From the Curator

Anya Montiel (Mexican and Tohono O'odham descent)

Ancestors Know Who We Are moves beyond the idea of the “Native experience” or the “Black experience” to highlight how gender and mixed-race identity informs art and creative expression. The exhibition brings together six Black-Indigenous women artists whose work addresses issues of race, gender, multiracial identity, and intergenerational knowledge. It also includes artist interviews as well as writings, labeled “Reflections,” by Black and Black-Indigenous scholars from the fields of history, gender studies, art history, and education.

Color illustration of an Indigenous woman and a Black woman standing with arms linked and the words “We Stand Together”

Courtesy of yǝhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective

In June 2020, artist Joelle Joyner (African American and Kauwets’a:ka [Meherrin] descent) created this free online poster in partnership with the yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective. The show of solidarity between the Black woman and the Indigenous woman is an acknowledgment that Black and Indigenous peoples have different yet overlapping struggles.

The idea for Ancestors Know Who We Are grew from examples across North America of Indigenous people supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and acknowledging the shared pain of continued violence and injustice toward Black and Indigenous peoples. After the May 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, jingle dress dancers, powwow singers, and other Native people joined protestors in the streets calling for justice. In Seattle, the yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective commissioned three Black-Indigenous women artists (all of whom are featured in the exhibition) to create solidarity protest posters for people to print, post, and carry at the marches. The posters depicted Black and Indigenous peoples standing together with messages of unity and strength.

Racial identity in the United States is complex, especially when the antiquated concepts of the one-drop rule for African Americans and blood quantum for Native Americans are still used to define who is Black and who is Native. The artists featured in Ancestors Know Who We Are have unique perspectives and voices that speak to our current moment as a nation. In the face of traumatic events, they have created works of respect, hope, and solidarity.

A crowd and dancers gather on an open street covered with drawings, words, and flowers.

Photo by Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation)

Native American jingle dress dancers honor the memory of George Floyd at the Minneapolis intersection where he was killed by police on May 25, 2020. The jingle dress dance is considered an honor and healing dance.

In 1993, Jack D. Forbes (Lenape and Powhatan descent, 1934–2011) wrote the landmark publication Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples. The book traces Indigenous and African alliances throughout the Americas since 1492. Forbes acknowledged that research on African-Indigenous relationships is still needed and that “old assumptions must be set aside.” His scholarship revealed that our histories are multifaceted and complex. Some stories and families have been hidden, erased, buried, or forgotten, but Black and Indigenous peoples can move forward together by building community and fostering solidarity through respect and reciprocity.