Transforming the Museum Space: Native Feminisms as Activism in “Hearts of Our People”

Abstract

Abstract There is a growing trend within museums today to become a space geared toward social activism. Their attention to connecting with their communities and seeking avenues of implementing new ways of knowing and doing aims to steer away from museums’ historic Eurocentric roots, decentering settler colonialism. This paper explores ways the exhibition “Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists” employs methods that decenter settler colonialism in museum culture and re-center Native women and kin through the use of an advisory board, a different art canon, and a number of in-gallery measures that, when combined, create a framework for social action-oriented curation because they exemplify a Native feminist ideology. I argue that by using a similar framework, museums can begin to transform their galleries into spaces for social action. Keywords: activism, art, art history, art museums, curation, exhibitions, feminism, Indigeneity, indigenous studies, museums, museum studies, Native American, Native feminism