Label Type
Artist CommentaryLabel
Da-ka-xeen Mehner
Tlingit/N’ishga, b. 1970
Our Mountain, 2016
Print
Collection of the C.N. Gorman Museum, UC Davis. Gift of the artist.
“Our Mountain was inspired by an exhibition I’d seen at the Anchorage Museum titled Arctic Ambitions: Captain Cook and the Northwest Passage. I was struck by the celebration of the ‘discoverer’ that is made into a hero in history. As an indigenous man in Alaska I know that our history spans more than 10,000 years. This piece acknowledges that history by asserting that we knew we were here, and were not discovered...I symbolically reclaimed a place by placing a Tlingit dagger there. This is a reminder of the history that was here before, and recognizes the continuing cultural landscape that is Alaska today.” – Da-ka-xeen Mehner