NARRATOR: This Haudenosaunee paddle is covered in carvings of exquisite detail. But it isn't decoration—it’s philosophy.

Here's Jolene Rickard, a member of the Tuscarora Nation and associate professor of the History of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University to explain:

JOLENE RICKARD: It’s been identified as a paddle that would have been used for stirring mush. Is this paddle really used for cooking? I think there's another way of looking at this extraordinary piece because of the cosmological significance within the iconography on the paddle.

If we begin at the top, we see a figure standing…is it the top of the world, or is it the top of the universe? And then we begin to see these rivers of chevrons that flow up and down the paddle. Within Haudenosaunee philosophy, there’s always this idea of the woods and the clearing. And so often we see this tendency to mark space or borders within material. And then we go down a little further, and there’s a little turtle embedded in the clearing. Many indigenous peoples in North America refer to the Americas as Turtle Island.

We see an opening in this paddle. We see a figure of a male and a female standing on each side of this heart-shaped chevron, and they’re both pointing to this space. The absent space represents this idea of our connection to the celestial world.

NARRATOR: It may not be for stirring the daily mush, but that doesn't mean this paddle was supposed to hang on the wall and never be touched. It would have certainly been used, perhaps in a community context in which it was passed from hand to hand as the stories and symbols on its surface were brought to life through ceremony, dance, or a ritual meal.

JOLENE RICKARD: We have to overcome perhaps our conceit that profound thoughts only take place in two-dimensional canvases, and begin to recognize unique forms as also having the capability of teaching us deep philosophies.

Paddle

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