RISD Museum Presents Natchiq | Onkeehq | Isuwiq: Indigenous Artists Honor the Seal I April 4 - October 25, 2026
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The RISD Museum presents Natchiq | Onkeehq | Isuwiq: Indigenous Artists Honor the Seal, on view April 4–October 25, 2026. Organized by guest curators Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi (Alutiiq), Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich (Koyukon Dené–Iñupiaq), and Elizabeth James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag) in collaboration with María Fernanda Mancera, Assistant Curator of Indigenous Art and Conor Moynihan, Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, at the RISD Museum, the exhibition brings together historic and contemporary artworks that reflect the enduring significance of the seal across generations.
Across many northern coastal cultures, people maintain longstanding relationships with the wild beings that inhabit the waters they call home. For many Indigenous communities across Arctic and subarctic regions, seals have long sustained daily life—providing food, clothing, tools, and artistic inspiration. Within many Indigenous knowledge systems, the seal is understood as kin with whom humans hold a reciprocal relationship of care. The exhibition’s title brings together the words for seal in three Indigenous languages: Natchiq (Iñupiaq), Onkeehq (Aquinnah Wampanoag), and Isuwiq (Alutiiq). The words reflect the cultural identities of the exhibition’s curators and underscore the role of language in carrying knowledge, history, and identity. Including works created from the early 1900s to the present, the exhibition places Inuit prints, drawings, and carvings from Kinngait and Labrador, Canada, in conversation with contemporary textiles, photographs, and installations by Alaska Native and Inuit artists. Artists in the exhibition work across a wide range of media, including printmaking, carving, textiles, photography, video, and installation. Some works incorporate traditional materials such as seal skin and seal gut, used within longstanding cultural and artistic practices. Together these works reveal how artists continue to reinterpret relationships with the seal through both traditional materials and contemporary forms. Isuwiq, Guardian of the Sea (2025) by Alutiiq artist Linda Infante Lyons beautifully illustrates the show’s ethos. Set against an icy landscape of green, purple, and blue strokes, this icon-inspired painting depicts an Alaska Native woman wearing a traditional kuspuk (Native Alaskan snowshirt). She holds a blanket between her arms, on which a seal rests. Both figures, adorned with halos, gaze at the viewer, inviting them to consider the seal's divinity and significance as an animal long honored in the communities of coastal Alaska for its role as a source of food and inspiration. Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich’s Natchiq (Ringed Seal) (2023) is a hand-carved basswood mask in the shape of a ringed seal, with the animal’s characteristic ringed spots visible across the forehead. In this work, Gingrich not only presents the seal as a revered wild relative but also highlights the significance of mask-making and beading as a practice carried by her ancestors into the present. Siima (2023) by Iñupiaq artist Bobby Brower is a red dress that stands as a symbol of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement, raising awareness of an issue affecting all Indigenous communities. Its bodice, made out of spotted sealskin, symbolizes uniqueness, as no two sealskin hides are the same–just like every human being is unique and their loss is felt deeply. Yup’ik designer and art teacher Golga Oscar outlines seal imagery in a sealskin bag embellished with brightly colored beads and porcupine quillwork alluding to the Yup’ik number and color system. He notes: “the color red symbolizes our ancestral blood, while blue represents water and happiness, and black represents nighttime and the underworld. White represents daytime, where the Raven went out to the galaxy to search for the sun.” “Seals hold deep cultural meaning across many northern Indigenous communities,” said María Fernanda Mancera, RISD Museum curator. “The artists included in this exhibition share stories of connection, continuity, and respect. Their works invite us to consider how caring relationships with animals, land, and water are passed across generations and continue to shape artistic expression today.” “Art allows us to encounter ways of life and ways of knowing that may be new or unfamiliar to many of us,” said Kris Wilton, Deputy Director, Audience Experience and Learning at the RISD Museum. “This exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to learn about Indigenous cultures through the visions of artists who speak to relationships with the natural world grounded in knowledge, respect, and generations of lived experience.” “Seals have long been part of the worlds of many northern Indigenous communities,” said Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi (Alutiiq). “Stories across the North highlight our relationships with seals as sentient beings that respond to human action. The artists in this exhibition share perspectives of celebration, gratitude, and reverence towards seals grounded in lived relationships.” “Across many northern Indigenous cultures, seals are not seen as a resource but as relatives within a shared ecosystem,” said Elizabeth James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag), artist, marine scientist, and guest curator. “Here in New England, seals are returning to the waters after a dramatic population decline over several centuries. The unsustainable practices of the European fur trade, along with persecution and bounties, caused a serious reduction in local seal populations. The works in this exhibition reflect a close relationship between seals and humans, a reciprocity and connection that is really important and intangible, and takes some tending over generations.” Developed in collaboration with Indigenous artists, advisors, and cultural knowledge holders, the exhibition foregrounds Indigenous voices and perspectives in shaping how these works are interpreted and experienced. Their contributions guided the exhibition’s framework, interpretive texts, and modes of engagement. The exhibition builds upon earlier work initiated at the RISD Museum by former Costume and Textiles Curator Laurie Brewer, whose research helped lay the foundation for the project. While seals hold deep cultural significance for many Indigenous communities across northern coastal regions, the RISD Museum also acknowledges the diversity of Indigenous cultures and traditions, including those of the Narragansett Tribe, on whose land the museum stands and who hold deep relationship with other land and water kin. The exhibition recognizes these distinctions and reflects the specific scope of this project. Programs and Visitor ExperiencesAn opening celebration will take place at the RISD Museum on April 2 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, offering visitors an opportunity to preview the exhibition and learn more about the artists and ideas behind the project.
The exhibition also features an audio component, produced by Elizabeth James Perry in collaboration with independent producers Alex Hanesworth and Echo Coop, featuring interviews with participating artists and fellow curators offering firsthand insight into the artists’ practices, cultural knowledge, and relationships with seal. A longer audio piece, available on the website, delves deeper into reflections around seal populations returning to New England after being hunted nearly to extinction in the 1800s and early 20th century. As part of the exhibition’s public programming, the RISD Museum will present a screening of the documentary Angry Inuk on April 12, which explores Inuit perspectives on seal hunting and the global debates surrounding it. The guest curators will offer a virtual exhibition tour on April 21. On May 5 programming is planned for Red Dress Day, a Canadian national day of remembrance and advocacy for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People. A panel on food sovereignty and professional development opportunities for K-12 and informal learning educators are planned for fall. Exhibition SponsorsNatchiq | Onkeehq | Isuwiq: Indigenous Artists Honor the Seal is made possible with generous lead funding from the Henry Luce Foundation. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Coby Foundation.
RISD Museum is supported by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and with the generous partnership of the Rhode Island School of Design, its Board of Trustees, and Museum Governors. |
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