10 Queer Indigenous Artists on Where Their Inspirations Have Led Them
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/23/t-magazine/queer-indigenous-artists.html
While wide-ranging in scope and style, these pieces are alike in their power and depth.
Interviews by Samuel Rutter and Caitlin Youngquist
April 23, 2021, 3:35 p.m. ET
Though the pandemic’s grip is starting to loosen, and relief finally feels within reach, this past year has underscored our country’s long history of violence, new examples of which serve as reminders of older ones. Among them are the myriad atrocities perpetuated against Indigenous people in what we now call America (and beyond), individuals whose experiences are to this day too often distorted or left untold. Lately, though, there have been some hard-won gains on that front, from professional sports teams finally changing their names to the Metropolitan Museum of Art hiring Patricia Marroquin Norby as its first curator of Native American Art. It is not necessarily the job of the artist to shine a light where others have not, but self-expression — especially that of individuals who, whether because of their race, gender, sexuality or any other marker of identity, some might seek to deny — can be an inherently radical act, one to which attention should be paid. For this story, we asked 10 queer Indigenous talents from different parts of North America to share one of their artworks and talk about its genesis, and about their practice at large. Like the selections themselves, the conversations, which touched on materials, color schemes, gender fluidity, decolonization, oral history and more, were testaments to the strength — and beauty — of a multiplicity of voices.