On September 7, 2024, I made a ritual intervention as a gesture of care for the ancestors whose brains were unethically removed from their bodies in the early 1900s under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. These brains were taken to make fraudulent “scientific” claims of white superiority.
The ritual intervention took place at the opening of the exhibition, “Sightlines: Chinatown and Beyond” in the Kogod Courtyard of the National Museum of American Art.
My daughter and a friend documented the ritual intervention using my father’s late 20th century Polaroid camera.
People attending the exhibition’s opening event participated in this gesture of care for the ancestors whose brains still remain in a storage facility in Suitland, MD.
In a statement made in 2023 by Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III, he said, “We accept the responsibility to right these wrongs to the fullest extent possible.” The ritual asked the people of the Smithsonian how they would move forward with accountability, which is a deep form of care.