Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie
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Tsinhnahjinnie at a panel in 2015 in San Francisco, California
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| Born | August 26, 1954 |
| Nationality | American and Navajo Nation |
| Education | Institute of American Indian Arts |
| Alma mater | California College of the Arts University of California, Irvine |
| Occupation | photographer, museum director, curator, professor |
| Employer | University of California, Davis, C.N. Gorman Museum |
| Known for | photography, videography |
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Works
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Mattie Goes Traveling, Mattie Looks for Steven Biko, Grandma and Me, Aboriginal World View |
| Awards | Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, Chancellor's Fellowship at the University of California Irvine, First Peoples Community Artist Award, Rockefeller artist in residence |
Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie (born 1954) is a talented Navajo Nation artist. She is a photographer, museum director, curator, and professor. Hulleah lives in Davis, California. She leads the Gorman Museum of Native American Art and teaches at the University of California, Davis.
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Early Life and Education
Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie was born in 1954 in Phoenix, Arizona. Her family has roots in both the Seminole and Navajo Nations. Her mother was Seminole and Muskogee. Her father, Andrew Van Tsinajinnie, was Navajo. He was a painter and muralist. He studied art in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Hulleah grew up near Scottsdale, Arizona. When she was 13, she moved to the Navajo Nation near Rough Rock, Arizona. In 1975, she started her art studies. She attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.
At age 23, Hulleah moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. She studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts. Today, this school is called California College of the Arts. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting in 1981. She also studied photography.
Later, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Studio Arts. This was from the University of California, Irvine in 2002. During this time, she focused on digital photos and videos. She also received the First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award that year.
Career Highlights
Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie has always been active in the art community. She was on the board for the Intertribal Friendship House in Oakland. She also served on the board for the American Indian Contemporary Art Gallery. She loves to share her art and ideas. She does this through newsletters, posters, t-shirts, and photos. She has also taught photography to younger students.
Currently, Hulleah is a professor at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). She teaches Native American Studies. She helps organize conferences there. These events bring Native American photographers together. They discuss important topics like "Visual Sovereignty." This means Native people telling their own stories through art. Besides teaching, Hulleah is also the Director of the Gorman Museum of Native American Art at UC Davis.
Amazing Artwork
Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie started her art journey as a painter. But she soon found photography to be a powerful tool. She uses her art to explore what it means to be a Native American. Her work uses photography to show Native Americans in a new light. She challenges old ideas about them.
Even though she is a photographer, Hulleah often adds her own touch. She might hand-tint her photos. She also uses them in collages. Sometimes, she even uses unusual surfaces for her art, like car hoods! She takes her own photos. But she also uses old historical photos of Native Americans. She changes them to comment on how white photographers used to portray Native people. Hulleah also creates films and videos.
She combines photography and digital images. Her art helps to break down stereotypes. It challenges political ideas. It also creates a space for other Native artists to share their thoughts. Hulleah's art is not mainly for non-Native people. Instead, she wants to document her own life. She wants to share it with other Native people. She once said, "I take photographs so Native people can look at Native people."
In 1994, Hulleah created a series called "Memoirs of an Aboriginal Savant." This work uses 15 pages of an electronic diary. In it, she shares her thoughts on family, politics, and life. She wants to take the viewer on a "journey to the center of an aboriginal mind." The book starts with "1954," her birth year. It explores her personal experiences. She writes from her own point of view. This helps her show how she sees herself.
In the 1990s, Hulleah explored the idea of beauty in her art. She looked at how beauty is seen in different cultures. She defined the beauty of women as their strength and power. This was based on her view as an Indigenous woman. One of her collages, When Did Dreams of White Buffalo Turn to Dreams of White Women? (1990), asks important questions. It makes people think about how Native women see beauty. In Lakota stories, White Buffalo Calf Woman was a very beautiful woman. She brought important ceremonies to her people. Hulleah's artwork suggests a shift. It shows how the idea of beauty changed for Native people after colonization. It moved from an Indigenous view to a more Western one.
Published Writings
Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie has also written many articles and books. These writings share her knowledge and ideas about Native American photography.
- Lidchi, Henrietta and Tsinhnahjinnie, H. J., eds. Visual Currencies: Native American Photography. Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland, 2008.
- Tsinhnahjinnie, H. J. and Passalacqua, Veronica, eds. Our People, Our Land, Our Images: International Indigenous Photographers. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 2008. ISBN: 978-1597140577.
- Tsinhnahjinnie, H. J. "Our People, Our Land, Our Images." Native Peoples Magazine. Nov/Dec. 2006
- Tsinhnahjinnie, H. J. "Native American Photography." The Oxford Companion to Photography Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004
- Tsinhnahjinnie, H. J. "When is a Photograph Worth a Thousand Words?" Photography's Other Histories. C. Pinney and N. Peterson. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003: 40-52
Exhibitions
Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie's artwork has been shown in many art exhibitions. Both solo shows (just her work) and group shows (her work with other artists).
Solo Exhibitions
- 2010: Kill the Man, Save the Indian at FotoArtFestival, Bielsko, Poland.
- 1991: Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie at Campos Photography Center, Tonawanda, New York.
Group Exhibitions
Hulleah's art has been part of many group shows, including:
- 2018: Seeds of Being at Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, Oklahoma.
- 2012: Native American Portraits: Points of Inquiry at Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
- 2010: Unfixed at CBK Center for Contemporary Art, Dordrecht, Netherlands.
- 2006: Holyland: Diaspora and the Desert at Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.
- 1998: Native Nations: Journeys in American Photography at Barbican Art Gallery, London.
- 1994: Watchful Eyes: Native American Women Artists at Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.
- 1990: Language of the Lens: Contemporary Native American Photographers at Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.
