OFN welcomes Deana Dartt, PhD (Coastal Chumash and Mestiza), and Founding Director of Live Oak Consulting as OFN’s Campus Affiliate. Descending from the indigenous people of the Californias, Dartt’s scholarly and professional work strive to address the incongruities between public understanding, representation and true acknowledgement of Native peoples, their cultures, histories and contemporary lives.
She earned her MA and PhD from the University of Oregon (welcome back, quack!) and has held curatorial positions at the Burke Museum of Natural and Cultural History and the Portland Art Museum as well as teaching appointments at the University of Oregon, University of Washington, and Northwest Indian College. She recently completed a writing fellowship at the School for Advanced Research where she revised her book manuscript for publication titled, Subverting the Master Narrative: Museums, Power and Native Life in California. Dartt’s courtesy position at OFN allows us to reciprocate the invaluable consulting time and expertise she has donated over the past several years to operationalize our First People: First Priorities initiative. Through her guidance, OFN is developing proposals to fund not only the traditional arts of Oregon’s Indigenous people, but the critical Native ecological knowledge and stewardship essential for these traditions to thrive.