NewsBiennials & festivals
After social media backlash, Dark Mofo art festival in Tasmania launches fund for Aboriginal artists
The festival drew criticism last month for an art project that would crowd-source blood from Indigenous and Aboriginal people
NewsIndigenous art
Lummi artists create a totem pole to call attention to the need to protect sacred Indigenous sites
The totem pole will travel from Washington State to Washington, DC and make stops at significant Native American locations
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Museum extension allows Indigenous Sámi people to welcome home more than 2,000 artefacts held in Finland
An exhibition at the National Museum of Finland will celebrate the objects' repatriation to the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida in northern Lapland
NewsRepatriation
After criticism, Harvard's Peabody Museum will revise its policies on repatriating Native American objects
The Association on American Indian Affairs issued an open letter accusing the institution of failing to fulfill its legal obligations
NewsOpenings
World's biggest Inuit art collection revealed at Winnipeg's new museum within a museum
Qaumajuq centre aims to reframe Winnipeg Art Gallery’s colonial past with displays of more than 10,000 rarely seen Inuit works
NewsIndigenous art
Indigenous artist Chris Pappan honours the creative and political achievements of the late Zitkála-Šá with Google Doodle
The illustration spotlights the pioneering contributions of a woman who “devoted her life to the protection and celebration of her Indigenous heritage” in the 19th century
NewsCanadian art
Historic object or contemporary carving? Canadian artist claims a totem that washed up on a Victoria beach is actually his work
Archaeologists of the Royal British Columbia Museum announced the discovery was an important Indigenous work last week
NewsIndigenous art
Where to learn about and support Indigenous art and culture on Native American Heritage Month
From the Smithsonian's award-winning Americans exhibition to virtual Indigenous art markets
NewsAntiquities & Archaeology
Hallucinogenic flower inspired Native Californian rock art, archaeologists say
“Doses” of datura plant used in communal ceremonies have been found embedded in the ceiling of Pinwheel Cave
NewsIndigenous art
Minneapolis art museum criticised for keeping ancient Indigenous objects
University of Minnesota graduate students have joined Native nations in a long repatriation fight for Mimbres funerary objects controversially held by the Weisman Art Museum
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Oklahoma to honour Indigenous art in new $175m museum
More than 25 years in the planning, First Americans Museum opens with new commissions and objects from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
NewsVenice Biennale
Nordic pavilion gets political for 2022 Venice Biennale as space is renamed after Indigenous Sámi people
"It is a symbolic reversal of colonial claims that have sought to erase Sámi land and culture," says a project statement
NewsIndigenous art
Exhibition honours, demands action for missing and murdered Indigenous women
Boontak! (Stop it!) opens as Congress passes two bills to enact better law enforcement practices to protect Indigenous women and girls from violence
NewsArt market
Cowan’s auction house returns indigenous war god sculpture to a Zuni Pueblo
The figures, carved by tribal members every winter and left in ceremonial shrines atop a mountain, have regularly been stolen and made their into museums and private collections throughout the US and Europe
NewsObituaries
Forrest Fenn, known for burying $2m worth of treasure in the Rocky Mountains, dies at 90
The controversial yet colourful Santa Fe-based art and antiquities dealer announced that his treasure had been found shortly before his death
NewsArt fairs
Unrepresented minority artists get a boost at virtual edition of SP-Arte
In light of recent social shifts, major market events "need to rethink, reinvent and rejuvenate" by including more under-represented classes of artists, director says
NewsMurals
Depression-era murals in a Minnesota city hall covered over with new works reflecting a more diverse community
The works foreground the contributions of immigrant and Indigenous communities, but members of the Dakota tribe claim the contributions are a "Band-Aid"
NewsCopyright
Redbone music video sparks artist dispute over copyright infringement
Frank Buffalo Hyde says the imagery in the short film for the band's 1974 hit Come and Get Your Love released by Legacy Recordings this month is "too close to comfort" to his work
BlogDiary
From pixelated to post-colonial: iconic 1980s Oregon Trail video game gets an Indigenous reboot
NewsIndigenous art
Haida artist Bill Reid honoured on Canadian $2 coin
The new “toonie” features an image of Reid’s striking Xhuwaji/Haida Grizzly Bear
NewsContemporary art
Native American artist Brent Learned collaborates on first official music video for Redbone's 1970s pop-rock hit
The "Come and Get Your Love" short film is the first release in a new Sony Legacy project that will tap contemporary artists to create videos for classic tunes
NewsLaw
California may grant repatriation rights to unrecognised Native American tribes
A new state bill expands federal rights for Indigenous groups to reclaim human remains, burial objects and other sacred artefacts from institutions
NewsIndigenous art
As Navajo Nation battles worst coronavirus outbreak in US, artists hope for an Indigenous renaissance
The cancellation of regional markets and fairs have taken a huge economic toll but have also ushered in a "new era of responsibility" to promote Native work
NewsBlack Lives Matter
Indigenous artists stand with the Black Lives Matter movement as part of new community initiative
The Rapid Response Art Fund supports Indigenous artists in BIPOC communities that have been affected by the systemic racism that has been "a driving force for hundreds of years" in the US
NewsIndigenous art
Kent Monkman issues apology for painting that depicts the 'sexual assault' of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
After outcries against the work on social media, the Cree artist says that the image "failed" in its message to address the victimisation of Indigenous women
ReviewIndigenous art
Nicholas Galanin considers the unbalanced power of institutions over indigenous objects in Anchorage Museum exhibition
The online exhibition aims to dispel myths that “indigenous communities are unqualified to care for their own cultural objects”
ReviewExhibitions
The Big Review: Kent Monkman at the Met
The latest commission for the Met's Great Hall continues the New York institution's upending of the colonial-settler narrative of American history
PreviewIndigenous art
National Gallery of Canada presents global pulse of contemporary Indigenous art
The museum plans to acquire many of the works in its survey devoted to Indigenous artists
BlogIn the frame
Hand of totem pole stolen from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is returned with apology note
The anonymous letter noted that culprits were very sorry and “not in a sober state of mind”
InterviewSantiago X
Native American artist Santiago X on rebuilding Indigenous cities, one mound at a time
The forgotten history of Indigenous mound building will be reclaimed at this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial
NewsAustralia
Can Australia support two new Aboriginal art museums?
Proposals for Alice Springs and Adelaide have political support but concerns have been raised over competing projects and lack of Indigenous involvement
NewsActivism
Mural in Santa Fe underscores violence against Indigenous women
The work holds weight in New Mexico, which has the highest rate of violent crimes against Native American women in the US
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Canadian Museums Association launches $1m programme to recognise indigenous culture
The initiative is part of a broader reconciliation effort by the government
NewsMuseums & Heritage
MacKenzie Art Gallery given 1,000 works by contemporary indigenous artists from Canada and the US
Collectors Thomas Druyan and Alice Ladner were drawn by the Saskatchewan museum’s dedication to indigenous and aboriginal art from around the globe
NewsPerformance art
A global network for Indigenous performers launches in New York
Partner organisations will be “indigenised” by presenting a certain number of works by First Nations artists per year and build connections with local communities
NewsIndigenous art
This land is your land: US art world acknowledge Native American land rights
Movement is partly spurred by the US Department of Arts and Culture, which issued a guide on how to honour native land in 2017
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Native American group denounces Met’s exhibition of indigenous objects
The Association on American Indian Affairs says the "first mistake was to call these objects art" and that tribal representatives should have been consulted
NewsConservation & Preservation
Alaskan dancer helps the Met solve riddle of the Yup’ik mask
Conservator calls in master storyteller to decipher shamanic object
NewsRestitution
German museum returns tattooed Maori skull to New Zealand
The preserved head was held in Cologne's Rautenstrauch Joest Museum of world cultures for 110 years
News
Indigenous art comes first in Art Gallery of Ontario's new Canadian galleries
Museum has made more space for First Nations and Inuit artists and labels are now written in indigenous languages
NewsVenice Biennale 2019
Canada announces first presentation of Inuit art for 2019 Venice Biennale
Video collective Isuma will tell story of indigenous culture in Canadian pavilion
ArchiveRestitution
Oh, what potlatch: Harriman plunder returned to Alaska after a century
To great tribal feasting, five American museums have returned totem poles stolen from an Alaskan tribe in 1899
CommentMuseums & Heritage
Why we are projecting First Nations art on the Sydney Opera House
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists are front and centre in the Art Gallery of New South Wales's expansion plans, writes museum director Michael Brand
Michael Brand