Most of the East Bay is considered Ohlone land that was stolen from the tribe by Spanish and American forces. That may be a hard truth for many of us to face and accept. Feelings of guilt and shame can cause us to freeze and deny that bloody past. That’s where art comes to the rescue. Photography is a powerful way to look at this history through the eyes of those who lived it. We can then deepen our empathy for this brutal past and face it with an open heart.
Born of the Bear Dance, now at the Oakland Museum, celebrates the photography of Native American artist Dugan Aguilar. This exhibition covers just a small portion of the more than 25,000 photographs and artifacts in the collection that the Aguilar family recently donated to the museum. In addition to photography, there are weaving arts and basket pieces to discover. A documentary film about Aguilar, his family and his subjects is also included.
What struck me most about the exhibit was not only the immense talent of Aguilar but his commitment to intentionality in his work. Not one photo was taken without careful consideration of the people in it and the way in which they were represented. Aguilar’s commitment to authenticity comes through in each photo. I found this particularly true with the photos taken during ceremonial practices.
His work covers the period of the early 1970s right up until his death in 2018. It’s an expansive period of time to document the remaining tribes of Northern California. Dugan Aguilar himself was a mix of several tribes and even a little Irish (hence the name Dugan). This informed his mission to stay in Northern California and Nevada for the bulk of his documentarian work as a photographer (as opposed to going national, which was the trend in the 1970s).
Aguilar’s mother’s family was Maidu from the Green River Rancheria and Achomawi living on Hat Creek. His father was Northern Paiute from the Walker River Indian Reservation in Nevada. Aguilar credits his tribal upbringing with his commitment to documenting the resiliency of the community in the face of 400 years of oppression. These photos movingly show a community of people still practicing their traditions despite genocide and dislocation.
‘Born of the Bear Dance: Dugan Aguilar’s Photographs of Native California,’ now through June 22, 2025 at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St.; museumca.org.
