Rayna Green Explained

Rayna Diane Green (born 1942) is an American curator and folklorist. She is Curator Emerita, in the Division of Cultural and Community Life at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.[1]

Her research expertise is on American Indian representations, the history of American Indian women, American identity, and American foodways - topics which she has explored through exhibitions, published research, film making and music compilations.

Early life and education

Green was born in Dallas, Texas in 1942.[2] She graduated with a B.A., in American Literature from Southern Methodist University in 1963 and then an M.A. in American Studies from the same institution in 1966. She undertook a Ph.D. in Folklore and American Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, which she completed in 1973. Green was the first American Indian to receive a Ph.D. in that field.[3]

Between 1964 and 1966, Green was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia.

Career

Green worked for a number in years in academia, including posts at the University of Arkansas and University of Massachusetts.[4] Between 1976 and 1980 she was Director of the Project on Native Americans in Science for the American Association for the Advancement of Science and between 1980 and 1984 she was Associate Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College, In 1984 Green began work at the National Museum of American History as a consultant, before becoming director of the American Indian Program in 1986.[5]

Green produced many public programs at the museum, including performance programs on Native dance and song and symposiums on contemporary Native art, science and technology. She curated a number of exhibitions, including "American Encounters";[6] “Bon Appétit: Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian";[7] “Food: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000”.[8]

Green was involved as scriptwriter and director of three documentary short films on Pueblo life and culture: We Are Here: 500 Years of Pueblo Resistance (1992), which was awarded the Ciné Golden Eagle, in 1992; Corn Is Who We Are: The Story of Pueblo Indian Food (1995) which was awarded the Silver Apple, National Educational Film Festival, in 1995 and From Ritual to Retail: Pueblos, Tourism, and the Fred Harvey Company (1995), which was produced to tie in with the exhibition, Inventing the Southwest: The Fred Harvey Company and Native American Art.[9]

She also co-ordinated two audio recordings of Native women's music: Heartbeat: The Voices of First Nations Women (Smithsonian Folkways, 1995)[10] and Heartbeat 2: More Voices of First Nations Women (Smithsonian Folkways, 1998).[11]

Green has written or edited four books (Native American Women: A Contextual Bibliography (1983); That’s What She Said: Contemporary Fiction and Poetry By Native American Women (editor, 1984); Women in American Indian Society (1992); The British Museum Encyclopedia of Native North America (1999) and is also the author of many academic articles.[12]

She was made Curator Emerita at the National Museum of American History in 2014.

Recognition

Green served as president of the American Folklore Society between 1986 and 1987.[13] She is a former councillor of the American Society for Ethnohistory and a founding member of both the Cherokee Honor Society and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society.

In 2008, she was Leman Brady Professor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.[12]

Selected publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Rayna Green . 2022-05-16 . National Museum of American History . en.
  2. Book: Hirschfelder, Arlene B. . Native Heritage: Personal Accounts by American Indians, 1790 to the Present . 1995 . VNR AG . 978-0-02-860412-1 . 184 . en.
  3. Web site: Society for Ethnomusicology, 2004 Seeger Lecture - Rayna Green .
  4. Belanus . Betty . 2000 . An Interview with Rayna Green . Folklife Forum . en-US . 2 . 33–46 . 0015-5926.
  5. Web site: 2014-09-26 . National Museum of American History Announces Six Emeriti Appointments . 2022-05-16 . National Museum of American History . en.
  6. Web site: American Encounters . 2022-05-16 . Smithsonian Institution . en.
  7. Web site: Bon Appetit! Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian . 2022-05-16 . Smithsonian Institution . en.
  8. Web site: Food: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000 . 2022-05-16 . Smithsonian Institution . en.
  9. Web site: Inventing the Southwest: The Fred Harvey Company and Native American Art . 2022-05-16 . www.cddc.vt.edu.
  10. Web site: Heartbeat: Voices of First Nations Women . 2022-05-16 . folkways.si.edu . en-US.
  11. Web site: Heartbeat 2: More Voices of First Nations Women . 2022-05-16 . folkways.si.edu . en-US.
  12. Web site: Rayna Green Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University . 2022-05-16 . documentarystudies.duke.edu.
  13. Web site: Past AFS Presidents . 2022-05-16 . The American Folklore Society . en-US.

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