OSU will launch “This IS Kalapuyan Land,” an outdoor exhibition and series of talks, inspired by an exhibition and project of the same title at the Five Oaks Museum, 17677 NW Springville Road, Portland.

This IS Kalapuyan Land opened in 2019 as a physical exhibition at Five Oaks, curated by Steph Littlebird Fogel (Grand Ronde, Kalapuya). Fogel annotated panels from the museum’s prior exhibit on Kalapuyan peoples, curated contemporary Native artwork into the exhibition, and added historical content from David G. Lewis, Ph.D., OSU instructor in the School of Language, Culture and Society (Chinook, Santiam, Takelma, Grande Ronde). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the new content was later adapted for an online exhibition. The exhibition prompts critical thinking around representation of Indigenous history and identity in non-Indigenous institutions.

Early last year, Five Oaks expanded the project, adding a series of signs, based on images in the This IS Kalapuyan Land exhibit that could be placed as mini popup exhibitions in a variety of outdoor locations around the Portland Metro area.

Late last year an advisory committee comprised of OSU faculty began working to bring the exhibit to OSU and Corvallis, with some additional signs that would be unique to this area. Working on the committee were Julia Bradshaw, associate professor of art and art history; Lewis, instructor of anthropology and ethnic studies; Luhui Whitebear, instructor of anthropology and ethnic studies and coordinator of the Eenas Haws Native Longhouse; Marion Rossi, associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and acting director of the School of Arts and Communications; Chet Udell, assistant professor of biological and ecological engineering; and Fitzgerald Stephen, professor and extension specialist, director of the College of Forestry Research Forests. They planned an exhibition with a minimum of seven copies each of the 10 original signs and three additional signs created by OSU student Chanti Maῆon. The signs will be displayed throughout the main campus and in OSU research forests beginning in mid-May.

In addition to the signs, the committee has planned a series of talks as part of the This IS Kalapuyan Land project.

On Thursday, May 20 at 5 p.m., the third and final talk of the series will be an artists’ talk, focusing on the original art exhibit that was hosted by Five Oaks Museum, and highlighting some of the artists who were involved with that series: Stephanie “Littlebird” Fogel, an indigenous artist, writer and curator from Portland; Angelica Trimble-Yanu, an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Nation from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota; and Whitney Al Lewis, a Chehalis Tribe member who lives in Washington State. View it live on the Eena Haws facebook page or register at https://beav.es/3S2.