Sahan Journal: The art of preservation: Native artist paints her way through Arikara history
In the Twin Cities arts scene this weekend, explore the Arikara heritage through vibrant paintings of Native women at All My Relations Arts, discover Black, Indigenous and other artists of color at the 33rd annual Powderhorn Art Fair, and catch the Guthrie play “English,” which explores questions of identity that arise in a class of Iranian students learning English.
Paintings celebrate Arikara heritage
All My Relations Arts, a nonprofit art gallery that showcases Native American fine arts, will host “Arikara Proper,” a collection of acrylic paintings that tell the stories of the Arikara people. The artworks reflect the displacement of the Arikara from their traditional lands along the Missouri River due to pressure and conflicts with the Sioux in the early 1860s.
Before becoming an artist, Jennifer White, an Arikara, balanced the demands of raising six children while working in the service industry in South Dakota.
“I was swinging beers, bartending and serving as a waitress—I had six kids by the time I was 30, so hustling for money was what I could do best,” she said. “But it was through that experience of working around people in a bar or serving food that I really got to meet different kinds of people and figure out what kind of person I am.”
At age 33, White decided to pick up a paintbrush. “I started working with acrylic on canvas and realized it was kind of a good gig,” she said. Without any formal training, she immersed herself in the world of art, mentored by elders in the Native American art community.
“I really got to learn in such a traditional way,” she said. “I watched how they worked, learned about their processes and eventually, I landed on the idea that I need to make time to paint every day to get to the point where I could make it as an artist professionally.”
“Arikara Proper” is a deeply personal series of paintings that pay homage to White’s Arikara heritage. The Arikara are “one of the three smaller bands of Indians that were kind of pushed around and displaced by the Sioux that overran the Midwest here. But we were, once upon a time, river people,” she said. Her paintings are a visual narrative of her people’s history and resilience.
Read the full story HERE.