Voices From the Drum Celebrates Osage Culture By Carson Ball
Jessica Moore Harjo and Rock Pipestem, Little Stars from the Sky Lodge, 2018, pine, birch plywood, bison hide, acrylic paint, steel, Photo: Ryan Red Corn
At the heart of the Osage Nation, serving as a keepsake for cultural traditions, sits the drum. The Osage Nation Museum explores the significance of the drum and its role in Osage culture in their exhibition, Voices From the Drum, on view until March 26. Here, the Osage Nation Foundation (ONF) not only cultivates a space to learn, but also to promote numerous Osage artists at many stages in their careers. Voices From the Drum is a community arts initiative by the ONF, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting Osage culture. The exhibition was first brought about by conversations between ONF and Wilson Pipestem, who was inspired to view the hand drum as an artistic 8
p re v i e w
canvas. Wilson says he was “motivated” by his brother, Rock Pipestem, an Osage singer and drum maker, to bring this vision to life. Rock Pipestem, son of the late Browning and Sharon Pipestem of the Grayhorse District, is a nationally recognized artist. His drum-making inspiration comes from his Osage and OtoeMissouria people’s ceremonies and traditions. He has demonstrated his drum-making for the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. and this past year was inducted into the 2021 class of Cultural Capital Fellows for The First Peoples Fund, one of the oldest national organizations dedicated to supporting Native American artists and culture bearers.
When creating the plan for the Voices From the Drum exhibition, ONF board member Chad Renfro explained that they wanted this exhibition to “be large enough, successful enough, and speak about us (ONF) enough that we could move this and keep it moving as a traveling exhibition all around the United States, and perhaps even take a trip to Europe at some point.” With this end goal in mind, the ONF commissioned Rock Pipestem to create nineteen drums. Pipestem partnered with Osage artists to bring their individual visions to life. Each piece was designed by a different Osage artist who used the drum as a canvas to
