist. Real Native clothing, or regalia, is often sacred to us and carries meaning. We survived genocide to then go through forced cultural assimilation. It wasn't until 1978 that we could freely and lawfully practice our religions and customs. So it's a slap in the face to see our once-forbidden customs and sacred elements cherry-picked and modified for mainstream entertainment.

Anti-Native racism is still prevalent in society. Most people don't recognize it, but many Native people do, myself included. So why is it deemed acceptable? Maybe because non-Natives have been stealing and trying to control us ever since they arrived - and it's never stopped, only changed forms.

Even common phrases can carry insulting innuendos: "My spirit animal is so and so," "on the warpath," "Indian-giver," "low man on the totem pole," "went off the reservation," "the Natives are restless," "too many chiefs, not enough Indians." These phrases are actually microaggressions. Some just originated out of pure appropriation, taking something meaningful to a specific people and lessening it; for example, it's not cute or funny to say "champagne is my spirit animal." Also, quick meetings are not "pow-wows" either - pow-wows are gatherings for celebratory and ceremonial purposes and take considerable planning.

There's genuine harm in these actions. Whether it's micro-aggressions, appropriation, stereotypes, subtle or overt racism, they all hurt us. Non-Natives do not get to define or decide what is or isn't racist or harmful to Native people or the degree of relevance of certain issues, only Natives can.

A wide array of stereotypes and untruths encompass Natives, but we will break them all one at a time. Native people and cultures cannot be put in a box, each one of us is a unique individual and each tribe has a unique culture. We will never be the devised image and concept non-Natives have tried to make us out to be. We are not mascots, we are not costumes, we are not trends. We are not too sensitive or petty - these things all have real impacts and implications.

As a collective whole, most Natives do take pride in our cultures, traditions, tribes, and we honor our ancestors and our lands. We are just trying to live and thrive despite centuries of ongoing colonization, despite the attempted eradication of our lives and the intergenerational trauma many of us carry. While we are amazingly resilient, these permitted forms of racism we see and live can halt our healing and inflict more unnecessary pain.

The rise of social media has allowed us to correct misperceptions and undo stereotypes, to declare we are still here and proclaim that we refuse to allow these misrepresentations. There is some progress, some states and schools are getting rid of their Native-themed mascots. Yet there's still plenty of obstacles and people against us. We have a president who seemingly praised genocide by saying, "Our ancestors tamed a continent. We are not going to apologize for America." He also regularly uses the name of Pocahontas (whose life has been romanticized by pop culture even though she endured much trauma) as a put-down.

To dismantle these ingrained, acceptable methods of practiced racism takes work and time. But I for one will never be tamed and will never give up. And to the settlers and non-Natives who really want to honor Natives: listen to us, support us, call out other people's racist actions, don't appropriate our cultures. If you appreciate Native cultures, then buy from Native companies and artists. Acknowledge you're on stolen lands, learn the tribe whose land you now live on. Work to make the daily racism Natives face not normal. Work to make all racism cease to exist.

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This Halloween, Remember Native People Are Watching

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In this op-ed, Heather Davidson explains the normalized racism Native people witness every day. I am Dena'ina Athabascan and Unangan (Aleutian), an Alaska Native living in California. As a Native person, there is not a day that passes where I don't come across some form of exploitive, anti-Native behaviors in play.

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We found that Facebook Messenger was the best source of communication during the project!

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The main platform for video calls.

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Readings by Mary Louise Pratt and 'Museums as Contact Zone' by James Clifford.

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Readings by Mary Louise Pratt and 'Museums as Contact Zone' by James Clifford.

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After our exhibition gained some following on social media, we were contacted by a journalism student in London tto be interviewed.

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We also used LinkedIn to promote our exhibition to a more professional audience

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Though exhibiting online was challenging,  it is nice that our website and social media pages will be there for an extended period of time for audiences to see!

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'Existence is Resistance': Online Exhibition Tour  - HD 720p.mov

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ENTER THE EXHIBITION

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"Existence is Resistance": The Metropolitan Museum as a Contact Zone

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"Existence is Resistance": The Metropolitan Museum as a Contact Zone

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'Existence is Resistance': The Met Museum as a Contact Zone exhibition

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This was fun to  do and allowed us to show the behind-the-scenes aspects of our exhibition and advertise the exhibition to specific audiences.

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Last-minute Tweaks:  The Importance of the Title

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Last-minute Tweaks:  The Importance of the Title

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Changing the title cemented our new perspective towards the Met.

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This object was the perfect, or most explicit example of 'contact', depicting a Native American and European settler conversing.

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This is when we starting researching contact zones, and edited our text accordingly.  This did not change that we wanted to spread awareness of issues affecting the Native American community, just the way we went about it.

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Even this close to the end, we were having massive doubts about our exhibition; Had we actually corrected our issues with appropriation?  No not really. After peer and tutor feedback, we also realised we could not criticise the Met as explicitly as we had, especially without sufficient evidence.

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Link to Event Article for Existence is Resistance

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Link to Event Article for Existence is Resistance

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Existence is Resistance: The Metropolitan Museum as a Contact Zone

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We invite you to become aware of the issues affecting Native American communities today and challenge the cultural appropriation you see every day and in your favourite museums - as we challenge colonialism and appropriation in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Native American collection.

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The event and news articles were helpful in learning how to concisely get across our ideas.

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Personal Meaning Mapping, Week 8 Powerpoint Slide

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Personal Meaning Mapping, Week 8 Powerpoint Slide

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The mind map below shows what my peer knew about our topic before seeing the exhibition. A great way of evaluating how much the audience learns from the exhibition.

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Finding the statistic also inspired our questioning text style for our panel subtitles.

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One of the most alarming statistics we came across in our research was this one by the MMIW. We felt it needed to be shown in the exhibition.

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This statement by the Tulalip Tribe was very helpful in understanding concepts of shared knowledge.

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Native Americans : We Shall Remain | LoVina Louie | TEDxCoeurdalene

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After having no contact with any Native Americans in person or online,  we decided the next best thing would be including texts and resources from Native American perspectives.

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We experimented a few times before landing on 'what can you do to decolonise?'

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Created using Canva, this design was inspired by colours that frequented the Native American objects we researched. This design serves as a symbol or icon which tied our whole project together;  the social media, marketing, and online exhibition

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We decided to reach out to Native American activists so we could include contemporary Native American voices, but with no replies.

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We kept running into the problem of repeating the Met's mistakes, so we created this 'Met Criticisms' Document to combat this.

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we started with a very basic design to focus  on  the text

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This was our only contemporary object by artist and activist Jodi Archambault.

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We found our initial objects after assinging some team members to explore british colonial links in certain objects, such as this 'Man's Coat', 1820.

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The group were moved by the work of Native American activists challenging Tiktok as predominantly white platform. We wanted to use these Tiktoks as objects, but faced issues concerning public domain and copyright.

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A Conversation With Native Americans on Race | Op-Docs

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From the previous articles, we could see why the Met was being criticized, but the most significant inspiration or motivation behind our work was the voices of Native Americans today, particiularly this video.

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Noted New York cultural philanthropists Charles and Valerie Diker began acquiring Native American art more than 40 years ago while visiting Santa Fe. As decades passed, the couple amassed one of the world's most extensive private collections of Indigenous pottery, baskets, regalia, and sculptural objects. Now, many of these masterworks are on view in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection.

The exhibition is being hailed as a curatorial milestone. For the very first time in Met history, a collection that may have once been deemed "ethnographic" is installed in the institution's American Wing, which is otherwise primarily devoted to fine and decorative art by Euro-Americans. Some might say that these impressive works - all of which are either promised gifts, donations, or loans to The Met - could be shown in the museum's galleries of African, Oceanic, and pre-colonial Indigenous American objects, where they were, in fact, previously displayed. But the donors share a firm conviction that Native American art deserves a place alongside works by Euro-American figures such as Frederic Remington, John Singer Sargent, and other greats.

"The Dikers have always viewed their Indigenous collection as representing, in their own words, 'the first American art,' " says Sylvia Yount, head of The Met's American Wing. "They also feel strongly that it should be seen and understood in that historical and cultural context."

Ranging from the second to the early 20th century, the works collectively represent the creative vision and skill of named and unnamed individuals from more than 50 Native North American cultures.

Highlights among the exhibition's 116 Native works include a late-19th-century Acoma Pueblo water jar (one of the Dikers' first New Mexico acquisitions); a Navajo first-phase chief's blanket from 1840; a prize-winning 1907 basket bowl by Washoe artist Louisa Keyser; and a mid-19th-century carved wooden figure of a Haida woman from British Columbia.

Featuring the pieces in a department of mainstream American art isn't the only cultural correction the exhibition strives for: A land ackowledgment at the exhibition entrance recognizes the Lenape peoples, who lost their ancestral homeland of Manhahtaan to European settlers - and, ultimately, to The Met.

Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection is on view through October 6 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. metmuseum.org
Photography: Diné/Navajo artist, first-phase chief's blanket, Arizona or New Mexico, ca. 1840, Wasco artist, dress and belt with awl case, Oregon or Washington, ca. 1870. (all images) © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/photographs by Bruce Schwarz From the May/June 2019 issue.

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Art Gallery: Art Of Native America - The Charles And Valerie Diker Collection - C&I Magazine

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Noted New York cultural philanthropists Charles and Valerie Diker began acquiring Native American art more than 40 years ago while visiting Santa Fe. As decades passed, the couple amassed one of the world's most extensive private collections of Indigenous pottery, baskets, regalia, and sculptural objects.

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Tsimshian artist, Headdress frontlet, c.1820-40. Courtesy: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of Native American Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has come under fire for a show of Indigenous works, 'Art of Native America: the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection'. The Native American advocacy group Association on American Indian Affairs (AAIA) has singled the exhibition out for criticism, alleging various ethical problems.

The 'Art of Native America' show, drawn from the collection of philanthropists Charles and Valerie Diker - with some pieces on loan, and others donated to the museum - is being exhibited in the Met's American wing, as per Charles Diker's instructions. It is the first exhibition of Indigenous pieces to be showcased as 'American art rather than tribal art,' in order to 'recontextualize what we define as American culture', Diker has said.

The new display of pieces, dating from the 2nd century through to the early 20th century, from textile mantles to wooden scuptures, has been regarded by some as a landmark moment in offering Native artists equal billing with Euro-Americans, after years of being labelled as 'primitive art'. At the Met, such works would previously have been displayed in the Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas galleries. Met director Max Hollein described it in a statement as marking 'a critial moment in which conventional narratives of history are being expanded to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of cultures that have long been marginalized.'

However, AAIA executive director Shannon O'Loughlin has said: 'Most of these items are not art: they are ceremonial or funerary objects that belong with their original communities and could only have ended up in a private collection through trafficking and looting.' O'Loughlin claimed that curators 'did not consult with affiliated tribal representatives to perform their due diligence,' according to The Art Newspaper. The organization has called for the pieces to be removed from display until such consultations have been carried out.

The Met has disputed the allegations, saying that it sought regular dialogue with Indigenous representatives. A museum spokesperson commented: 'we have engaged regularly and repeatedly with tribal leaders in many Native communities throughout the country as part of the museum's long-term commitment to consultation and partnerships.' The AAIA's O'Loughlin described this as 'a very broad statement' which did not account for proper consultation 'to understand whether they possess sensitive items and to seek consent to display those items.'

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'Most of These Items Are Not Art': Native American Advocacy Group Protests Met Show

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has come under fire for a show of Indigenous works, 'Art of Native America: the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection'.

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This topic was hard to initially research, because of the vastness of it, but these are some exmaples of what we looked at.

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The Natives and the English - Crash Course US History #3

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we used this platform initially due to issues with communication within the group due to language barriers. This platform let us set tasks for each other when the others would be busy/asleep.

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This was a challenge while being online, in different countries, and with language and culture barriers between team members; but using concepts of sociocracy helped us understand and work with each other.

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Sociocracy. The Operating System Of The New Economy

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We used sociocracy to decide on  a  topic by each creating a mini 'proposal' for each idea.

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This was the intial brief we were given at the start of the project!

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The first thing we did as a team was a skills audit. Though it was interesting, it did not really help us as a group. What helped was finding the best ways to communicate.