We Are Always Turning Around on Purpose: Reflecting on Three Decades of Indigenous Curatorial Practice

Abstract

In Cherokee, Ni"™ Go Tlunh a Doh ka means "we are always turning around . . . on pur- pose."The name of an exhibition curated by Jimmie Durham and Jean Fisher in 1986, the title is also an apt metaphor and useful beginning for a set of reflections on the recent history of Indigenous curatorial practice.Turning around might imply spinning in place, yet it is also tactical as a means of changing course. For Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand, you head into the future with your face turned to the past.This perspective foregrounds the importance of acknowledging what came before in order to contend with what comes next. For Indigenous peoples, it is an important way to pay homage to one"™s ancestors.This reversed gaze is also employed in this text, which charts a subjective history that loosely ties together a series of exhibitions of Indigenous art in the United States and Canada from 1986 to the present"”a way to look back- ward into the future. Looking back at these exhibitions reveals recurring themes and shifts within methods and approaches in exhibition-making in general and curato- rial practice in particular; these methods continue to shape this parallel discourse now.