Osage ribbon work and the expression of Osage nationalism: Re-imagining approaches to material culture and nationhood

摘要

This project focuses on the use of ribbon work---the cutting, folding, and sewing of colored ribbons into geometric patterns---within the Osage Nation. Today, ribbon work designs appear on t-shirts, jewelry, tattoos, posters, campaign signs, and the Osage Nation website. These examples point to the ways that ribbon work has become a symbol of Osage nationhood and community in various contexts and how the symbolic use of ribbon work is deployed as tool for building a strong Osage future. This project explores the ways that Osage ribbon work has developed through and against colonial processes, becoming a symbol of Osage nationhood. This examination of ribbon work contributes to a growing body of scholarship within indigenous visual studies that examines the links between art and sovereignty. Through an engagement with decolonization, this project also contributes to discussions of nation building from a gendered and indigenous perspective.