Hidden Histories

By Matt Shipman

In a way, Judy Kertész’s arrival at NC State in 2008 was a homecoming. Although she grew up in New York, she was told “home is in North Carolina,” where her Lumbee ancestors originated. And she has brought national recognition with her, as the co-curator of “IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas” – a new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C.

The exhibit, which runs through next May, shines a light on the complex relationships between American Indians and African Americans throughout the Americas, including the Caribbean. The idea for the exhibit stems from museum visitors of mixed ancestry who told the museum they “didn’t see themselves” there.

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