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Short abstract

This paper tracks changes in the visual representation of northern shamans during periods of political and religious transformation. Conflict and spiritual power are revealed in images of shamans' drums, indigenous painting and sculpture, museum life-groups, ethnographic photography, and films from Siberia, Sápmi, Greenland and North America.

Long abstract

This paper tracks changes in the visual representation of northern shamans during periods of political and religious transformation. Conflict and spiritual power are revealed in images of shamans' drums, indigenous painting and sculpture, museum life-groups, ethnographic photography, and films from Siberia, Sápmi, Greenland and North America. During times of repression, popular depictions have often shown shamans as evil madmen committing acts of symbolic violence; at other times they have been portrayed as peaceful, benevolent mystics bestowing blessings upon the people. Sacred objects, including anthropomorphic masks and zoomorphic rattling pendants, were usually concealed but were always already intended for visual display within a ritual context where invisible spirits play a central role in experience. The interplay between visibility and invisibility mirrors that of performance and secrecy in ceremonial actions. Staged ethnographic photographs employ artifacts for public viewing in a collaborative construction between the subject and the documenter; in the case of shamans, they spectacularize unique individual objects of power into widely reproduced synecdochic visual icons representing shamanism as a general system. Contemporary indigenous artists work within both frameworks, combining elements of insider and outsider perspectives in imagery which looks simultaneously to the past and the future.

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In this presentation I focus on probably the first Vepsian feature film, “Armastan” (‘I love’, Russia 2005). The film was made by a group of enthusiasts of Vepsian origin. It is an action movie based on the realities of the late 1920s, when many Vepsian rural families fled to the forests to escape Soviet collectivisation. In a film a group of people set off “to taiga” in search of a mysterious Vepsian community. After hard trials, they achieve their goal, but new challenges lie ahead. Although this low-budget film mixed with action movie stamps, is not very convincing artistically, it is thematically important in telling the story of the complicated past of Vepsian people by Vepsians themselves.

Long abstract

In 2005 a Vepsian youth organisation in Petrozavodsk (Karelian Republic, Russia) started making documentary films about the Vepsian ethnographic past. For young Vepsians, who had largely lost knowledge of their own language and often also of their exact origins, the film-making process was an important part of the discussion about their identity. Alltogether five films were made.

In this presentation I focus on probably the first Vepsian feature film, “Armastan” (‘I love’), made in 2005 (studio Greenpicture, Podporozhye, Leningrad oblast). The author of the plot is a journalist of Vepsian origin, P. Vasilyev, who has been investigating the repressions committed against the Vepsians in the 1930s. The film is an action movie based on the realities of the late 1920s, when many Vepsian rural families fled to the forests to escape forced collectivisation. A group of people set off “to taiga” in search of a mysterious Vepsian community. After hard trials, they achieve their goal, but new challenges lie ahead.

Although the film is not artistically very convincing, it is thematically important in telling the story of the Vepsian people. Collectivisation and the social complications that followed in the 20th century were the fate of dozens of indigenous groups in the Soviet Union. It is significant that now, in the 21st century, when the linguistic and cultural assimilation of many indigenous peoples in Russia is coming to an end, the will and strength to leave their mark, even in more artistically demanding forms, can still be found.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5e6Lpub_28

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I intend to explore digital photographic output prevalent on open internet sources that aim to demonstrate, educate, and document the public on Nenets’ cultural identity. I will discuss photographs posted in open media and compare them with what Nenets’ groups disseminate.

Long abstract

My research follows several groups and individuals who belong to small-numbered indigenous peoples of Russia’s North, the Nenets. I observe their digital photographic output particularly concentrating on photos that they post. In my opinion, the Internet and particularly Social Media provide a space for Nenets to self-express through photography. I concentrate my research on publicly published Nenets’ identity, particularly concentrating on photographic outputs.

I believe that the Internet allows and encourages Indigenous people to create photographic documentation on how their culture changes, evolves or is impacted by the modern world. Social Media allows for self-expression and visualization of how this particular group views its Indigenous identity.

The photographs disseminated or shared by or about Nenets tell stories about the importance of nomadic lifestyle, reindeer herding, and Indigenous practices essential to surviving in the Tundra. Through visual self-expression and photographic documentation, Nenets preserve their Indigenous identity. During my presentation, I intend to reflect on the importance of examining digital photographic output and considering it as a form of artistic expression, particularly if the photographs were taken by Nenets.

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The Indigenous body, more specifically- my Indigenous body, is a contentious site of colonial imposition. My DNA carries within it the markings of starvation, trauma, and grief that have been imposed upon my ancestors for generations. Through creation I reclaim autonomy through my vessel in the forging of new realities and renewal of cultural teachings. From the perspective of an Indigenous artist, I explore the intertwined and inseparable nature of the body and the work, and position creation as an important methodology in the production of both knowledge and sovereignty.

Long abstract

The Indigenous body, more specifically- my Indigenous body, is a contentious site of colonial imposition. My DNA carries within it the markings of starvation, trauma, and grief that have been imposed upon my ancestors for generations. Through creation I reclaim autonomy through my vessel in the forging of new realities and renewal of cultural teachings. This paper explores the intertwined and inseparable nature of the body and the work from the perspective of an Indigenous artist, and positions creation as an effective methodology in the production of both knowledge and sovereignty.

Creating grounds me, binding me tightly to a rich tradition of Indigenous artistry. I feel it in my hands, which look more and more like my mom’s every day. I see it in old family photographs, featuring my great-grandfather cocooned in soft buckskin and floral beadwork. I develop a relationship with the material through action and deepen my understanding of its physicality and its histories. Artmaking is relational, and as I bead, paint, tangle, weave, and knot; I am caring for and honoring kinships with the past, present, and future. It’s only through Indigenous bodies and souls that our truths can stand in the face of dominant western narratives that hide our resilience and silence our survivors.

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Deborah Spears Moorehead is a Native American Wampanoag artist, storyteller, dancer, and author, dedicated to protecting, preserving, and sharing the accurate rich history and culture of Eastern Woodland Native American Tribal Nations.

Long abstract

Deborah Spears Moorehead presents her life's journey of rewriting History and reclaiming the obscurity of her ancestral relatives' past, traditions, stories, music and culture. Her life's work of visual arts and literature, focus on Creation Stories, Oral Traditions, and Native American contemporary lives. Deborah's paintings are of Eastern Woodland Native American historical events and people.

Her literature counteracts some of the Colonial era primary documents, and narratives that are taught as accepted authorized hegemonic versions of the United States History in regards to its formation and treatment of Native American people.. By reveling the Native American perspective, Deborah's art and literature educates on the damaging effects of the colonization techniques used to destroy Native American Tribal Nations.

She celebrates Eastern Woodland Native American Tribal Nation's resilience, culture , traditions and survival through a near genocide with her art and literature. Her book "Finding Balance " counter acts the obscurity and erasure of Eastern Woodland Native AmericanTribal Nation's History. Finding Balance is a linear chronological historical and genealogical account of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribal Nation.

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This presentation introduces Adwa, an oral museum interpretation developed in my PhD research at Kingston University London (Techne awarded). Rooted in African and Black feminist scholarship, it challenges visual biases in museums, advocating storytelling as a decolonized, reparative methodology for amplifying marginalized voices.

Long abstract

While scholarship has long explored the need to decolonize museum practices, sight-based methodologies continue to dominate these institutions, often failing to amplify the powerful knowledge of Indigenous and marginalized communities. Drawing on Nicholas Mirzoeff's concept of “white sight,” this presentation examines the risks associated with uncritically displaying colonial visual material in museum and archive practices, proposing an alternative methodology grounded in orality that centers Afro-descendant epistemologies.

Rooted in Black feminist and African scholarship such as Tina Campt, Saidiya Hartman, and Amadou Hampâté Bâ, this approach highlights how oral traditions challenge dominant narratives and counter ocular-centrism bias. The presentation introduces Adwa, an oral museum interpretation developed as part of my practice-based PhD research at Kingston University London (Techne awarded). This project emerged from the acritical access of the colonial photographic collection of the former-Colonial Museum (IsIAO) in Rome and reflects a biographical need to understand beloging and identity in a diasporic post-migratory nation.

Adwa reclaims storytelling as a methodology, fostering deeper connections between audiences and historical events while promoting a compassionate and reparative understanding of the past. It demonstrates how african-inspired methodologies, like oral traditions, can be powerful tools for self-expression, the reclamation of communication power, and epistemic transformation.

This presentation intersects visual culture, african thinking, and postcolonial museum studies, advocating for museums and archives to function as agents of change. It introduces a decolonized framework that amplifies Indigenous and non-Western knowledge, employing innovative curatorial strategies to redefine museum practices.

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Short abstract

The story of Feodora Kornilova, wife of socialist Hungary’s dictator Mátyás Rákosi, is fascinating. The First Lady of the Hungarian People’s Republic was an Indigenous woman from a far-flung Northeastern Siberia (Sakha). She was actively engaged in charitable causes and was a talented porcelain artist, producing a number of remarkable pieces. Her formal training in this art makes her the first professional Sakha ceramicist. Based on primary and secondary sources, the author looks at the many aspects of Feodora Kornilova’s life and art.

Long abstract

The story of Feodora Kornilova, wife of socialist Hungary’s dictator Mátyás Rákosi, is fascinating. The First Lady of the Hungarian People’s Republic was an Indigenous woman from a far-flung Northeastern Siberia (Sakha). An attractive woman of Asian appearance, her quiet and self-composed presence was striking in the halls of power of post-war Europe. The Rákosis were indeed an unorthodox first couple — not only in the context of their time but historically as well. Mátyás Rákosi was Jewish, and his rise to power in the second half of the 1940s, just a few years after half a million Hungarian Jews were murdered in the last years of the Holocaust, is remarkable. Feodora Kornilova’s racial and ethnic background as an Indigenous Siberian makes her an outlier among the European elites of any historical period. To this day, foreign-born spouses of national leaders are a rare phenomenon. As the First Lady of Hungary, she was actively engaged in charitable causes and was a talented porcelain artist, producing a number of remarkable pieces. Her formal training in this art makes her the first professional Sakha ceramicist. Based on primary and secondary sources, the author looks at the many aspects of Feodora Kornilova’s life and art.

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Short abstract

This paper would try to understand pottery making as a visual art of the indigenous potter communities of Assam and the storytelling by the potters through their earthenwares.

Long abstract

Pottery is a tangible material culture. It is regarded to be the mirror of a society. Pottery making tradition in the northeastern region of India has been traced back to the Neolithic period as attested in the stratified context at Daojali Hading in North Cachar hills of Assam. Numerous techniques including paddle and anvil, coil building and mat impressed were used to prepare the earthenwares, which continued through the later periods as well until today. Pottery making also reflected the stories of the community which is basically an intangible aspect of the art. Two distinct indigenous potter communities, namely Hira and Kumar, are present in Assam. Numerous stories are told through this art by the potter communities to the society reflecting their traditional beliefs and rituals. With the help of ethnography, this paper is a humble attempt to understand this storytelling of the indigenous potters of Assam.