As the National Museum of the American Indian’s assistant director of
community services, Jim Pepper Henry has taken part in the museum’s
outreach to Native peoples and programs throughout the Western Hemisphere –
from Chile to Peru, Mexico and Canada, from Ecuador to Belize and Cuba,
Argentina and Brazil. Henry calls NMAI a hemispheric museum, expressing the
Native influence on everyone who lives here.
“It’s probably the greatest thing I’ll ever do, professionally anyway,” he
said of his involvement with the museum, which has included taking a hand
in museum internship programs, training and consultation sessions on
traditional arts and materials, and the repatriation, research, care and
management of culturally-sensitive collections (NMAI is the only museum in
the world with an active international repatriation program).
But for all the breadth of NMAI’s outreach, Henry dwells more on depth of
feeling when it comes to describing his latest task – teaming with others
to coordinate the Native Nations procession, just prior to the museum’s
grand opening at 1 p.m. on Sept. 21. The procession is a chance for Native
peoples to declare themselves, to make a public statement while celebrating
a museum that is more about living cultures than historical warehousing.
More than 16,000 people registered for the procession, with 20,000 expected
to participate and a huge throng to witness. A half million people or more
are expected to view the museum and/or the First Nations Festival in the
ensuing six days.
