Program Details
Return to Turtle Island; Scholars in Conversation
Saturday, April 5 | 2:30–5:00p.m. | GlasSalon
2:30p.m. Doors Open
3:00p.m. Conversation Begins
4:00p.m. Public Q&A
4:30p.m. Reception Begins
Listen and learn from five internationally renowned scholars on the topic of Indigenous art making, politics and diplomacy in the 18th century. Centered on the current exhibition Return to Turtle Island, these scholars will discuss the works on view as well as how they fit into the broader context of Indigenous nation building in the Great Lakes region. Topics will include Wendat women’s arts, the life of objects created for diplomacy and trade, and the collecting practices of 18th century European military personnel and how that has shaped museum collections today.
Key themes throughout the discussion will include the importance of women and their creative efforts, the historic recognition of the sovereignty of Indigenous nations, and the vital significance of collaborations today between museums, nations, and communities.
This free event is open to the public. Coffee, tea, hors d’oeuvres, and other light refreshments will be provided. Registration is encouraged, but not required; nonregistered guests will be welcomed in as capacity allows. Admittance will be given with preference to registered guests. Registering for our events allows us to best plan for our audience
About the Speakers:
Panel Moderator:
Dr. Johanna Minich, TMA's Consulting Curator of Native American Art and curator of Return to Turtle Island: Indigenous Nation Building in the 18th Century.
Panelists:
Dr. Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Bne doodem (Ruffed Grouse clan), is an Anishinaabe from M'Chigeeng First Nation. His research is focused on Anishinaabe language revitalization, narrative, material culture and history. He has recorded elders in his community and is investigating ways to disseminate that knowledge in a more effective manner. He is an Assistant Professor in the History Department at York University and holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous History of North America.
Christian Ayne Crouch is dean of graduate studies, Professor of Historical Studies and American and Indigenous Studies, and director, Center for Indigenous Studies at Bard College. She is the author of the award-winning Nobility Lost (Cornell, 2014) and has published articles in journals such as Early American Studies, William and Mary Quarterly, and Panorama. She also works as a curatorial advisor in contemporary Indigenous arts and writes art criticism, with essays in Beyond the Horizon (2020), Making American Artists (2022), and Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me (2025). Her current book project, Queen Victoria's Captives: A Story of Ambition, Empire, and a Stolen Ethiopian Prince, explores the human and material consequences of the 1868 Maqdala Campaign. She is an elected fellow of the American Antiquarian Society.
Henrietta Lidchi is Executive Director of the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. Prior to this she worked at the National Museum of World Cultures, the Netherlands, the National Museums Scotland and Department of Ethnography, British Museum. She has held fellowship at the Humboldt University, Berlin; is member of the Research Center for Material Culture, Netherlands, and holds an Honorary Professorship in the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Her research work is in the field of Native American art and material culture as well as critical museology, visual anthropology, military history and the history of collections. Her work has also involved national policy development in the UK, Netherlands, Denmark and Austria.
Ruth B. Phillips is Professor of Art History Emerita at Carleton University, Ottawa where she held a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous arts and cultures from 2003-2017. Initially trained as an Africanist, her research has primarily focused on the Indigenous arts of the Great Lakes Region. With university, museum, and Indigenous community based colleagues she founded the GRASAC research alliance to create a shared data base and other programs that encourage culturally appropriate knowledge sharing about these arts. Her books include Trading Identities: The Souvenir in Native North American Arts from the Northeast, 1700-1900 , Museum Pieces: Toward the Indigenization of Canadian Museum, and, with Janet Catherine Berlo, Native North American Art (2nd ed. 2011). She served as director of the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology from 1997-2002 and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Annette de Stecher is an American art scholar. Dr. de Stecher teaches in the Department of Art and Art History, University of Colorado Boulder. Her teaching and research focus on histories of integrated visual arts across cultures and politics of representation, with a special interest in women’s histories and critical museology. Dr. de Stecher’s book, Wendat Women's Arts (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022) brings together a full history of the art forms of women of the Wendat First Nation of Quebec, challenges the historical anonymity of Indigenous women artists, and argues for their central role in community history and ceremony. Wendat Women’s Arts was co-recipient of the Canadian Historical Association’s Indigenous History Prize, 2023 and was awarded the Art Libraries Society of North America's Melva J. Dwyer Award, 2024 for reference or research tools in Canadian Art and Architecture. Her book- in- progress, Chiefly Gifts: 1750-1820, looks at the visual arts traditions of Indigenous diplomacy in mediation with American and European colonial state
Individuals with disabilities, please indicate if you need accommodations, assistance or appropriate modifications to fully participate in this event by contacting Access Initiatives, [email protected]. Please note that while we endeavor to provide everyone with a positive visitor experience, last-minute requests may not be accommodated; we ask for requests to be made, at minimum, 3 days prior to the event.