From Native Modernism to Native Feminism: Understanding Contemporary Native American Praxis

Abstract

In an effort to revise misleading representations of Native people, Native artists and activists have worked tirelessly to challenge widely-accepted colonial falsities and present their lived reality. The early stages of historical revisionism are rooted in the advent of the Native Modernism movement and are explicated by the artists who brought Native art to the mainstream. This movement set the stage for art and theory produced during the Red Power civil rights movement and the development of intersectional Native Feminism. The work that was initiated and achieved in these earlier movements continues to be shaped by contemporary Native praxis in the art world. Contemporaries grapple with what it means to be a historically oppressed, presently misinterpreted Native artist, while simultaneously being cognizant of past misconceptions to properly present individualized artistry. Native women artists who function in this informed space have challenged Native representation in the public sphere through a lens that reconciles identity and redirects authenticity. Two of these contemporary artists, Erica Lord (Iñupiaq, Athabascan) and Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke), act as case studies in analyzing the trajectory of reinterpretation and provide evidence of a continuing Native Feminist gesture.