The California Native American Modern Art Archive (cna-maa) is a digital repository dedicated to documenting, preserving, and amplifying the work of Native American artists from California. Launched in Fall 2023, the project responds to a long-standing absence within major art historical and digital research platforms, where modern and contemporary Native artworks from California remain significantly underrepresented or entirely missing.
Developed through the Material / Image Research Lab in the Department of History of Art & Architecture at UC Santa Barbara, the Archive brings together students, scholars, artists, and community members to collaboratively build a living, ethical, and accessible record of California Native artistic production. The project foregrounds Native presence, continuity, and innovation, while challenging extractive archival models that have historically marginalized Indigenous artists and communities.
Project Overview
At its core, the California Native American Modern Art Archive is both a digital repository and a pedagogical initiative. The Archive currently publishes artworks and artist records through JSTOR Forum, with plans for a complementary open-access public website. Together, these platforms aim to increase the visibility of California Native artists within scholarly, educational, and public contexts, while respecting artists’ rights, cultural protocols, and community priorities.
The project adopts a post-custodial archival approach. Rather than claiming ownership over cultural materials, the Archive operates through collaboration and consent. Artists retain possession and control over how their work is represented, described, and shared. Decisions about access, use restrictions, and attribution are made in dialogue with artists whenever possible, and the project follows Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles that emphasize Indigenous authority over Indigenous cultural data.
The Archive focuses on modern and contemporary art, broadly defined, including painting, sculpture, photography, performance documentation, installation, mixed media, and digital practices. By situating these works within a shared digital space, the project challenges outdated narratives that confine Native art to the past or frame it solely through ethnographic or colonial lenses.
Student Participation and Pedagogy
Student participation is central to the Archive’s mission. Undergraduate interns working through the Material / Image Research Lab play a key role in research, documentation, and digital curation. Students are trained in archival methods, metadata creation, visual analysis, and ethical research practices, while also engaging critically with questions of representation, absence, and power in the archive.
Interns work collaboratively to locate artworks through artist websites, exhibitions, publications, institutional collections, and community-based sources. They assess existing archives for gaps and biases, develop culturally responsive metadata, and deposit materials into JSTOR Forum with appropriate rights statements and use conditions. Throughout the process, students are encouraged to think critically about how archives are formed, who they serve, and how they might be reimagined as sites of care, accountability, and collaboration.
This work can be integrated into coursework focused on decolonizing the archive, Indigenous visual sovereignty, and community-centered digital humanities. For many students, the project offers their first opportunity to participate in an active, public-facing research initiative that has real-world impact beyond the university.
MIRL is indebted to the thoughtful, generous, considerate work of student interns. As of 2026, numerous have worked on this project. We thank: Kay Chung, Jiwoo Choi, Mia Craik-Buxton, Reese Raygoza, Leili Shirvani, Emily Sullivan, Kaitlyn Taylor, Miles Trachtenberg, Jaret Valera.
Ethics, Care, and Collaboration
The California Native American Modern Art Archive is guided by frameworks including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, best practices for describing Indigenous communities, and models developed by Indigenous archivists and scholars. Cultural sensitivity, relational accountability, and transparency are foundational values rather than afterthoughts.
The project recognizes that archives are not neutral. They shape historical narratives, institutional priorities, and public understanding. By centering collaboration and Indigenous authority, the Archive seeks to interrupt harmful archival legacies and contribute to a more just and representative cultural record.
Looking Forward
Future phases of the project include expanding artist representation across additional California Native nations, developing public-facing digital exhibitions, and deepening partnerships with artists, tribal communities, and cultural institutions. As the Archive grows, it remains committed to adaptability, responsiveness, and long-term sustainability.
The California Native American Modern Art Archive is not a finished collection. It is an ongoing, evolving effort to support Native artists, train future scholars and archivists, and rethink what digital archives can be when built through care, collaboration, and respect.
Access and Contact
Public mid-2026 on JSTOR.
A dedicated public-facing website is also in development. For access, more information, collaboration inquiries, or project details, please contact:
Dr Jeff O’Brien
jeffobrien@ucsb.edu
Reese Raygoza
reeseraygoza@ucsb.edu