An Act of Resistance
When this box was constructed in 1900, Odawa children were systemically pulled from their band's ancestral village Wakanasing and forced to attend the Catholic boarding school "Holy Childhood" in the nearby white town of Harbor Springs. At Holy Childhood, physical and sexual abuse ran rampant and indigenous children were dispossessed of their culture, “cut off from all things Indian.” (The Northern Express n.d.) In the face of active abuse against her people, active dispossession of sovereignty and land, this artist funneled all this into her crafts. "Art was more than just a source of income for tribes," one Harbor Springs exhibit explains. "It represented stories, teachings, and traditions.” (Hemenway 2015) Within that context, this box is not only an indigenous method of perseverance but a revolutionary act.
Learn more about the Odawa at Harbor Springs, the legacy of Holy Childhood, the experiences of modern survivors of the Holy Childhood, and listen to Dee Sherwood's description of Indian Boarding Schools in Michigan.