“Being able to carry our traditional crafts into the future is an integral part of Indigenous resilience. David emphasizes the importance of moving traditions forward, not getting stuck in the past. “I think what really brings things alive [are] temporal installations, or this idea of rotating artworks…l like the idea of keeping arts and cultural traditions living. “

The Chachalu museum was created out of necessity, as the museum’s curator and manager, Travis Stewart explained in a recent interview. Travis has worked for the tribe in various capacities for approximately twenty years. Discussions about opening a museum have been going on for almost as long. The tribe needed a museum, a place to safely store important artifacts, and eventually to keep repatriated Tribal objects.”

“Cultural competence is one of the biggest challenges I face. And that goes all the way back to art school. When I’m presenting work for critique and when you’re presenting culturally specific artwork, this is queer and Native artwork, and the students don’t have a language for it and have no familiarity.” As we both discovered, many people share this lack of familiarity with Native history and our art.”