A new permanent exhibit that celebrates past and present Haudenosaunee culture and artistry is now open at the Rochester Museum & Science Center.
Artifacts, some dating back centuries, stand alongside contemporary works made by Haudenosaunee artists that complement their ancestral counterpart.
WXXI’s Noelle Evans takes us into the exhibit during a celebration with the artists, their families, and people from the community.
Below is a transcript of the audio story broadcast on WXXI News FM 105.9 and AM 1370. Conversations were edited for time.
KATHRYN MURANO SANTOS: Hi. My name is Kathryn Murano Santos. We are at the Rochester Museum & Science Center in the new Haudenosaunee Continuity, Innovation and Resilience exhibition.
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MURANO SANTOS: So, we're looking at a glass longhouse as kind of the framework for the space. And when you look at some of the legacy dioramas that are still incorporated into the space, you know, I think there's also an interesting energy between seeing something that's behind glass and it's depicting a way of life. But in this case, you are welcomed into the Long House.
EVANS: What was your role in this?
MURANO SANTOS: So I was kind of a bringer together of RMSC staff alongside our curator and partner, Jamie Jacobs, to help manage and direct the project.
JAMIE JACOBS: Hi. My name is Jamie Jacobs. My Seneca name is Hoya’danä:gwa’d. That means "he's a surprising man." I've been working here at the Rochester Museum for 19 years. This is my first show as a curator. Very happy to be here.
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JACOBS: So, this is the piece I created here. It's actually draped around an 1,100-year-old ancestral-made pot. So I call my piece From Earth to Sky, Rerobing the Sacred Haudenosaunee Feminine. The pot is a representative of colonialism and what it did to our culture.
EVANS: The part that you mentioned about the colonialism, is it because of how the pot was interpreted, or?
JACOBS: Well, the pot was dug up first. OK? So, we would never do that. We would never go and dig up our ancestors and then try to put them back together. That's a colonialism idea. They went to where they knew there were sacred sites, and they excavated without our permission and our consent, these pieces of our history, and then they tried to put them back together. OK? Well, colonialism, boarding schools, tried to do the same with us. They tried to dismantle us and then put us back together the way that they wanted to interpret.
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TONIA LISA LORAN-GALBAN: I am Iakonikohnrio, or Tonia Lisa Loran Galban, Akwesasne, Mohawk, Bear Clan and, hello!
EVANS: Hey! So we’re right in front of your baskets. Do you want to talk about it?
LORAN-GALBAN: Yeah, yeah.
EVANS: Can you talk about, like, when you learned how to make baskets?
LORAN-GALBAN: It was just part of my life. You know, I was at the at the knees of my grandma, when she would get up before the sunrise, sit by the wood-burning stove, at Akwesasne, making her fancy basket. And I would just sit at her knees and play with the splints, and she would make little dogs and wolves out of the splints.
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TSIOIANIIO GALBAN: Hi, my name is Tsioianiio Galban. I am a Haudenosaunee woman and artist. And I live in Rochester, New York, with my family.
EVANS: How is it for you, being in this exhibit, you know, next to the baskets that your mom's made, next to these baskets that are much older? What's going through your mind right now, what are you feeling?
GALBAN: The whole exhibit feels very familial to me, especially because, I mean, there's so many, like, other Bear Clan members here, and then, like, I just know all of the artists, and it's really, it's very touching to see all the work that's been put into it, and then to have all of these amazing people come and see their work. It's like having guests over. (laughs) It’s nice.
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Disclosure: Rochester Museum & Science Center is among WXXI’s supporters. WXXI News covers RMSC independently as we cover everything else.
