Like many other museum exhibitions, Cedar and Sea’s display cabinets are stocked with traditional items like boxes, fishing hooks, baskets, and carving tools. The majority of the items in this exhibit are not artifacts, which is a significant distinction from many other Indigenous exhibits at nontribal institutions.
Sea, Cedar, and ntsayka il i ukuk The newest displays at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, called “This is Our Place,” showcase the traditional culture and contemporary communities of Indigenous people living along the northern Pacific coast.
The North Oregon Coast Museum has undergone a significant transformation. There hasn’t been much Indigenous participation at the Columbia River Maritime Museum since it debuted in 1963. Boats, artifacts, and exhibits centered on the last 200 years of mainly EuroAmerican maritime history have been the main features of its current 26,000 square foot gallery area.
However, the museum is also searching for ways to fill in the gaps in the narrative it has been telling as it considers a $30 million restoration project that will include the new 24,671-square-foot Mariner’s Hall as the centerpiece.
The museum’s curator, Jeff Smith, stated that rather than using the more typical museum-to-tribe strategy, the effort to engage with Native tribes has been more word-of-mouth than institutional.
Smith claimed that it was highly individualized and not institution-to-institution. In this manner, we were able to communicate their culture while simultaneously concentrating on the artists and their work.
The stunning and expansive Cedar and Sea, which features movies showcasing various artisans and their crafts, is a clear example of that strategy. However, a tiny photographic display called ntsayka il i ukuk is a direct collaboration with the Chinook Indian Nation, a tribe in Washington at the mouth of the Columbia River that is presently vying for federal recognition.
In addition to further exhibits on Indigenous culture and history around the region as the museum grows, Bruce Jones, executive director of the museum, stated that the goal is now to always maintain some inclusion of the Chinook Indian Nation, whose headquarters are located just across the river.
According to Jones, it’s a continuing cultural narrative. We have a lot more options.
The Columbia River Maritime Museum’s most recent endeavors are currently on display to the public: two displays that shed light on a handful of the Indigenous cultures that have long been left out of its narrative.
At the heart of the Cedar and Sea exhibit is a Nuu-chal-nuth sealing canoe.”The Oregonian” or Jamie Hale
On exhibit are a number of traditional carving implements. The majority are replicas, but some are historical items.”The Oregonian” or Jamie Hale
The raw materials obtained for traditional crafts manufactured by Native people around the Northwest coast are displayed in a small side room.”The Oregonian” or Jamie Hale
CEDAR AND SEA
The Western redcedar tree is ubiquitous in Cedar and Sea, from the entrance to the woodland to the exhibit cases and everything within.
The exhibit highlights Native artists who are using the tree in their traditional lifeways and tracks the plant’s uses from harvest to final product, with a focus on the coastal regions where the Western redcedar grows, from Northern California to the southern arm of Alaska.
(The Western redcedar is referred to as cedar throughout the display, but a dendrologist would point out that it is not a true cedar, even if that is how the tree is often named in the Pacific Northwest, where native cedars are nonexistent.)
As a reminder that these traditional crafts are still being practiced by real people in their communities, the museum has installed tall video screens that display footage and interviews with some of the primary contributing artists in addition to the exhibits full of artifacts.
According to Nathan Jackson, a Tlingit carver who is on display, he has dedicated his professional life to crafting poles, paddles, canoes, and several other smaller items in the customary ways of his forefathers. “Even though the methods have changed, the spirit of that work continues,” he remarked.
According to Jackson, there are a variety of tools available now that allow you to preserve the same qualities of conventional labor.
In the middle of the show is a bentwood box made by Tsimshian artist David Boxley.”The Oregonian” or Jamie Hale
New traditional pieces created by Native artists from the Northwest are displayed in “Cedar and Sea” display cases.”The Oregonian” or Jamie Hale
Ed Carriere, a Suquamish basket maker and another featured artist, donated entirely original items to Cedar and Sea. He was challenged to create a shrimp trap for the museum, despite his skill at creating clamming baskets. Additionally, he created what he refers to as the “archeology basket,” which combines weaving techniques from multiple millennia into a single item.
At the exhibit’s opening celebration, Carriere stated, “When you get into basketry, you get into your ancestors’ ways of life, what they did in the winter, and how they gathered the cedar limbs, the cedar bark, and the root.” I can truly comprehend how my ancestors lived and what they did since I have done that all of my life.
According to Jones, Cedar and Sea had been developing for almost five years. It takes the place of the museum’s earlier Indigenous culture area, which was a minor component of the broader exhibit on the lower Columbia River’s maritime history.
“The museum wanted to move away from stereotypical past-tense portrayals of Native peoples when designing the new exhibit,” he said.
According to Jones, it was simply something that our guests would find more relatable. Simply using relics gathered by explorers in the 1700s and 1800s to depict history without include the voices of the present would be detrimental to any of the tribes.
Smith claimed that his role as curator was to concentrate on real, live individuals, such as modern craftspeople and artists. According to him, most of the about 170 items in the display are either historical replicas created by other organizations or works by Native artisans, however there are a few authentic artifacts present.
According to Smith, this display takes you straight to the present while also reaching back into the past.
Ntsayka il i ukuk Photographer Amiran White and the Chinook Indian Nation collaborated to create This is Our Place.”The Oregonian” or Jamie Hale
In the middle of the show is a 24-foot canoe called Skakwal.”The Oregonian” or Jamie Hale
Images from the Chinook Indian Nation show daily life and celebrations.”The Oregonian” or Jamie Hale
THIS IS OUR PLACE
Ntsayka il i ukuk is located across the wall from the Cedar and Sea entrance. The Chinook Indian Nation, a tribe that resides at the mouth of the Columbia River and has been battling for federal recognition for decades, is the subject of the modest exhibit This is Our Place.
Amiran White, a documentary photographer who moved to Oregon from England and has been working with the tribe for the past ten years, uses a series of photographs to highlight the community in the exhibit.
By showcasing both glimpses of daily life and a range of traditional rites, her art provides a comprehensive view into the Chinookan community.
A picture shows a dugout canoe with its five paddlers in silhouette as it glides across placid waters. A picture of an older and younger woman, possibly a mother and daughter, gathering nettles from the forest is displayed next to it. A photo of two girls having an ice cream bite is displayed on the wall. There is a picture of a salmon ceremony two spaces below.
While some pictures have people wearing regalia, the majority feature people wearing jeans, T-shirts, flannel shirts, and rain boots. They depict a community that is deeply rooted in both their traditional ways of life and iconic Americana, such as summer ice cream and high school graduation.
It echoes similar photographic exhibits on, say, theblack rodeoorIkoi no Kai, but for the Chinook tribe, ntsayka il i ukuk is a crucial distillation of its mission to secure a prosperous future for our descendants while honoring our ancestors, according to an exhibit placard.
White, who pulled the two dozen images from her vast collection taken over the years, said she has shared the tribe s goal of exposure an effort not just to gain federal recognition but a greater public recognition as well. She expressed her hope that the exhibit’s visitors will benefit from the work.
I m hoping that they realize and see that there is an Indigenous community right there on the land where they re at, White said. I hope it piques their interest enough for them to learn more and perhaps consider how they can be helpful allies.
–Jamie Halecovers travel and the outdoors and co-hosts thePeak Northwest podcast. Reach him at 503-294-4077,[email protected]@HaleJamesB.
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