National Museum of the American Indian: This relatively small museum was a delight for the eyes right from the outset.
The museum building itself - draped in Kasota stone - is a marvellous piece of work, designed by Douglas Cardinal (Blackfoot) and a team of Native architects and consultants—including Johnpaul Jones (Cherokee/Choctaw) and artist/designer Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi).
Its beautiful exterior led me to touch it, feel it and run my hands along the surface. You know when you're standing somewhere and you feel like there's no way you could ever exchange that moment for any moment else? I felt like that. The design was exactly right for a Native American museum. The interior is equally impressive.
I actually went to the museum twice because I didn't have enough time the first time around to even enter the museum; the first time, SL and I had lunch at the cafe and after that, I had time only to go to the gift shop.
I highly recommend the museum cafe because it features some menu double-takers like buffalo chilli and eel with walnut salad. I wished I had a bigger stomach because I would have tried everything there. Sigh...
The museum's permanent and changing exhibitions are curated by Native Americans, which is commendable because this ensures that their stories and their lives are told by their people. The museum docents are also Native Americans.
The docent who led the free guided tour that I was on was from the Lakota tribe, so his tribe is mainly from North and South Dakota. He left a deep impression on me because of the way he spoke about his people: his pride was evident.
He was disgusted by the Disney movie Pocahontas because he said it gave a false image of his people - for example, in the movie Pocahontas was scantily clad; the Native American woman prides herself on modesty and thus is well covered from head to toe. He has a master's in anthropology and is a teacher.
When I heard him talking about his people, I just had this thought: Am I just as proud and passionate about the fact that I'm a Singaporean, and do I know a lot about my heritage and my people's history and my country? Well, for me, I'm proud and passionate about being a Singaporean but I have to admit that I'm not very clued in to the rest.
When I was there, the museum had this changing exhibition called Identity by Design - tradition, change and celebration in native women's dresses. I'm fascinated by patterns and colours so this exhibition was an eye-opener for me. I'll post about this in my next entry.
The museum building itself - draped in Kasota stone - is a marvellous piece of work, designed by Douglas Cardinal (Blackfoot) and a team of Native architects and consultants—including Johnpaul Jones (Cherokee/Choctaw) and artist/designer Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi).
Its beautiful exterior led me to touch it, feel it and run my hands along the surface. You know when you're standing somewhere and you feel like there's no way you could ever exchange that moment for any moment else? I felt like that. The design was exactly right for a Native American museum. The interior is equally impressive.
I actually went to the museum twice because I didn't have enough time the first time around to even enter the museum; the first time, SL and I had lunch at the cafe and after that, I had time only to go to the gift shop.
I highly recommend the museum cafe because it features some menu double-takers like buffalo chilli and eel with walnut salad. I wished I had a bigger stomach because I would have tried everything there. Sigh...
The museum's permanent and changing exhibitions are curated by Native Americans, which is commendable because this ensures that their stories and their lives are told by their people. The museum docents are also Native Americans.
The docent who led the free guided tour that I was on was from the Lakota tribe, so his tribe is mainly from North and South Dakota. He left a deep impression on me because of the way he spoke about his people: his pride was evident.
He was disgusted by the Disney movie Pocahontas because he said it gave a false image of his people - for example, in the movie Pocahontas was scantily clad; the Native American woman prides herself on modesty and thus is well covered from head to toe. He has a master's in anthropology and is a teacher.
When I heard him talking about his people, I just had this thought: Am I just as proud and passionate about the fact that I'm a Singaporean, and do I know a lot about my heritage and my people's history and my country? Well, for me, I'm proud and passionate about being a Singaporean but I have to admit that I'm not very clued in to the rest.
When I was there, the museum had this changing exhibition called Identity by Design - tradition, change and celebration in native women's dresses. I'm fascinated by patterns and colours so this exhibition was an eye-opener for me. I'll post about this in my next entry.
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