collection New Acquisitions:
A Focus On Indigenous Women
BY ERIN JOYCE | FINE ARTS CURATOR
Three works recently exhibited in Larger Than Memory: Contemporary Art From Indigenous North America have been added to the Heard Museum’s permanent collection. The works by Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Meryl McMaster (Plains Cree) and Tanya Lukin Linklater (Alutiiq) represent Indigenous women’s creativity, diversity and resilience, and reflect the critical conversations raised in the exhibition and the accompanying publication. Through the generosity of Karen Truax, in memory of her parents, Dr. Maurice L. Sievers and Bud Sievers, the Museum added Romero’s Indian Canyon to the collection. Originally commissioned as monumental billboards for the Desert X art installation in the Coachella Valley in 2018, the work is part of the artist’s larger photographic series Jackrabbit, Cottontail & Spirits
38
EARTHSONG
of the Desert. The series features four figures which the artist describes as “time-traveling visitors from Chemehuevi.” These four children represent warriors of memory, fighting to remind us of the importance of connecting with the land and acknowledging the original inhabitants of that portion of the Californian desert: the Chemehuevi, Cahuilla, Mojave and Serrano peoples. Indian Canyon features a small boy sitting atop a boulder in the Mojave Desert—wearing regalia while looking out at the viewer wearing regalia. By placing this boy as the central figure in the vast expanse of the Coachella Valley, Romero negates collective forgetfulness of Indigenous lands and alerts the viewer to the continued presence of California tribes. Indian Canyon, and the larger series of photographs, is about creating visibility for Indigenous peoples globally, and also specifically in the artist’s home territory in Cara Romero (Chemehuevi, b. 1977), Indian Canyon, 2018. Digital chromogenic print, 24 x 66 inches. Heard Museum Collection, Gift of Karen Truax in memory of her parents, Dr. Maurice L. Sievers and Bud Sievers, as a reflection of their respect and concern for all Native peoples.
