ABSTRACT
In this chapter, ahtone describes how Eurocentric art history provides little space for anything more than a homogeneous understanding of Indigenous art and Indigenous cultures. She affirms the distinct character of all Indigenous cultures, while asserting some shared cultural tenets that inform both art making and art analysis such as respect, responsibility, reciprocity, and relationships. She argues that all scholars, curators, cultural workers have an obligation to seek a better framework to engage with the work of Indigenous artists, rather than sticking with the limited and shallow paradigm of Western art history. In ahtone’s own work, she uses four lenses through which to interpret an artist’s work: Materiality, Metaphor and Symbolism, Kincentricity, and Temporality.
