Florida's Indigenous Artists Take Center Stage at Miami Art Week

"The exhibition Yakne Seminoli ("Seminole World") at the HistoryMiami Museum gathers works by over 25 Seminole artists across traditional and contemporary mediums - not just beadwork, patchwork, and basketry, but also painting, photography, and even AI. Organized in collaboration with the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum on the Big Cypress Reservation in the Everglades, the show aims to convey to visitors that "Seminole history is Florida history.""

"For as long as the Seminoles have called Florida home, they've had to defend their right to be there, persevering through the Long War in the 1800s to the United States government's chilling "termination" policies of the mid-20th century. This year saw a new chapter in that struggle when state Republicans recklessly erected the notorious Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention center in the Everglades, just a few feet away from the traditional villages, sacred burial grounds, and ceremonial sites of the Seminole Tribe and the closely related Miccosukee Tribe."

Yakne Seminoli at the HistoryMiami Museum assembles works by more than 25 Seminole artists spanning beadwork, patchwork, basketry, painting, photography and AI. The exhibition is produced with the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum on the Big Cypress Reservation and centers the message that Seminole history is an essential part of Florida history. Seminole communities endured the Long War and mid-20th-century termination policies while maintaining cultural resilience. Contemporary threats include the Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention center built near traditional villages and sacred sites; a lawsuit prompted a court order to wind down operations, though the facility remained open.

Read at Hyperallergic