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Education news and issues in the Ozarks.

Native American art shows powerful women

Each November, Native American Heritage Month is recognized with the goal of affirming and celebrating the identities of individuals who are often erased from history. Dr. Billie Follensbee, museum studies program coordinator in theart and design department at Missouri State University, has had a lifelong fascination with Native American history, art and archaeology.

Follensbee studies sculpture, remnants and artwork to illuminate more about the unwritten history of Native American culture.

Her most recent published studies have revolved around a set of artifacts deemed the Rogan plates, which depict a bird human. The sex of the bird human on these two plates has long been assumed to be male because of the warrior-like clothing worn by the bird human. Follensbee points to the fact that the original plates have female bodies, though. She says reproductions of the plates seem to highlight the bird human clothing and flatten the chest and stomach to reinforce these images as male warriors.

In her work, Follensbee is correcting misrepresented history. She is shining a light on the obscured record of women in leadership roles, as well as the gender fluidity in native cultures.

Read about her research

Nicki received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Business Administration from Missouri State in marketing, in 2002 and 2004 respectively. After gaining experience in writing, marketing, special event planning, fundraising and public relations, she returned to the university to work in the office of strategic communication. There she tells the university’s story by sharing the stories of individuals at Missouri State.
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