Cultural program hosted by Head-Smashed-In

A slid show and lecture on the images and history of art collecting in relation to Aboriginal people was offered at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump on May 3.

Presented by Alfred Young Man of the Peigan tribe, the talk was part of a series on Blackfoot traditions and Native cultural issues given at the interpretive center as part of the Dog Days program.

Young Man, who will be getting his doctorate in art history and theory from Rutgers University in New Jersey this month, has been teaching with the Native American Studies program at the University of Lethbridge for the last 20 years. He says it's time for national cultural institutions to stop placing Aboriginals in artistic ghettos.

Currently involved in a planning and organizing a show of Native art for the Indian Affairs Department's Indian Arts Centre in Ottawa, Young Man believes Aboriginal art is only collected by museums or Native Affairs departments which view the work as cultural artifact rather than art. The show will feature 55 to 60 pieces of work, done within the last 30 years, chosen from the approximately 4,500 art and craft items in Indian Affairs' collection.

In addition to Young Man's program on Native Art, the Buffalo Jump will also present a seminar on the creative process in art given by Valerie Goodrider McFarland, as instructor and counselor at Lethbridge Community College, Entitled "Images and Intuition in Art," the presentation will take place on May 26 at the Centre.

An exhibit of portraits of Native people painted by well-known Canadian artist Nicholas de Grandmaison will also be on display at the Buffalo Jump from May 3 through August 31.