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I. DIGNITY: TRIBES IN TRANSITION Exhibition Theme and International Significance: DIGNITY: TRIBES IN TRANSITION is an international traveling exhibition of stunning photographs by artist Dana Gluckstein. The exhibition expresses the theme of "tribes in transition" by capturing the fleeting period of world history where traditional and contemporary cultures collide. Indigenous Peoples comprise approximately 6% of the world’s population and are amongst its most impoverished and oppressed inhabitants. The images include subjects from Australia, Bali, Bhutan, Botswana, Canada, Fiji, Haiti, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia, Peru, the United States, and Zambia. Gluckstein’s photographs succeed in distilling the universality of experience that links us all without diminishing the dignity of the individual. Whether photographing a Haitian healer or a San Bushmen chief, Gluckstein infuses each portrait with an essential human graceKaren Sinsheimer, Photography Curator of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, articulates the theme of "tribes in transition" in her discussion of Gluckstein’s portrait, Tribal Man in Transition, which the museum collected, "One sees the character and strength of a whole people, a whole nation; Dana has captured the sense of a hero in this man with a ragged t-shirt." Other photographs embody this theme such as a triptych of three men from Namibia, dressed in suits, hats and sunglasses look as though they have sauntered out of a jazz club in 1950’s, Harlem, New York. In contrast, their wives are bare breasted and elegantly dressed in traditional Himba cow hides. Two teen-age Zambian boys from the impoverished Goba tribe adorn themselves with crude cardboard masks as they no longer have authentic ceremonial masks. A young boy from Bhutan wears a traditional robe at a religious festival and carries a toy rifle. The exhibition is of international significance because the United States recently adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the last country to do so. The declaration was ratified by 144 countries in 2007 after 30 years of lobbying by indigenous leaders. In 2007, the U.S. voted against the declaration, along with Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Since then, Australia adopted the declaration and made a formal, historic apology to the Aborigines. One year later, New Zealand and Canada followed suit and adopted the declaration. In December 2010, President Obama announced that the U.S. would adopt this important human rights declaration while meeting with 300 tribal leaders at the White House. The exhibition and book support the full implementation of the declaration on behalf of the more than 370 million Indigenous Peoples in the world. The declaration is the most comprehensive global statement of the measures every government needs to enact to ensure the survival, dignity, and well-being of Indigenous Peoples around the world. Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations explains "For too long the hopes and aspirations of Indigenous Peoples have been ignored; their lands have been taken; their cultures denigrated or directly attacked; their languages and customs suppressed, their wisdom and traditional knowledge overlooked, and their sustainable ways of developing natural resources dismissed. Some have even faced the threat of extinction. The answer to these grave threats must be to confront them without delay." DIGNITY: TRIBES IN TRANSITION addresses the urgent need to advance the laws and standards to protect Indigenous Peoples cultures and livelihoods by continuing to advocate for full compliance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The declaration reaffirms the right of Indigenous Peoples to have meaningful control over their own lives, to maintain their distinct cultural identities, to live free from discrimination and the threat of genocide, and to have some secure access to the lands and resources essential to their well-being. DIGNITY: TRIBES IN TRANSITION recognizes the United States as a new leader and partner with other world governments in support of indigenous rights. With the historic step of adoption taken by the United States, the declaration can now have the global impact required to move governments towards implementation. This art exhibition is the first to feature the UN declaration. It offers a unique opportunity for a museum or cultural venue to play a pivotal role in educating and inspiring the public as a "call to action" in support of the rights of Indigenous Peoples globally. Nobel Laureate Archbishop Tutu's text for the exhibition is especially moving as he reminds us "The Indigenous Peoples of the world have a gift to give that the world needs desperately, this reminder that we are made for harmony, for interdependence. If we are ever truly to prosper, it will be only together." Finally, the art is intended to penetrate hearts and minds to create a lasting impression. Robert S. Sobieszek, the late renowned Curator of Photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, who collected Gluckstein’s work for the museum, explained: "the portraits taken by Dana Gluckstein evidence a clear attempt to reinvest portraiture with that something that was lost some time ago. And that something is nothing less than the desire, or the requirement, to express the character and moral quality of the sitter in such a way that far more than likeness is suggested if not exactly revealed… Gluckstein bestows upon her sitters a sense of stilled dignity…The dispassionate remove common to most modern portraits is all but absent in these images; in its stead is a passionate complicity between artist and sitter that allows each subject to be memorialized with both beauty and grace."
The exhibition is accompanied by a richly printed coffee table book entitled DIGNITY, In Honor of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
by Dana Gluckstein which includes 103 duotone black and white photographs spanning three decades. Released in November, 2010, DIGNITY is already in its
second publication distributed internationally by Random House as a U.S. and German co-publication by PowerHouse Books and Langen Muller. The book includes a
foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and an introduction by scholar and Native American Faithkeeper Oren R. Lyons of the Onondaga Nation, along with the entire
articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Retail price $39.95. The exhibition includes a documentary film DIGNITY: TRIBES IN TRANSITION (running time 8 minutes) Private link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z1N_DNR0lk Both the exhibition and book are receiving high visibility in the international press. Please visit
www.danagluckstein.com to review international press
including The New York Times Book Review, Vanity Fair, CNN International, MORE, ELLE, Publisher’s Weekly, Brennpunkt, Suddendeutsche Zeitung, VOGUE Germany,
VOGUE Italy, Sublime Magazine UK, and more. October 2010
U.S. Tour 2012 – 2015 |
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