10/20/2026
🎨 Art Exhibit Showcase Event
"The Awakening of Turtle Island: Portraits of Native Americans"
💻 Register: Opening Night, Oct 30 at 7PM!
https://onrealm.org/matthewsumc/PublicRegistrations/Event?linkString=ZWZjZWVhMmItNWE1Zi00ODJiLWE3NjItYjRjNjAwZWJlYjBj
🔶 November is Native American Heritage Month, and Matthews UMC is excited to host this unique event showcasing professional photography of Native Americans by Tracey Schmidt.
🔶 Register by Oct 26 to attend the Opening Night Showcase to enjoy hor d’oeuvres as photographer, Tracey Schmidt, shares her experience with native people trying to preserve their history.
🔶 The Art Exhibit will be open to the community thru Nov 19.
📖 Historical Perspective
▪ We acknowledge, with humility, that the land where we gather was originally territory of Indigenous people, whom our ancestors have a history of mistreating.
▪ During the 19th century through the mid-20th century, Methodists along with the federal government, forcibly removed Native American children from their families, placing them in boarding schools of abuse & poor conditions. Children were forced to change their appearance and abandon their native languages, practices & traditions in an effort to achieve forced assimilation and strip Indigenous children of their cultural identities.
▪ Through recent initiatives, the denomination has launched projects to help fully uncover the history of these schools, issue formal acts of repentance, and support tribal healing programs.
▪ This Art Exhibit is a way for us to learn and support the re-awakening of our Indigenous ancestors who are trying to re-build their lost culture & traditions.
▪ Turtle Island is a cultural term used by many Indigenous people when referring to the continent of North America.
