Colors of the Salish Sea: Coast Salish Hybrid Necklace

2021

American (Shxwhá:y Village), born 1987

Morsette honors the precious elders whose generational gift of wool weaving persisted in spite of brutal efforts to strip Coast Salish tribes of their cultural teachings. Morsette learned from weavers who relearned the skills, almost lost entirely, from their few remaining teachers. Gathering, preparing, and weaving mountain goat and sheep’s wool into ceremonial regalia, Morsette reaches back in time for inspiration while creating her own connection to this legacy with designs that reveal the vibrancy of contemporary Native culture

Glass beads, shell, thread

56 x 3 in. (142.2 x 7.6 cm)

Ancient and Native American Art Acquisition Fund

2021.41.2

Provenance: The artist; purchased from artist by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2021

Photo: Scott Leen

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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