Native people, native voices

After four years of planning, construction and field interviews, the Heard Museum in Phoenix has recast and enlarged its main exhibit area, adding contemporary artwork and audios of interviews with Native Americans.

The $7.6-million remounting at the 75-year-old museum of Native American culture has retained some old favorites, such as a 350-piece collection of colorful Hopi kachina dolls.

But much of the exhibit is new, including two striking murals, a garden of native plants, a 35-minute documentary film and interactive touch-screen stations with audio clips, online scrapbooks, maps and timelines.

“Home: Native People in the Southwest” displays about 2,000 objects in 21,000 square feet, nearly twice the former space.

“One of the primary objectives was to use native voices,” said Janet Cantley of Phoenix, exhibit consultant on the project. “A criticism we had heard from our Native American advisors was, ‘You have so many nice things, but there are so many stories to go along with them.’ That was our objective: to listen to those stories and tell them.”

To that end, an oral historian and other staff interviewed members of more than two dozen tribes in Arizona and New Mexico, including Apache, Hopi, Navajo, Southern Paiute and Pueblo. Their recollections and comments on culture, such as the uses of cradleboards, saddlebags and other objects, are installed on touch-screen stations.

Another criticism of the original installation, Cantley said, was that contemporary life was not represented. “The exhibits stopped in the mid-20th century,” she said. “So, you could visit the exhibits and think Native American culture was a thing of the past.”

In the new galleries, contemporary pieces are grouped with earlier ones to show how traditions inspire new works.

There is also newly commissioned art. A 30-foot-long wall of ceramics and blown glass opens the exhibit. Called “Indigenous Evolution,” the work by Pueblo artists Rosemary Lonewolf and Tony Jojola is based on Native American fences of adobe, ocotillo and saguaro.

The new garden, filled with agave, yucca and other plants used in daily life, displays a 21-foot-long mural on metal by Mario Martinez. The mural is an artistic narrative of the Yaqui people’s history, with photos of leaders and families and other elements.

Elsewhere, a replica of a ceremonial hogan displays a sand painting by Rosie Yellowhair that tells the Navajo creation story. Another replica, of a Hopi piki room, shows how the blue-corn bread is prepared.

The museum is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily, except major holidays. Admission is $10 adults, $5 students and $3 for ages 6 to 12; under 6 is free. Information: (602) 252-8848, www.heard.org.