Interview: Bard Graduate Center Alumna and Brooklyn Museum of Art’s Newly Appointed Curator of Indigenous Art Darienne Turner BGC ’17 on “How to Indigenize the Museum”
Darienne Turner BGC ’17 portrait, undated. Courtesy of the photographer, Christina Chahyadi
Art historian and curator Darienne Turner BGC ’17, an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe of California, speaks with Terence Trouillot, senior editor of Frieze, about her curatorial practice, what it means to “Indigenize” museums, her studies of material culture at the Bard Graduate Center, and her upcoming role at the Brooklyn Museum of Art as its first full-time curator of Indigenous art. Turner, who is currently assistant curator of Indigenous art of the Americas at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), grapples with the term “decolonization” in the context of museums because of what that language centers. “But what really works against the colonial armature that encyclopaedic museums rest upon? For me that work happens through Indigenizing, through bringing in Indigenous artists and actually listening to what they have to say,” she says.
Her first show at the BMA in 2020, Stripes and Stars: Reclaiming Lakota Independence, was inspired by objects she found in the museum’s vault—children’s clothing with American flags in their Lakota beadwork designs. “These objects were conundrums for me. I asked myself, ‘Why would the Lakota people, at this moment of intense conflict with the US government, use the symbol of their oppressor on these objects?’ The question catapulted me into deep research into the history of the Lakota people, and the moment of their transition to the reservation in the late 19th century.” What she found was that the Lakota people leveraged patriotic images like the flag in order to make space for themselves to enact cultural practices that had been banned, such as giveaways and puberty ceremonies, all taking place under the cover of the American flag during “patriotic” celebrations like the Fourth of July. “Listening to the stories of the objects is a big part of my practice, as is engaging with community,” says Turner.
Post Date: 07-11-2023
Her first show at the BMA in 2020, Stripes and Stars: Reclaiming Lakota Independence, was inspired by objects she found in the museum’s vault—children’s clothing with American flags in their Lakota beadwork designs. “These objects were conundrums for me. I asked myself, ‘Why would the Lakota people, at this moment of intense conflict with the US government, use the symbol of their oppressor on these objects?’ The question catapulted me into deep research into the history of the Lakota people, and the moment of their transition to the reservation in the late 19th century.” What she found was that the Lakota people leveraged patriotic images like the flag in order to make space for themselves to enact cultural practices that had been banned, such as giveaways and puberty ceremonies, all taking place under the cover of the American flag during “patriotic” celebrations like the Fourth of July. “Listening to the stories of the objects is a big part of my practice, as is engaging with community,” says Turner.
Post Date: 07-11-2023