The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has been the host of many incredible artworks over the years. However, its most recent exhibit, “Water Memories,” features a piece that no one would have expected – a denim jacket.
The denim jacket on display is a Wrangler knock-off with lines of blue beads along the sleeves and waist. In addition, the jacket has a red felt thunderbird stitched on its back.
The exhibit is curated by Patricia Marroquin Norby, who made headlines for becoming the first full-time person of Indigenous descent in the museum’s 150-year history.
Water Memories shows pieces about water’s significance to Native American tribal nations, reflecting its importance in the art.
“The thunderbird is a sacred image to the Anishinaabe people,” said Norby. “It actually represents a thunder cloud.”
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According to the curator, the beading on the jacket represented the water droplets and was added along with the thunderbird by then-19-year-old Rick St. Germaine and his mother, Saxon St. Germaine.
Rick St. Germaine wore the jacket during the Native American occupation of the Winter Dam in Wisconsin in the early 1970s.
When Norby saw the jacket in a small museum, she knew she needed to display it in the exhibit to represent different generations of Native Americans and showcase how the art speaks to their activism around water.
Years earlier, Native American art was displayed alongside art from Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. In 2017, Charles and Valerie Diker promised the museum gifts, donations, and loans from their collection, resulting in the museum moving the Native American art to where it belongs: the American Wing.
While Water Memories is a companion to beaded clothing and other pieces in the “Art of Native America” galleries, it also tells a story.
“As you go through the exhibition, you’ll realize what we are doing is creating a current, a stream of stories and memories,” explained Norby.
Patricia Marroquin Norby’s art history scholarship is grounded in environmental activism, and her research focuses on the connections between fine art, the agriculture industry, and water rights in the Southwest. While taking a political perspective may be new to the celebrated museum, it’s something that she has always worked towards.
“I want people to leave with the understanding that we all have a role in protecting freshwater sources,” said Norby. “That we all have intimate ties to water, and that without fresh water, we will not survive.”
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