Water Ways: Indigenous Ecologies and Florida Heritage

Water Ways: Indigenous Ecologies and Florida Heritage, opening in September 2025, uses “way” to explore how routes and paths shaped by water have influenced cultural geographies, and the methods, manners, and styles—“ways” through which Indigenous communities have expressed their relationships with water.

The exhibition aims to cultivate a deeper awareness of Indigenous material cultures and ecologies in Florida, in conversation with global perspectives from the Americas and Asia. Water Ways also invites reflection on pressing environmental issues—including water access, ecological change, and climate resilience—by highlighting how communities have long understood and responded to the challenges of living with water. It will feature historical objects from regional collections and MoFA’s permanent holdings, alongside works by three contemporary artists—Wilson Bowers, Harold Garcia V (El Quinto), and Samboleap Tol—whose practices engage with themes of Indigeneity, hydrology, and heritage in Florida and beyond.