Indigenous Owned
"Our mission is to provide a peer-run space in New York City to celebrate and foster the advancement of Indigenous futurism in fashion and art through representation and education."
Indigenous-owned, founding members Korina Emmerich (Puyallup), and Liana Shewey (Mvskoke) built Relative Arts, the new brick-and-mortar community space, open atelier, and shop displaying contemporary Indigenous fashion and design. The space will be utilized to host classes with Indigenous guest instructors, and as an event space, hosting gallery shows, poetry readings, intimate musical performances, and knowledge-sharing events, in a comfortable and safe environment. In celebrating these practices we will also be a diverse in-house shop dedicated to Indigenous designers and artists. We are an open atelier holding custom designer fittings by appointment only.
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Relative Arts acknowledge
the land designated as "New York City" to be the homeland of the Lenape (Lenapehoking) who were violently displaced as a result of European settler colonialism over the course of 400 years. The Lenape are a diasporic people that remain closely connected with this land and are its rightful stewards. The majority of Lënape peoples and the main political and cultural body of the tribe ended up in the 3 federally recognized bands in the US: in what is known as Oklahoma and Wisconsin and three federally recognized bands in Canada, after repeated removals and relocations spanning over 500 years of exodus.
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We also recognize that New York City has one of the largest urban Native American / Indigenous populations in the United States.
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