'Eternal Testament' Highlights the Art of Indigenous Artists at The Church

The history and development of the East End is inexorably intertwined with that of the Montaukett and Shinnecock Nations. Despite the hardships both nations have faced in the hundreds of years since European settlers first arrived on Long Island in the 17th century, the Indigenous people of the East End have kept their history and traditions alive in numerous ways, including by sharing it with their descendants.

Starting this weekend, part of that history will be on display in Sag Harbor where the public can learn more about Native American culture and build a connection between the diverse residents of the East End.

The exhibition “Eternal Testament” kicks off at The Church on Saturday, March 22. Running through June 1, the show will feature works by Native American artists who are local to the East End as well as those from across the country. The artists are vast and varied in experience: there’s Durrell Hunter, a Shinnecock painter from the Bronx, multidisciplinary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, who is originally from North Dakota and is a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara), and Tlingít artist Rachel Martin who works in both sculpture and drawing and grew up between California and Montana.

The exhibition is meant for attendees to reconsider perceptions of the East End and how people address Indigenous history. The opening night festivities this Saturday will start at 5 p.m. with a panel discussion with the show’s co-curators Jeremy Dennis (an artist and founder of Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio Inc. on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation) and Meranda Roberts, Ph.D., talking with artist Denise Silva-Dennis, who is Jeremy Dennis’s mother.

A lifelong resident of the Shinnecock Nation and a retired Southampton public school art teacher, Silva-Dennis and the curators will discuss the themes, intentions and inspirations for “Eternal Testament.” Attendees will then experience a drumming processional at 6 p.m. led by contemporary Native TSALAGI Nation (Cherokee) singer and composer Jeffrey Pegram. Then at 6:30 p.m., Elisa Harkins (Cherokee, Muscogee) will perform a collection of Indigenous hymns and hand-drum songs meant to invite attendees to reevaluate their relationship, not only to the land they inhabit, but also their own spiritual connection.

In a recent interview, Roberts said that she first met Jeremy Dennis in 2023 when she featured one of his pieces in her show “Still We Smile: Humor as Correction and Joy” at the Idyllwild Arts Parks Exhibition Center in Idyllwild, California. Dennis, who is also a board member at The Church, added that “Eternal Testament” is a show that those involved with The Church have been wanting to do for quite some time.

“With the church being named ‘The Church,’ even after it was desanctified, we wanted to, especially through a Native lens, use humor and subversion and many different themes mixed with our own lens of spirituality,” Dennis explained.

“We wanted to bring to the forefront with this exhibition how the Hamptons and Sag Harbor is all on Shinnecock and Montaukett land,” added Roberts. “The Church as it stands now as well as what it was before as an actual church have been places of harm for Native people, but there are ways of resistance and taking that narrative back that artists are working through right now.”

Dennis himself is a contemporary fine art photographer and a member of the Shinnecock Nation who earned his M.F.A. from Pennsylvania State University. He combined his artistic passion and Native background to start Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio Inc. in 2020, the Southampton nonprofit that offers artists from minority communities a space to craft their works and display them for the public. It’s easy to see the connection between Ma’s House and “Eternal Testament” as a place to educate others on the background and works of lesser-known Indigenous artists.

“I always had art mentors growing up, but I didn’t really have a concept of what Native art was until I went to Penn State,” Dennis said. “Even as an undergrad, I was appreciating the Italian masters and wondering, ‘Where are the Native American masters and who’s working now?’

“Later in life is when I realized that Native art is a thing and people have been doing it for generations but haven’t really been platformed,” he continued. “What we do at Ma’s House, and what we’re doing in this exhibit, is an all-Native show to give some older artists their dues and for younger artists, highlighting their works so that it isn’t as hard for them as it was for previous generations.”

Roberts, who is a citizen of the Yerington Paiute Tribe and also of Mexican descent, has a Ph.D. in history and an M.A. in public history from the University of California, Riverside. She specializes in finding pieces of cultural heritage and connecting them with their respective descendants, illuminating lost pieces of the past for current and future generations to expand their historical knowledge. She’s done that by curating numerous exhibitions and events highlighting native culture, including “Native Truths: Our Stories, Our Voices” at the Field Museum in Chicago, and “Continuity: Cahuilla Basket Weavers and their Legacies” at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College in Claremont, California.

“I grew up living away from my home reservation and I also grew up around a lot of Mexican protesters,” Roberts said. “I always grew up understanding that Native people had been oppressed in different ways and I wanted to help fix the narratives that had been created about us.

“Once I started to work in museums with actual cultural items from the 1800s, it began to shift into the continuity that exists between Indigenous artists today and the makers of the past,” she added. “ How do we transform museum spaces that honor the lives of those cultural items? It comes from this feeling that I have of fulfilling some intergenerational justice for my communities as well as uplifting our youth to help them see different representations of themselves.”

As a former teacher, Silva-Dennis sees the importance of “Eternal Testament” as a means of education, both for fellow Native Americans and others who may not know a lot about the Shinnecock culture on the East End. She said that the exhibit and the planned performances demonstrate how the Shinnecock “still observe [their] spirituality.”

In a sign that the wider community is paying attention, last year, the Southampton Union Free School District announced plans to incorporate lessons on Shinnecock history into its curriculum.

“We have a number of allies and people who want to support us, but that’s only because they’ve taken the time to get to know us,” Silva-Dennis said. “More and more people are being educated and that’s good. It’s all about relationship-making and getting to know people.

“They can have their perceptions and if it’s negative, so be it,” she continued. “At least they had a chance to learn who we are. It’s going to be good for all of us, not just the Shinnecock people but for the surrounding community as well.”

“Not only have we been here for over 13,000 years, but hopefully we’ll continue that into the future,” Dennis added. “I think it’s important to witness that. Witnessing is a strange concept but for Shinnecock people, just the simple idea of being seen and recognized and accepted in our homeland is sometimes a big ask. I think it’s a lot of things that relate to art, how we appreciate art already, and it layers upon that with so much cultural appreciation.”

“As an outsider and being a guest on this land, I want more people to understand this was and still is Native land” Roberts said. “We still care for it, we still maintain it. Jeremy’s people are still there to care for it and love it and appreciate the land. Sometimes, there’s this idea that Native people who are far away are not here anymore because they don’t see what they think looks like a Native person.

“We’re here reminding them that this exhibition is telling you different stories about how we’ve been able to survive this whole time — and you never know who you’re talking to in regards to land ownership.”

“Eternal Testament” opens at The Church on Saturday, March 22, with the panel discussion at 5 p.m. followed by the drum processional at 6 p.m. and the performance at 6:30 p.m. The exhibition remains on view through May 21. The Church is at 48 Madison Street in Sag Harbor. For more information and other events being offered in conjunction with the exhibition, visit thechurchsagharbor.org.