Painting of a woman in a patterned robe holding a seal, with a circular halo behind her head and icy mountains in the background.
Linda Infante Lyons (Alutiiq, b. 1959), Isuwiq, Guardian of the Sea, 2025. Alaska Native Museum Sovereignty Collection. ©️ Linda Infante Lyons. Image courtesy of the artist.

Natchiq | Onkeehq | Isuwiq

Indigenous Artists Honor the Seal
April 4 - October 25, 2026
Painting of a woman in a patterned robe holding a seal, with a circular halo behind her head and icy mountains in the background.
Linda Infante Lyons (Alutiiq, b. 1959), Isuwiq, Guardian of the Sea, 2025. Alaska Native Museum Sovereignty Collection. ©️ Linda Infante Lyons. Image courtesy of the artist.

Introduction

All seafaring peoples hold relationships to the wild beings living in the waters they call home. Many Indigenous peoples maintain deep ancestral connections with seals.  This exhibition witnesses those relationships across many coasts, honoring everything seals give to us. 

Organized by guest curators Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi (Alutiiq), Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich (Inupiaq), and Elizabeth James-Perry (Wampanoag), this exhibition highlights seals as a cultural connector for Native communities in Alaska and Inuit Nunangat, showcasing works from the early 1900s to the present. Inuit prints, drawings, and carvings from Kinngait and Labrador, Canada, are presented in conversation with contemporary textiles, photographs, and installations by Alaska Native and Inuit artists, exploring new and traditional technologies and personal narratives. 

Natchiq | Onkeehq | Isuwiq: Indigenous Artists Honor the Seal is made possible with generous lead funding from the Henry Luce Foundation. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Coby Foundation.

RISD Museum is supported by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and with the generous partnership of the Rhode Island School of Design, its Board of Trustees, and Museum Governors.