By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Toledo Museum of Art’s new exhibit “Return to Turtle Island: Indigenous Nation-Building in the Eighteenth Century” is small in scale, but expansive in the story it tells.
The story of the travels of these two dozen objects is traced on the walls. At the entry is a large print of Samuel de Champlain’s 1623 map, the first made, of the Great Lakes region from the eastern shore to the Great Lakes. Facing it is the contemporary painting “Seal Rock Storm” by Cherokee artist Kay WalkingStick. This depicts the eastern shore from which the two dozen historic objects would have been shipped to Scotland. On the other side of the gallery is a painting familiar to museum visitors: Gustav Doré’s “The Scottish Highlands.” This is where Clan Farquharson resided.
The collection, which has been purchased by the museum, belonged to the descendants of Alexander Farquharson, who served in the British military during the Seven Years War, also known as the French and Indian War in the mid-18th century.
“Return to Turtle Island” is on exhibit through June 29 in Gallery 18.
The objects were crafted by members of the indigenous nations. Farquharson and possibly another relative purchased or traded for them. Johanna Minich, the museum’s consulting curator for Native American arts, said the museum went to great pains with the assistance of the Great Lakes Research Alliance at the University of Toronto to the establish the lines of ownership.
At the opening of the she said these represent “a culture of reciprocation.” Those involved in the exchange may on one day be the receiver, while on others the giver. This represented a “culture of gratitude” as the two sides engaged in complex diplomacy.
Brian Dreier, a registered Cherokee of mixed descent, was on hand to deliver a blessing at the opening. He urged visitors to appreciate the intricate work needed to create those objects. That craft represents “medicine” and “spirit” of the people.
The pieces on display were created for the market, especially the Montreal Market. Minich noted that 90 percent of the objects were the handwork of women. She demonstrated to one visitor the technique of finger weaving used to create a quilled and beaded pouch, decorated with a raised diamond pattern. A depiction of a canoe represents the kind of collaboration at the heart of the exhibit. Minich said that it is likely indigenous men created the miniature canoe. The beadwork and fabric is the work of women. The two figures however were wax casts likely created by French-Canadien nuns, because they are similar in design to the souvenirs made at Notre Dame Cathedral in France.
In a facing case are displayed three pairs of moccasins, made by different tribes reflecting their homelands. Those made by an ancestral Wendat or Huron artist from the Western Great Lakes region were created from buckskin with moose hair. Those made by the Innu in the north used seal hide. And those Mi’qmaq from the eastern edge of the continent used hide. But all incorporated material secured through trade with Europeans — silk and glass beads.
This craft was employed in ceremonial regalia made for Farquharson. The Indigenous leaders participating in diplomacy and negotiations were expected to dress in high style, Minich said. The Scotsman had such a suit made for him. The kit included a quilled headband, the sash, and small decorative bag worn around his waist.
According, Michael Galban of the Seneca Art & Culture Center Europeans paid a generous amount for this work. In a museum label, he is quoted as saying: “When you look at the Montreal merchant records and see the prices that people are paying for Indian objects at the time… they’re paying! … I think that the British officers understood, in a lot of ways, the importance of the clothing as a reflection of your position and your role in your community.”
The museum commissioned a contemporary head piece, by Nanticoke and Lenape artist Leonard D. Harmon, to reflect what his ancestors would have worn.
Farquharson never wore his regalia. He packed it up and sent it to his wife in the Highlands where it was stored.
Minich said the supposition is that he intended to wear it while he regaled his countrymen with tales of his adventures on Turtle Island. The clothing and other “curiosities” he shipped home remained in storage and preserved by the chill of the Scottish climate. When studied there is no sign that the clothing was ever worn.
Farquharson never made it home. He died of a fever in Cuba, later in his travels. Some of his descendants from Clan Farquharson, though, did make it to Toledo to see these family treasures.
“It’s good to see something come home,” said Carl Wolf Farquharson Bowman, president of Clan Farquharson who lives in Orlando. “My feeling is these items should be seen by most people, and I’m glad the decision was made to let them out in the wild” and not in storage or in a private collection.“It’s a long journey,” he said, From 1700s America to Scotland for them to be maintained and then more recently back to a collection in New York. Now they are home in the Great Lakes region for all the appreciate. “It’s amazing.”
