Contact: Mari Lyn Salvador, 277-8676 Media Contact: Michael Padilla, 277-1816

November 5, 2002 UNM EXHIBIT OPENING FEATURES KUNA VISITORS FROM PANAMA Kuna visitors from Panama will participate in a series of events as part of the opening of the Art of Being Kuna exhibition at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico on Saturday, Nov. 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. A roundtable discussion is scheduled for 11 a.m. and a reception will take place from noon to 2 p.m. Mola-making demonstrations, items for sale from the Mola Co-op, children’s activities, and arm and leg band making is set from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Kuna people live on the Caribbean coast of Panama in an area stretching from Punta San Blas 130 miles to the Colombian border. Living mainly on islands where mountains come down to the sea, the Kuna have struggled for centuries to protect the land and their coastal seas, not only from exploitation from outside forces, but from their own overuse. This care is an integral part of their belief system. Molas, Kuna women’s traditional blouses, ethnographic objects, photographs, video programs and interpretive text are all incorporated into The Art of Being Kuna. The exhibition presents Kuna ideas about the environment and their beliefs regarding creation and the responsibility of caring for the earth. The exhibit also demonstrates their thoughts about aesthetics and the relationship of beauty and form to political and social organization, family structure and hospitality, and ritual and healing as well as personal expression. The exhibition is based on field research done by anthropologists over the past 30 years, including the work of Salvador. From the beginning it has been a collaborative project that involved Kuna artists, cultural specialists and leaders working with anthropologists and members of the staff of the Fowler Museum. The exhibit also draws on the rich collections and research and photographic archives from the 1920s at the Ethnographic Museum in Goteborg, Sweden, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., and the Heye Foundation in New York, which has become part of the National Museum of the American Indian. The exhibition will be on display for two years. The second phase, to be unveiled next April, will include healing, ritual and dance, as well as molas that encompass images from outside Kuna Yala, inspired by cards, labels and comic books. A variety of both educational programs and public programs are being designed to enhance the special nature of this project. The exhibition is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ethel Jane Bunting Foundation, and Pachamama. The installation of the exhibit at the Maxwell and cultural activities are cosponsored by the Alfonso Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies. ###

The University of New Mexico
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