Natchiq | Onkeehq | Isuwiq

Indigenous Artists Honor the Seal

Linda Infante Lyons (Alutiiq, b. 1959), *Isuwiq, Guardian of the Sea*, 2025. Alaska Native Museum Sovereignty Collection.

I’m pleased to part of the exhibition now showing at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Here is the RISD write-up of the show. Link to the webpage for more images: https://risdmuseum.org/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/natchiq-onkeehq-isuwiq

April 4 – October 25, 2026

Museum Galleries, Indigenous Art

All seafaring peoples hold relationships to the wild beings living in the waters they call home. Many Indigenous peoples maintain deep ancestral connections with seals. This exhibition witnesses those relationships across many coasts, honoring everything seals give to us.

Organized by guest curators Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi (Alutiiq), Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich (Inupiaq), and Elizabeth James-Perry (Wampanoag), this exhibition highlights seals as a cultural connector for Native communities in Alaska and Inuit Nunangat, showcasing works from the early 1900s to the present. Inuit prints, drawings, and carvings from Kinngait and Labrador, Canada, are presented in conversation with contemporary textiles, photographs, and installations by Alaska Native and Inuit artists, exploring new and traditional technologies and personal narratives.

Other contributors include RISD Museum curators María Fernanda Mancera, Conor Moynihan Bonacossa, Kate Irvin, and Dominic Molon. The exhibition was first conceived by RISD faculty member and former curator Laurie Brewer.