Proposal for new newsgroup on Native American Art
AScriabin
I have posted the following message on alt.config. I urge all who agree
with me to post messages in support:
Subject: PROPOSAL: a newsgroup on Native American Arts
From: ascr...@aol.com (AScriabin)
Date: 30 Apr 1997 17:22:49 GMT
Message-ID: <19970430172...@ladder01.news.aol.com>
I would like to request creation of a new usenet newsgroup dedicated to
the discussion of Native American Art -- called alt.arts.nativeamerican.us
(or any other name that better fits within Usenet conventions based on the
following description of the intent of this proposed newsgroup).
This newsgroup is for the purpose of discussion among those who collect,
buy, sell, and simply study and appreciate art created by Native
Americans. This includes discussion of: weavings -- rugs, for example;
paintings; pottery; jewelry, sculpture, music, and other forms of art.
It is an important subject on aesthetic, cultural, and also commercial
grounds. There is a significant commercial market in Native American art.
If anyone would like a copy of my Netscape 3.0 bookmark files on this
subject, I'd be more than happy to share them. The web sites you would
reach from these bookmarks contain a wealth of information about Native
American arts, the artists themselves, as well as the availability of art
objects for sale.
I work in downtown Wash DC, a block away from the Smithsonian Natural
History Museum and just a short distance from the Interior Dept.'s fine
Indian Craft store. I would like to be able to share with others a
discussion of what one can learn from these sources as well as from
sources much closer to where the art is being created today.
As a collector and student of Native American art, I find that there are
many aspects of, for example, Southwestern Indian Pueblo pottery, that I'd
like to discuss with other collectors and students.
My intent is to encourage a discussion group in which we would talk about
such things as the significance of the symbols used on specific Pueblos'
pots, the rich spiritual content of much of this kind of art, as well as
anecdotes about conversations one has had with potters and other artists.
The value is this discussion would be relevant both to an understanding of
the art of Native Americans and to an understanding of the market for that
art today.
The bookmarked Web sites display but a small amount of the information
that is really out there. You must remember that collecting Native
American art has been going on for hundreds of years. As one truly fine
example of the kind of web site I would urge those reading this to visit,
please go to http//www.Migrations.com.
I have had many wonderful conversations online with the person who set up
and runs that site. She has a wealth of information on certain specific
aspects of Native American and Inuit art. Yet, there is so much more to
Native Americans than any one web site can cover. The newsgroup offers a
true opportunity to broaden one's knowledge and appreciation through
dialogue, interaction and the exchange of views. This group won't be just
another place for folks to argue with one another, I suspect. If there
were one statement I'd adopt as the foundation, or Charter, for this
group, it would be based on this 1969 statement of what this art is all
about (and I would like to acknowledge for this the late Popovi Da, the
eldest son of the great potter of San Ildefonso Maria Martinez):
"We [Native Americans] believe we are the first conservationists.
We do not destroy or disturb the harmony of nature. To us this is beauty;
it is our sense of esthetics. We care for and husband our environment,
trying to be all forbearing like Mother Earth. We feel ourselves trustees
of our environment and of our creative values. And this gives us a union
with all existence, all the creatures which live in the world: wild
animals, little crawling things, and even men.
Fine art within our lives has been balanced and directed in a
positive sense by the forces about us. If life is unbalanced, as it is
now, by the pressure of mechanical things all about us, life seems to lose
man in a cold world of steel where are are frustrated and afraid. This
frustration will be reflected in our art.
Except for our ritualistic dances and our way of life, our efforts
are related to the care of our environment and what we create. Our pueblo
people eat gently, recognizing with inner feelings that the corn or the
squash were at one time growing, cared for, each a plant alive, now
prepared to become part of us, of our bodies and our minds, quite sacred.
We reflect on the plant.
There is a design in living things; their shapes, forms, the
ability to live, all have meaning. We must cling to our Indian traditions
which exalt beauty. To the white man, religion is a method, a system which
he can employ or even use at times when necessary. But to us there is no
word in our language for an isolated dogma: all we can say is that we have
a way of life, and that is life itself. If we fill our minds with pure
materialism and accept a convenient religion, then the backbone of our way
of life, of our perception of beauty, will be broken and we will disappear
as unseen winds, gone. You, too, are not secure. You may be the victims of
your own dissolution, undermined by customs, air pollution, in fact by
unremovable pollution of all kinds, material and spiritual. You can come
to us for our message. We must not let ourselves get caught up in the
onrushing vanishing years or the results of an over-efficient society,
highly mechanized, streamlined, rapidly moving at a rate and in a way that
to most of the Indians represents a panic.
Our values are indwelling and dependent on time and space
unmeasured. This in itself is beauty. Our first great value is our
trusteeship of nature, and this is beauty also. Then there is an order and
direction in our lives, a unity, the ability to share the joy of sharing,
creativeness and minimum competition. This too is beauty.
Come to our dances or our homes; we share our meals with you. We
feel then that we can be part of each other, confluent human forces,
sharing giving. It is not the disease known as obligation, but exists
because it exists and that is enough."
In this spirit, I offer my proposal in the hope there are people of good
will and an open mind who will read it and help me in setting up a
newsgroup for the purposes mentioned above.
Thank you.
Martin F. Dunn
AScriabin (ascr...@aol.com) writes:
> I have posted the following message on alt.config. I urge all who agree
> with me to post messages in support:
>
> Subject: PROPOSAL: a newsgroup on Native American Arts
> From: ascr...@aol.com (AScriabin)
> Date: 30 Apr 1997 17:22:49 GMT
> Message-ID: <19970430172...@ladder01.news.aol.com>
>
>
> I would like to request creation of a new usenet newsgroup dedicated to
> the discussion of Native American Art -- called alt.arts.nativeamerican.us
> (or any other name that better fits within Usenet conventions based on the
> following description of the intent of this proposed newsgroup).
>
> This newsgroup is for the purpose of discussion among those who collect,
> buy, sell, and simply study and appreciate art created by Native
> Americans. This includes discussion of: weavings -- rugs, for example;
> paintings; pottery; jewelry, sculpture, music, and other forms of art.
>
Oops. I guess this is =that message=
Anyway, I fully support the idea. I have scvanned many Native art sites
and was disappointed to find most of them were lead-ins to commercial
outlets. In fact only one or two actually addressed or discussed issues
in Native Art.
I woudl appreciate a copy of your bookmarks and would also be more than
willing to send my list to anyone who wants it.
Martin F. Dunn
--
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Martin F. Dunn Aboriginal Rights Consulting
ab...@freenet.carleton.ca from an Aboriginal Perspective
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