INDIANAPOLIS — A new book published by the Eiteljorg Museum takes a groundbreaking approach in celebrating a collection of extraordinary Native art of the Great Lakes region. Rather than a traditional institutional narrative, the book shares the personal perspectives of Native essayists who are descendants of the peoples who created the artworks and cultural belongings.
The book, In the Company of Our Relatives: The Richard Pohrt, Jr. Collection, was recently released at the Eiteljorg. Beautifully illustrated with many color photographs, the 303-page book was the result of two years of Native-led efforts to ensure that stories of the Great Lakes cultural belongings in the collection were told by Native voices. Co-editors of the book are Monica Raphael (Anishinaabe / Sičáŋğu Lakóta), the Hoback curator of Great Lakes Native art, cultures and community engagement at the Eiteljorg, and Mary Deleary (Chippewas of the Thames First Nation), Ph.D.
Artworks and cultural belongings in the collection — which the editors and authors lovingly refer to as “relatives” — include beaded bandolier bags and moccasins with floral designs; shirts, leggings and sashes with ribbonwork; elaborately adorned cradleboards; and carved wooden bowls or tools. Indigenous cultures of the Great Lakes region represented in this collection and book include the Bodwéwadmi (Potawatomi), Cree, Ho-Chunk, Huron, Kickapoo, Lenape, Menominee, Meskwaki, Mohawk, Myaamia (Miami), Odawa, Ojibwe, Otoe-Missouria, Shawnee and Wyandot. A number of artworks from this collection are now on view in the Eiteljorg’s Native American art galleries exhibition, Expressions of Life: Native Art in North America.
Copies of In the Company of Our Relatives can be purchased through the Eiteljorg Museum Store for $69.95 each; citizens of federally recognized Native American tribes and Canadian First Nations are eligible for a 20 percent discount.
