Over a year and a half ago, the Museum began a new partnership with five high school students from Enid, Oklahoma. The students, as representatives of the Marshallese community in Enid, visited the Museum, explored the collections, and worked with Museum staff to create their own exhibition. The Museum has since moved forward with the installation of the exhibition curated by the students- now opening on Friday, October 16.
An exciting part of this process included the deinstallation of the “A.B. Lewis Case,” which has remained unchanged since 1991, when it debuted in the exhibit “Pacific Spirits: Life, Death & the Supernatural.” The Regenstein team felt the removal of this case was important for two reasons:
With its deinstallation, the entire gallery can now be devoted to regularly-rotating, co-curated exhibits. We hope that, over time, more of the Museum’s space will be dedicated to this type of shared storytelling.
A.B. Lewis collected many of the items on display in the Regenstein Pacific Halls during the early 20th century. While his contributions, via the Joseph N. Field South Pacific Expedition (1909-1913) are noted elsewhere in the hall, we can now use the space to focus on voices and stories from the descendant community.
Below: Mount makers Janice Lim, Ann Prazer and Erin Bliss deinstall the 30-year-old A.B. Lewis case. Photos by Chris Philipp.
Below: Erin and Janice install the Marshall Islands material. Photos 1-2 by Chris Philipp; 3-7 by Jackie Pozza.
The marae is currently home to the new exhibition “D-Day Warriors: Native Americans in the Military.” Joe Podlasek, of Schaumburg, Illinois’ Trickster Art Gallery, worked with FM to honor Native American soldiers with music and dance. The event brought together many of the individuals and communities who use and care for the marae. Those new to Chicago’s marae were received with a hongi, a traditional Maori greeting (pictured below. Photos © Michelle Kuo, 2019.)
Visitors can see the exhibit until February 2020.
In late March, the Museum and several community partners welcomed our newest co-curators: five Marshallese-American high school students from Enid, Oklahoma. The students will help us produce a small Marshall Islands exhibition in our Pacific co-curation gallery, which will be installed and open to the public in 2020.
Before the students began their busy two-day introduction to the museum world and exhibits development, a powhiri, or formal welcoming ceremony, was held on the marae. Museum staff, Native American community partners, Philippines co-curators and many of Chicago’s Pacific community were in attendance to greet the students.
Speakers included Conrad White, representing the Maori of Tokomaru Bay; Lanialoha Lee, representing Chicago’s Pacific Islander community; Heather Miller of Chicago’s American Indian Center; and Lani Chan, a long time member of the Museum’s Filipino-American co-curation team. Speaking on behalf of Enid atoll were students John Sibok and Ezola Hong, Enid High School Assistant Principal Cindy Black, and Enid Marshallese community leader Terry Mote.
Following the ceremony and a tour of the current Pacific Halls, exhibition developers Ryan Schuessler and Monisa Ahmed guided the students in brainstorming sessions and activities to help identify goals and themes for the exhibition. The guests were also able to view the ~150 piece Marshallese collection in storage, sparking inspiration for the content of the show.
In April, Regenstein Pacific collections manager Chris Philipp will accompany the exhibits team back to Enid, where the group will continue to plan the exhibit, select objects, and hear feedback and ideas from the larger community. Philipp hopes the visit will represent a start of a deeper relationship between the Museum and the Marshallese people, both in the US and in the islands.
Gallery: Powhiri. All photos © John Weinstein 2019
