A blog sponsored by the Michigan State University Museum's Michigan Traditional Arts Program, a partnership with the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. Sharing news and information about the Great Lakes Folk Festival, Quilt Index, the MSU Museum's traditional arts activities, Great Lakes traditional artists and arts resources, and much more. Development of content for this blog supported by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Anishnaabensag Biimskowebshkigewag: Native Kids Ride Bikes Exhibition



Photo courtesy of Dylan Miner
Continues through July 28, 2012 at the Ziibiwing Center for Anishnabe Lifeways and Culture, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
“My people will sleep for one-hundred years, but when they awaken it will be the artists who give them back their spirit.
- Louis Riel, Métis leader hanged by the Canadian government in 1885
The relationship between Indigenous people and the automobile industry has a long history. For at least three generations, the Anishinaabeg have frequently left reservation lands to work at automotive factories in Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Chicago, Toronto, and Milwaukee. The children and grandchildren of these former autoworkers continue to discover their ancestral and cultural connections
This exhibition presents lowrider bicycles created by urban Native youth, contemporary Indigenous artists, and non-Native college students. Knowledge from the Métis, Anishinaabeg, and Cayuse is used to reflect upon sustainable transportation and contemporary Indigenous ways of life.
The exhibition asks the following questions: What role may the bicycle play in revitalizing Indigenous culture? How may it intervene and prevent mass ecological destruction? How may it help envision new ways to being in the world? And finally, can it facilitate the sharing of new stories?
Admission to the Ziibiwing Cultural Center is complimentary with admission to the Diba Jimooyung Permanent Exhibit. Open Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Watch interview with curator, Dylan Miner (Associate Professor, Michigan State University Museum and Adjunct Curator, Michigan State Univrsity Museum)

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