THE
HEARD IS TO BE SEEN
by
Bruce Burnett
When
Maie and Dwight Heard arrived in Arizona from Chicago in 1895, Phoenix
was just a small town in the desert.
The Heards quickly developed a deep appreciation for the native arts
and culture and began collecting Southwest Indian art and artifacts.
Their collection grew sufficiently large that, in 1929, they opened
The Heard Museum to the public.
The two-hectare (five acres) outdoor area is a favorite spot for lunchtime
picnics and the amphitheatre frequently hosts Native American dancers
and musicians. Outdoor markets, sponsored by community arts groups,
regularly occur on the J. Lester Shaffer Memorial Green, which is adorned
by beautiful bronze statues by internationally acclaimed Apache sculptor,
Allan Houser.
There's evidence of human settlement in the US Southwest dating back
17,000 years. The Heard Museum's permanent collection contains the most
extensive exhibit in North America of these people and their cultural
and artistic achievements.
Our Voices, Our Land, is a continuous audio-video show that introduces
visitors to the land and peoples of the Southwest. Presented in its
own gallery, the program is a powerful combination of slide images,
music and dramatically lit displays that illustrate the mystic wonders
of the Southwest tribes. Throughout the show, local Native Americans
share their thoughts and feelings about their lives, cultural traditions
and the future.
Says Chief Luther of the Ogala Sioux, "All the earth was beautiful
and we were surrounded by the blessings of the Great Mystery. Not until
the white man came was the west wild. All is essential, all is sacred.
Man, vegetable, animal and mineral are all worthy, due respect and entitled
to dignity. Nothing is needless or worthless. All are interconnected;
all are part of the Great Mystery."
After centuries of abuse and genocide only now are we beginning to appreciate
the mystic wisdom of the North American Indian. The "beauty of
the earth" and the "blessings of the Great Mystery" are
very evident in native pottery, basketry, beadwork and weaving. Their
art was at best ignored and at worst destroyed until a few European
artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Braque saw that, through the use
of symbols, the Indians sought to make comprehensible what was incomprehensible.
Through art they found order, going beyond what was simply aesthetically
pleasing. The native Indians' conception of reality and the universe
is remarkably similar to that of the leading particle physicists today.
University of London physicist David Bohm states that "physics
is a form of insight and as such it's a form of art". Albert Einstein
asked, "How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one
person to another if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God
and no theology?" He concluded, "In my view, it is the most
important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep
it alive in those who are receptive to it". Einstein consistently
expressed his admiration for "... the beauty of ... the logical
simplicity of the order and harmony which we can grasp humbly and only
imperfectly."
The American Indians' view of reality fits admirably with Einstein's
relativity theories. For example, the language of the Southwest Hopis
contains no word for "time" and they have no expressions that
refer to past, present and future.
The holistic worldview of the native Indian has parallels in the Eastern
religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. The supernatural significance
of dance to the native Indian is reflected in the Hindu dance of Shiva.
This dance symbolizes not only the cosmic cycle of creation and destruction,
but also the diurnal rhythm of birth and death, which both theologies
regard as the basis of all existence.
In his book, The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra writes: "For
the modern physicist ... Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter.
As in Hindu mythology, it is a continual dance of creation and destruction
involving the whole cosmos; the basis of all existence and of all natural
phenomena."
Nothing illustrates the native Indian blending of life, religion and
art better than the Hopi Kachina doll. These are not the Indians' version
of the Cabbage Patch, but the spiritual essence of everything in the
real world. They represent Kachina dancers who are an integral part
of the Hopi religious ceremonies.
The Heard Museum now boasts one of the world's largest collections of
Kachina dolls, thanks largely to Senator Barry Goldwater's donation
of his private collection in 1964.
The Heard Museum is located at 2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85004.
Telephone: (602) 252-8848.
Website: The
Heard Museum
THE
HEARD IS TO BE SEEN
was first published in the Vancouver Sun
