Exhibition and Residency

Dress to Redress: Exploring Native American Material Culture
Featuring work from Material Kwe by Dr Celeste Pedri-Spade
The American Museum & Gardens, Bath UK
19 March – 3 July 2022
Artists’ Residency: 13 May – 4 June 2022

Material Kwe uses the fashion arts to contend with how the Anishinabeg dealt with a history of destruction, appropriation and gendered violence. Within these communities, the fashion arts have been a frequent site of cultural and material appropriation, often to supply materials (such as beaver pelts) for the European fashion market. The work in this exhibition consists of 5 wearable ensembles that incorporate Anishinabe designs and materials with early colonial women’s designs and materials, in order to permit a more respectful relationship between past/present settler and Anishinabekwewag women.

‘The American Museum & Gardens is delighted to be part of the Brightening the Covenant Chain partnership. We are most excited to be hosting Material Kwe by the Anishinabekwe artist Celeste Pedri-Spade. The American Museum is renowned for its collection of Indigenous North American material culture, and this exhibition will realise a long-held ambition of ours to showcase items from our collections. We are particularly excited to also welcome Dr Pedri-Spade and her husband Robert Spade to the Museum for a one-month residency in the spring of 2022.

The American Museum is dedicated to shining a spotlight on the richness and complexity of American culture. We are currently working hard to bring voices to the fore that have been marginalised in the past. We are particularly keen to focus on improving our presentation and interpretation of Indigenous histories and cultures; a key aim in our recently reviewed Forward Plan’. Kate Hebert, Chief Curator, American Museum & Gardens

More information about the exhibition can be found on the American Museum & Gardens website.

Watch an interview with Dr Celeste Pedri-Spade on her artistic process, working with textiles, and celebrating the inspirational women in her community:

An online conference ‘Cultures of Indigenous Diplomacy‘ was held on 19 May 2022, 12:00 – 19:00 BST, to showcase reflections on themes linked to this exhibition. Scholars and practitioners engaged in interdisciplinary dialogue on intercultural expressions of diplomacy, through art and making, material culture including wampum, language and narration in Council speech, food, gender, and languages of law and sovereignty.