Jeffrey Gibson features in 'Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969'

'Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969' centres performance and theatre as an origin point for the development of contemporary art by Native American, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and Alaska Native artists. It begins with the role that Native artists have played in the self-determination era, sparked by the Occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Tribes in 1969. Native artists then and now are at the vanguard of performance art practices and discourse.

In the exhibition, song, dance, and music are presented as a basis for collectivity and resistance and a means to look back to a time when Native traditional ceremony and public gatherings were illegal in both the United States and Canada. In addition to artworks, the exhibition includes important archival material documenting the emergence of the New Native Theater movement in Santa Fe in 1969 as well as materials directly related to the early self-determination era.