Okay, I promise I’ll tell you about travel and the Pacific Ocean and food and mountains and the Canyons, but before I do those posts, I need you to see this post.
In Phoenix, we went to the Heard Museum, which I’m going to strongly recommend to anyone who can reasonably get to Phoenix, especially before the end of August. It’s an American Indian art and history museum. We tagged onto a guided tour through all the history, which was really well informative and fascinating, just really well done all around, and, having been in informal science education for four years, I have a pretty solid sense of what’s well done.
But the section I really want to talk to you about was the superheroes exhibit, which of course I bought a ticket to, because, come on. It’s me. Like most things involving superheroes, I bought it without any idea of what to expect. And I was blown away.
Have you ever seen a picture of what Superman would look like if he were Cherokee?
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| "(Su)perman," 2014, by Tom Ferris (Otoe-Missouria/Cherokee) |
Did you ever expect, among the many reimaginings of famous characters, to see a Salish version of Rocket and Groot or Hulk and Wolverine? Are you like me and had no idea what Salish referred to?
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| Left: "Untitled," Spring 2014, Jeffrey Veregge. Right: "As Nature Intended," February 2014, by Jeffrey Veregee (Port Gamble S'Klallam) |
In this exhibit, there was Batman pottery, Thor pottery, Pueblo Powerpuff Girls. All of these native takes on heroes we’re familiar with, they're beautiful and unique and a not-so-subtle reminder of the whiteness of the dominant culture in America. Which is why I was ecstatic to see the native superheros of the exhibit.
Super Indian.
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| Created, drawn, and written by Arigon Starr (Kickappoo) |
Captain Paiute.
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| Created by Theo Tso (Las Vegas Paiute) |
Kagagi.
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| Drawn and written by Jay Odjick (Anishinabe/Kitigan Zibi Algonquins) |
Pueblo Girl (Wonder Woman’s cousin).
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| Autumn Borts and Susan Folwell (painter) (Santa Clara Pueblo) |
These are new stories, new takes on old stories, stories we’ve never heard before, but stories that fit perfectly into the genre. They’re beautifully drawn and pull from tried and true storytelling traditions. It’s exciting and I’m so glad to know that these books exist in the world, so I had to share this with all of you.
If you want to read a couple of the Super Indian comics, the books are available online. If you’re in the area, or if you’re planning a trip, head over to Phoenix while the exhibit’s going on- it's open until August 23rd. If nothing else, take a second when you’re planning your next book to look for stories told by people you haven’t heard from before. You’ll find wonderful things that way, I promise.
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