Grace Hudson Museum

"Dancer" by Frank Tuttle

Art and Poetry from Native California
January 26 - April 20, 2008

This exciting exhibition features the work of 32 contemporary California Indian artists and authors exploring themes of family history, ancestral homelands, spiritual traditions, contemporary life and personal identity through a variety of media including poetry, painting, basketry, printmaking, photography and sculpture. The artists and authors included in the exhibit are Dugan Aguilar, Linda Aguilar, Rick Bartow, George Blake, Dalbert Castro, Gerald Clarke, Harry Fonseca, Lorena Gorbet, Janice Gould, Jean LaMarr, Frank LaPena, Judith Lowry, James Luna, Deborah McConnell, Shaunna Oteka McCovey, L. Frank Manriquez, Stephen Meadow, Linda Noel, D. P., Julia Parker, Lyn Risling, Mike Rodriguez, Sylvia Ross, Greg Sarris, Kathleen Rose Smith, Richard Stewart, Brian Tripp, Frank Tuttle, Kathy Wallace, and Darryl Wilson.

"Apparitions" by James Luna

The contemporary art and poetry of these, and other, California Indian individuals is uniquely embedded in the rivers, beaches, deserts, valleys, lakes, and mountains of this land. It arises from cultures up to 14,000 years old whose populations may have numbered more than one million in times past. This strong and evocative art has never fit neatly into conventional art genres and has gone largely unrecognized. Thanks to efforts like this exhibit, however, bright light is finally shining on the work of contemporary California Indian artists and poets.

"Tattoo Woman" by Lyn Risling

"Predators Dream" by Rick Bartow

"Sing Me Your Story is a call to California Native artists and poets to share their cultural knowledge and life experience; leading all of us to understand how culture, history, ancestry, and story have shaped each one of us - Native and non-Native," says exhibition curator Theresa Harlan. "This exhibition carries the potential opportunity for museum audiences to gain an understanding of the complexities of a fuller and richer California." A unique feature of the exhibit is its accompanying audio tour which features the artists talking about their work or reading their poems. The audio tour is accessible from all phones, at any time. Cell phones may be used in the museum to listen to the audio tour, and again at home after the visit.

"The House of Six Directions" by Frank LaPena

This exhibition shares the lives, memories, stories, and traditions of these artists with the public and creates a physical and psychic space that is truly native California. California's first peoples lived in over 500 distinct nations - each with its own cultural, economic, political, spiritual, and social makeup. These tribes, which are spread out all over the state, continue to live in their sacred homelands that surround us everywhere. Many of the roads we drive were once important trails; many of the mountains, hills, and lakes were, and sometimes still are, sites of ritual, worship, food gathering, communal life, or burial. In the wake of European contact many California tribes are now in the process of cultural revitalization- traditional languages, ceremonies, songs, arts, and much more are once again coming to life.

The exhibition was organized and produced by California Exhibition Resources Alliance (CERA) in concert with Heydey Books and is made possible by generous grants from the James Irvine Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Columbia Foundation, LEF Foundation, Fleishacker Foundation, The Clorox Company Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians provided the funding for its Ukiah venue.

The Brush Dance Boy Lives in Phoenix, Arizona
By Shaunna Oteka McCovey

For Louisa McConnell

Sing me songs
of smoke and root,
in full regalia, abalone swaying.
Pull your arrows from
a quiver made of me.

Tonight I went outside
and for the first time
since I’ve been in this
place far from home
the stars shone brighter
than the city lights,
the Earth stopped, still,
for just one moment and I saw
the Brush Dance Boy
dancing in the full moon,
watching over me
like he has always done.

Sing me dreams
of smoke and root,
feel the sun rise in my heart
after the morning dance.
Jump center into my soul.