POCAHONTAS AND AFTER
In response to the 2017 ORIGINS Festival, Border Crossings worked with a range of diverse volunteers, local schools and refugees to explore how Native American people have been represented to Western audiences, particularly through the photographic archives held at institutions like the British Library, the British Museum and the National Maritime Museum. Often these photos show a cultural construction by the photographer - creating an image of Native Americans that appeals to a romantic colonialism, rather than reflecting the reality of the subjects' lives. Our participants responded with self-portraits that make themselves the subject of their own narratives, in a range of fascinating and beautiful images, displayed alongside the archive originals.
Originally shown at Syon House in Brentford, where Pocahontas stayed during her 1616 visit to London, this beautiful and provocative exhibition also travelled to Scotland, to be shown at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews, in collaboration with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. In November 2018, POCAHONTAS AND AFTER was honoured with a Teaching and Learning Award by the British Library.
Click here to download the Exhibition Catalogue.
Click here for a blog post about the exhibiton.
Archive Photo: The Misses Simeon - photo by Byron Harmon, 1907. British Library. Contemporary Photo: created by Rose Al Saria and photographed by John Cobb.
