Ojibwe village of Naytahwaush celebrates artistic legacies
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Over a hundred attendees filled the Watermark Art Center’s exhibition titled “Minwaajimowinan — Good Stories.” It features a variety of art pieces spanning generations, made by members of the Naytahwaush community.
A public reception and music showcase was held at the art center on Saturday, Feb. 14.
Guest curator and artist Kent Estey said the exhibition, which opened earlier this year, was a lifelong goal.
“I always had this thing in the back of my head, in my brain, and it was someday I want to be able to show my entire family's volume of work that they've done,” Estey said at the reception.
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Estey said basket making goes back several generations in his family, and those generations are showcased at the gallery. He highlighted one family member in particular — his grandmother, Josephine Robinson, an Ojibwe black ash basket maker born in 1893.
Robinson lived on the White Earth Reservation when Native traditions and culture were federally banned. Those bans wouldn’t be lifted until 1978 with the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.
Estey said she left for boarding school at nine years old and later attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.
When she returned to the White Earth Reservation in northwest Minnesota, Estey said many of the things she knew had changed. Her family’s land allotments had been sold, and for her, it seemed like the Ojibwe language had disappeared. Robinson could only speak English.
“What they couldn't take from her was her basketry,” said Estey, sharing that basketry is what “carried her through” life.
He said Robinson wasn't afraid to share her story and what he describes as traumatic experiences.
“In the end, she won, because her baskets would one day be in the hands of presidents and senators and sitting in the Smithsonian,” he said.
Estey’s family is one of eight featured in the exhibition.
Musician Steve Turner stood in front of attendees with a guitar. He shared a song he recently wrote titled, “How Do I Walk in This World.” Turner said the song is about sitting outside with his father and learning the different star formations.
His father was a reverend and the former chairman of White Earth Nation. Turner’s mother has her art on display in the show.
For him, the gallery shows community relationships.
“This whole exhibit, it just screams family,” Turner said. “When we say we grew up in a place where you're related to probably three-quarters to 80 percent of the people that you grew up with in this small community of Naytahwaush, it's true.”
His brother, Doyle Turner, who is also a musician, performed too. He shared a song about the Twin Lakes. Naytahwaush is in central Twin Lakes Township, on the northern shore of North Twin Lake.
“We are just this real tight knit community. And I think that's just a beautiful aspect of people — people help you out when you need it in Naytahwaush,” Doyle Turner said.
For community members attending the exhibition, they are able to see familiar faces they recognize throughout. Shaawano Uran stood in front of a sign at the entrance to the exhibition.
In bold letters, it reads “Naytahwaush.” The sign is made from a collage of photographs depicting members of the community. Uran pointed out the people he knew.
“It's really cool to see so many of my relatives and people I grew up with represented here. You know, seeing like my aunts and folks who I grew up just that were always making cool stuff or teaching people to make art,” he said. He was taught to make baskets and drums by people depicted in the photographs when he was younger.
“I grew up thinking that was normal, that everybody was an artist,” Uran said.
For Estey, he wants the Naytahwaush community who stop by the exhibition to feel like they can reconnect with familiar faces, like his grandmother.
“What I want to have them remember is this: the beauty that these artists have created,” Estey said.
“Minwaajimowinan – Good Stories” is on display through March 28.
Chandra Colvin covers Native American communities in Minnesota for MPR News via Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
