In Boston's sprawling Triennial exhibition, an Indigenous artist's evocations of cultural extinction haunt
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Nicholas Galanin, "Aáni yéi xat duwasáakw (I am called Land)," 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Peter Blum Gallery, New York. (Mel Taing)
Mel Taing
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The spectacle, penetrating and unnerving, is the work of
—
nothing living, at least
—
wins.
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Galanin, who is Tlingít and Unangax̂, has always worked on broader themes of Indigenous resilience and self-determination in the wake of centuries of colonial exploitation and dominance. Outside,
Galanin's work often has a wry, gallows-humor edge, and the laughs are pretty grim. It's hard to argue they should be otherwise. But the future is important to Galanin, and his insistence that there is one is not to be ignored.
Nicholas Galanin, "I think it goes like this (pick yourself up)," 2025. (Faith Ninivaggi)
Faith Ninivaggi
His work in recent years has included the giant text installation 'Never Forget,'
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The inversion, blunt and confrontational, takes stock of shameful history, while projecting, unabashedly, a future goal. The landback movement is real, in motion, and has marked some successes at least north of the border: In Canada, Indigenous land claims have resulted in
Nicholas Galanin, "Never Forget," 2021. (Lance Gerber)
Lance Gerber
Here in Boston, Galanin wades into a particular history with a knowing wink. Northwest Indigenous motifs
—
the familiar red and black depictions of whales, ravens, bear, turtles, among others, using simple geometric forms
—
are among the best known and most popular Native American icons in the country, reproduced and sold as tourist trinkets by the million.
Land is a commodity too, Galanin knows; as a piece of public art, 'I think it goes like this' nods to an Indigenous resurgence that needs to be more than cultural and aesthetic, but rooted in the earth
—
a progression that remains too slow, and now hampered by a federal government with different priorities. Since January, the Trump administration has
Here in New England, Indigenous tribes
—
the Wampanoag and Penobscot among them
—
have endured centuries of colonial rule; through those traumas, recent years have seen their cultures start to thrive again in very public ways. Just around the corner from Galanin's piece on Evans Way,
—
the kind of institution where, generations past, Indigenous culture was ossified and entombed. With the commission, the museum acknowledges Indigenous culture as not only living, but thriving, and projects it to the world.
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Nicholas Galanin, "I think it goes like this (pick yourself up)," 2025. (Faith Ninivaggi)
Faith Ninivaggi
That 'The Knowledge Keepers,' and 'I think it goes like this' sit out in open for all to see is significant. They are things you negotiate by simple fact of being in the city, whether by choice or not. 'I think it goes like this,' however, is sly; while 'The Knowledge Keepers' insists on a vibrant Indigenous present, Galanin's piece implies a complicated future of adaptation and reinvention, again and again.
Indigenous progress has never been a straight line; in this regressive moment, Galanin reminds us that Indigenous people are well versed in making and remaking, for as long as it takes.
Nicholas Galanin: 'Aáni yéi xat duwasáak (I am called Land)'
At the MassArt Museum, 621 Huntington Ave, through Nov. 30.
'I think it goes like this (pick yourself up),'
a project of the Boston Public Art Triennial. At
Evans Way Park, 1 Evans Way, through Oct. 21. www.thetriennial.org.
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Murray Whyte can be reached at
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