Disappointment and harsh words also came from Indigenous critics, who wanted a more visibly confrontational politics. Same-day negative reviews appeared in both The New York Times and The Washington Post accusing the NMAI of a lack of scholarly rigor and haphazard exhibits marked by vagueness and superficiality. It was a joyous occasion, an assertion of Native pride, presence, and survival.
On opening day, some twenty-five thousand Indigenous people marched in celebration on the Mall, welcoming the museum into being. Embedded within those three large galleries were a series of smaller spaces featuring tribally curated exhibits meant to explore the history and culture of individual groups, even as the museum itself sought to explore more general themes: Our Lives, Our Peoples, Our Universes. In the original configuration, put in place at the museum’s opening in 2004, three permanent exhibition galleries anchored the museum, along with a theater and film documentary, two changing exhibits, and the Mitsitam Café, which served Native foods from North and South America. Inside, visitors find flags from a host of tribal nations surrounding a vast domed space, a gathering place for local groups, national organizations, and museum programming. Located on the Mall, in close proximity to the Capitol, the distinctive building captures the curvilinear forms of the natural world while simultaneously evoking the elaborate perched stone cities of Southwestern cliff-dwellers.
When Indigenous visitors from across the country and the world come to Washington, D.C., they often head for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI).
0 kommentar(er)
