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Join us for a reception celebrating IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts’ (MoCNA) latest exhibitions, “Paper Trails: Unfolding Indigenous Narratives” and “Stella Nall: Offerings from My Heart.” The public opening will take place on Friday, February 6, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm, with a special member-only preview from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. To become a member and attend the member-only preview, join online at https://iaia.edu/mocna/mocna-join-and-give/ or by phone at (505) 428-5925.For more information, please contact Museum Educator and Program Coordinator Nuttaphol Sinthavatorn at (505) 428-5925 or [email protected].
“Paper Trails: Unfolding Indigenous Narratives”
“Paper Trails: Unfolding Indigenous Narratives” is a major exhibition that brings together contemporary Indigenous artists from Canada and the United States, whose work expands the creative possibilities of paper beyond its traditional two-dimensional format.
The exhibition foregrounds urgent themes, including cultural preservation, hidden histories, and the enduring consequences of broken treaties—issues that are especially resonant as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026.
Co-curated by Melissa Melero-Moose (Northern Paiute) ’09, Erika Knecht ’20, and MoCNA Chief Curator Dr. Manuela Well-Off-Man, “Paper Trails” is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog with contributions from Indigenous scholars and artists.
The project explores interconnected themes: resistance and survival in the face of colonization; intergenerational impact of residential school trauma; identity and modes of self-representation; loss of access to clean water and traditional foods; racial and gender discrimination; and the enduring strength of Indigenous knowledge systems—including cosmologies, land-based practices, and self-representation. By foregrounding both historical injustices and contemporary resilience, “Paper Trails” positions Indigenous artists at the forefront of decolonial discourse and creative innovation.
Artist-led programs encourage cross-cultural learning and community involvement. By amplifying Indigenous voices and centering creative agency, “Paper Trails” makes a meaningful contribution to ongoing conversations on decolonization, survivance, and Indigenous futurity.
“Stella Nall: Offerings from My Heart”
The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) is pleased to present “Stella Nall: Offerings from My Heart,” an exhibition featuring new work by multimedia artist and poet Stella Nall “Bisháakinnesh” (Rode Buffalo), a First Descendant of the Crow Tribe. Since earning her BFA from the University of Montana in 2020, Nall has developed a distinctive and widely recognizable visual language grounded in vibrant color, imaginative symbolism, and material innovation. The exhibition explores urgent questions of Indigenous identity, visibility, and belonging, shaped by Nall’s lived experience navigating the complexities of Tribal enrollment, blood quantum, and inherited histories of assimilation. Through works that address intergenerational trauma stemming from the boarding school era alongside themes of joy, love, resilience, and community, Nall offers a powerful meditation on cultural survival and self-representation.
Nall’s interdisciplinary practice merges beadwork, painting, illustration, printmaking, and wood carving, challenging narrow expectations of Indigenous art as solely traditional or two-dimensional. Influenced by the beadwork her mother taught her in childhood, she integrates pattern, texture, and luminous color into richly layered surfaces. Her process often draws from relief printmaking, using carving tools to incise into painted forms, animating her whimsical creatures with tactile depth. Recurring symbols—including birds, mules, and elk teeth—function as metaphors for ancestry, cultural inheritance, and the emotional realities of First Descendant status. Through this fusion of personal narrative, political inquiry, and material experimentation, “Offerings from My Heart” presents artworks that operate simultaneously as intimate offerings and acts of visual advocacy.
For more information, please contact IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) Chief Curator Manuela Well-Off-Man at [email protected].
Image: (left) Terran Last Gun (Piikani), “Remembering Continuum Ways of Being” (2025), (right) Stella Nall (Descendant of the Apsáalooke [Crow] Tribe), “Charomane (A Horse from Charlo)” (2025)
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