Indigenous art exhibit opens in Stony Brook for Native American Heritage Month

You don't have to travel to the Southwest or other parts of the country to celebrate Native American Heritage Month. Indigenous art will be on full display in the exhibition "Weaving Words, Weaving Worlds: The Power of Indigenous Language in Contemporary Art" at Stony Brook University's Zuccaire Gallery through Nov. 22.

You'll find works by Native American artists from eastern Long Island to Western Los Angeles, using many voices to tell stories of remembrance, resistance and resilience, which is appropriate since this is an exhibition about language — how it's born, evolves, is lost and can be revived. "I wanted the exhibition to highlight how contemporary artists are using language — sometimes directly, sometimes symbolically — as part of their work," noted Shinnecock artist Jeremy Dennis, who curated the show and co-organized it with Karen Levitov, the gallery's executive director. "Bringing artists together who are weaving ancestral languages into visual art shows that these languages are living and adaptable. It honors both our histories and the ways we are shaping our futures."

Artists from near and far

There are 24 artists and artist-collectives participating. Some live in major U.S. and foreign cities, others on reservations. They come from the Shinnecock, Matinecock, Zuni, Navajo, Choctaw, Cherokee, Mohawk, Iroquois, Tlingit, Lakota and other cultures. All are deeply involved in sharing insights with one another, with the wider community, and with generations to come.

Notable works include Kay WalkingStick's 2008 landscape, "Nez Perce Crossing" where the Bitterroot Mountains (between Idaho and Montana) are superimposed with traditional symbols. Jeffrey Gibson's "War Is Not the Answer, Feel Something Real," a 2020 punching bag covered with beading, mixes metaphors and material to deliver a conceptual knockout. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's "I See Red: In Your Dreams," brings painterly abstraction, pop culture and Indigenous ideology together.

Local history

Among artists of international renown, Levitov and Dennis include historical documents from the university's archives as well as pieces from local artists to create a cohesive, yet diverse, conversation. "Tecumseh Ceaser's piece called 'Water Connects Us All' presents the word 'water' in several Indigenous languages. So you get to hear the sound of these Indigenous languages from the people speaking them," Levitov noted. Dennis' piece from his "On This Site" series is a map of Long Island color coded to show the ancestral lands of Native peoples. From the Canarsie lands to the Montaukett, it covers all of Long Island.

Shinnecock artist Heather Rogers' "Shinnecock Land Map" merges history, traditional art forms and contemporary affairs. "It's this wonderful collage of all kinds of objects and different materials that looks like a horse," Levitov said, "but it's a land map. The horse's body forms the territory of the original Shinnecock land and only one little section of that is the current land that they have now."

Levitov and Dennis hope the exhibition will prompt visitors to learn more about Long Island's history and the people who live here. "Indigenous cultures are not part of the past," Levitov said. "They're part of the past, the present, and the future."