Return from Exile Opening Reception

Exhibition of Southeastern Native American Art

 

For the last 500 years, and particularly since they began to be displaced and removed from their ancestral homelands, Native American tribes of what is now the Southeastern United States have returned for ceremonial rites on the autumnal equinox in late September. 



Return From Exile, is an art exhibition of more than thirty contemporary Southeastern Native American Artists timed to coincide with annual homecomings. The exhibition, which will begin a two-year tour of museums throughout the United States, is sponsored by the University of Georgia Institute of Native American Studies and curated by Prof. Jace Weaver, Mr. Bobby Martin, and Mr. Tony Tiger.  The exhibition features vibrant art representing the five tribes that were removed from the Southeast in the 1830’s: The Creek, the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw and the Seminole. 

“Featuring those five tribes and in Athens is particularly apt because the Oconee River was the traditional dividing line between the Creeks and the Cherokee, so Athens straddles that territory literally, in Georgia,” said Jace Weaver, Franklin Professor of Native American Studies, the director of the UGA Institute of Native American Studies and one of the curators of the exhibition. 



The exhibition and symposium are bookends to related events designed to highlight the equinox and the celebration of Native American cultural heritage of return to the region. 

Exhibition: Saturday, August 22 - Saturday, October 10, 2015

Exhibition Reception:  Thursday, September 10th, 6:00 - 8:00 PM  (Free) Sponsored by the University of Georgia Institute of Native American Studies 



Film: Tuesday, September 22, 6:00 PM

Film Screening 

“This May Be The Last Time” 

Directed by Sterlin Harjo 

September 22, 2015 6:00 PM 



The Lyndon House Arts Center, in conjunction with the new exhibition, “Return from Exile”, would like to invite you to a screening of the film, “This May Be The Last Time”, written and directed by Sterlin Harjo. Following the screening, will be a Q&A with the film Director, Sterlin Harjo and Dr. Jace Weaver, co-curator of “Return from Exile”. 



“This May Be The Last Time”, (the song title of a Creek hymn), is the story of the film maker’s Uncle who mysteriously disappeared in in 1962 from the town of Sasakwa in Seminole County. The story explores the Creek Nation hymns and their relationship to Scottish folk and gospel music. This film was premiered in 2014 at the Sundance Film Festival. 



Sterlin Harjo is a member of the Seminole Nation and has been working in film since his studies at the University of Oklahoma. He has directed three feature films and a feature documentary, all set in Oklahoma and focused on issues of Native American peoples. In 2007, Sundance Film Festival nominated his first feature film for the grand jury prize. This film, “Four Sheets to the Wind”, told the story of a young Seminole man rediscovering his family. His second feature, “Barking Water”, was named the 2009 best drama at the American Indian Film festival. 



The film screening is free and open to the public. 

Where: Lyndon House Arts Center

(706) 613-3623