Heard Museum

Phoenix is blessed with one of the preeminent Native American Museums in the world, the Heard Museum. It had been a couple of years since I was last there and the weekend of Independence day seemed like an oddly fitting time to take a trip there. The museum encompasses ancient to modern, common to artistic, educational to whimsical. It's one of my favorite museums.



While not a fan of the politics of one of Arizona's favorite sons, Barry Goldwater, I admired his candor and his talented photography of the rural areas of our state:



I was especially taken with the work of an artist I had not heard of before, Hector Ruiz:


In the first photo, notice the inset photo of the oil derrick. This was on the back side of the sculpture. The artist is not trying to hide his disdain the for the imperial hubris of our president. And that is definitely Dubya in the Slim Pickens role.

In the second picture, George is again the star but the corporatization of our society is the focus. It's not surprising that some see a parallel between the way in which we treated our indigenous people and the way in which we seek to Americanize the rest of the world.

This Americanization has been carried out throughout our past. Just one example was the forced schooling of Native Americans. The same ignorance that allowed us to assume that they would be better off if we made them abandon their religion, their land, and their language is being carried out today. We assume that people around the world are just waiting for us to "free" them ... that the free market is the answer to all ills.



If any of you ever get the chance to check out the Heard Museum, you won't be disappointed.