When Maie and Dwight Heard arrived in Arizona from Chicago in 1895, Phoenix was just a small town in the desert.
The Heards quickly developed a deep appreciation for the native arts and culture and began collecting Southwest Indian art and artifacts. Their collection grew sufficiently large that, in 1929, they opened The Heard Museum to the public.
The two-hectare (five acres) outdoor area is a favourite spot for lunchtime picnics and the amphitheatre frequently hosts Native American dancers and musicians. Outdoor markets, sponsored by community arts groups, regularly occur on the J. Lester Shaffer Memorial Green, which is adorned by beautiful bronze statues by internationally acclaimed Apache sculptor, Allan Houser.
There's evidence of human settlement in the US Southwest dating back 17,000 years. The Heard Museum's permanent collection contains the most extensive exhibit in North America of these people and their cultural and artistic achievements.
Our Voices, Our Land, is a continuous audiovideo show that introduces visitors to the land and peoples of the Southwest. Presented in its own gallery, the program is a powerful combination of slide images, music and dramatically lit displays that illustrate the mystic wonders of the Southwest tribes. Throughout the show, local Native Americans share their thoughts and feelings about their lives, cultural traditions and the future.
Says Chief Luther of the Ogala Sioux, "All the earth was beautiful and we were surrounded by the blessings of the Great Mystery. Not until the white man came was the west wild. All is essential, all is sacred. Man, vegetable, animal and mineral are all worthy, due respect and entitled to dignity. Nothing is needless or worthless. All are interconnected; all are part of the Great Mystery."
After centuries of abuse and genocide only now are we beginning to appreciate the mystic wisdom of the North American Indian. The "beauty of the earth" and the "blessings of the Great Mystery" are very evident in native pottery, basketry, beadwork and weaving. Their art was at best ignored and at worst destroyed until a few European artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Braque saw that, through the use of symbols, the Indians sought to make comprehensible what was incomprehensible.
Through art they found order, going beyond what was simply aesthetically pleasing. The native Indians' conception of reality and the universe is remarkably similar to that of the leading particle physicists today.
University of London physicist David Bohm states that "physics is a form of insight and as such it's a form of art".
Albert Einstein asked, "How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology?"
He concluded, "In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it". Einstein consistently expressed his admiration for "... the beauty of ... the logical simplicity of the order and harmony which we can grasp humbly and only imperfectly".
The American Indians' view of reality fits admirably with Einstein's relativity theories. For example, the language of the Southwest Hopis contains no word for "time" and they have no expressions that refer to past, present and future.
The holistic worldview of the native Indian has parallels in the oriental religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. The supernatural significance of dance to the native Indian is reflected in the Hindu dance of Shiva. This dance symbolizes not only the cosmic cycle of creation and destruction, but also the diurnal rhythm of birth and death, which both theologies regard as the basis of all existence.
In his book, The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra writes: "For the modern physicist ... Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter. As in Hindu mythology, it is a continual dance of creation and destruction involving the whole cosmos; the basis of all existence and of all natural phenomena."
Nothing illustrates the native Indian blending of life, religion and art better than the Hopi Kachina doll. These are not the Indians' version of the Cabbage Patch, but the spiritual essence of everything in the real world. They represent Kachina dancers who are an integral part of the Hopi religious ceremonies.
The Heard Museum now boasts one of the world's largest collections of Kachina dolls, thanks largely to Senator Barry Goldwater's donation of his private collection in 1964.
The Heard Museum is located at 2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85004. Telephone: (602) 252-8848.
Bruce Burnett, has won four Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold awards for travel journalism.Read more of Bruce Burnett's travel writing on his websites: http://www.globalramble.com/ and http://www.bruceburnett.ca/travel.html
Source: www.isnare.com
