The stories adapted from European folktales often feature a desire for riches, status, and romance. In comparison, Indigenous stories highlight relations to other beings. In accordance with the Indigenous imperative to see the land, animals, and other living beings represented, Julie Buffalohead’s work exhibits a rematriated approach to storytelling, grounded in Indigenous values and depicting love for beings beyond oneself.
A citizen of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, Julie Buffalohead (b. 1972) creates visual narratives that center Native storytelling. Stories of Becoming features a new series by Buffalohead that incorporates animals of Indigenous stories alongside the often contradictory stories from European folklore to reenvision the teachings imposed on youth and within our communities. Alongside these visual stories, Buffalohead engages with images of contemporary femininity and youth, representing traditional and modern protectors and leaders.
As parents alter and update the stories passed on to children, Buffalohead recenters the stories Indigenous communities need to hold onto—the ones that tell of the spirits and safeguards still present within contemporary life, the ones that serve as reminders to care for community, and the stories of pain that established Indigenous histories of resiliency. Within Stories of Becoming, Buffalohead grounds her depictions in space and a more defined landscape, materializing the reality, authenticity, and validity of Indigenous stories while still leaving room for humor.
Buffalohead received her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN and her MFA from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. She has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, and Guggenheim Fellowship.
—Kendra R. Greendeer, Ph.D., Ho-Chunk and Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, Ihlenfeld Curator of Collaborative and Community Exhibitions, Weisman Art Museum
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