Acknowledgment contains portraits of members of the Native American community in Milwaukee, creating a visual acknowledgment of people and place. Baird Center sits on land that was the traditional home of Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee peoples. Members of these and other Tribal Nations are represented in the portraits.

Miyazaki, who was created large community portrait projects over the last decade, partnered with the Indian Community School in Franklin, Wisconsin on the creation of Acknowledgement.

“My original idea was to photograph current students at the school. But while working with my school contacts, we realized that would tell an incomplete story. We decided to open the project to a wider range of people, to show the strength of the larger school community. The portraits that make up the Acknowledgement installation represent current students, alumni, faculty, staff and family members. I think including portraits of multiple generations makes the piece more powerful, referencing the past, present and future.”

As part of the project, Miyazaki photographed on the large area of land the makes up Indian Community School in Franklin, Wisconsin. The resulting nature photographs, along with all the project portraits and a commissioned poem by Native poet Kimberly M. Blaeser, were comprised in an artist’s book given to all students, faculty and staff.

“The colors behind each portrait are digital samples from the pictures I took on Indian Community School land. So, the land is actually a part of each portrait. We may commonly think of photographs of Native Americans as being in black and white, and in historical terms. The color and contemporary look of these photographs was important in my approach. Tribal Nations and Native and Indigenous people are very much an important part of our community today.”

Miyazaki wants visitors to Baird Center to walk away from their time in Milwaukee with a better understanding of its past and its present.

“In addition to viewing the portraits, I hope visitors read the land and water acknowledgment integrated into the installation. It was written by Indian Community School, but also refers to the land that the Baird Center sits on, and to the broader Milwaukee area. It’s my hope that it will push people to think about the true history of the land where they are standing, and both the past and current existence of local Tribal Nations.”