Art Reception: Native Veteran Story Quilts

Join us at the Center as we launch our Fall 2017 art exhibit, featuring story quilts based on the deployed experiences of Native American military veterans. Inspired by oral history interviews with veterans from each of North Carolina’s eight state- and federally-recognized tribes, these quilts are artifacts of lived experience and material culture from the American South. Their stories from World War II through ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan reflect the strength and complications of patriotism, as well as the struggles that sometimes continue after leaving the combat zone.

In addition to comments by Project Director Karen Harley, a member of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian tribe, the opening reception will include performances by Native musicians and excerpts from oral history interviews. This exhibit is made possible with funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The reception is co-sponsored by UNC’s American Indian Center and Department of American Studies.