Fourteen Indigenous artists have taken over the Thurston County Museum of Fine Art in downtown Olympia with a free exhibition that asks what the future look s like when Indigenous people define it themselves.

"Temporal: Stories of Indigenous Present, Re-imagining Indigenous Futures" opened Oct. 2 at TCMoFA, 120 Olympia Ave NE, and runs through Dec. 11.

The show marks the fourth annual Coast Salish Museum of Fine Arts (CSMoFA) takeover of the museum space, according to Oly Arts.

Curator Mikaela Shafer, who is Hopi, organized the exhibition in partnership with Indigenous Creatives Collective.

Shafer has curated the last two CSMoFA shows and has organized exhibitions at South Puget Sound Community College, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation in Portland and other venues, Oly Arts reported.

The show spans performance art, large-scale installation, digital and video work, two-dimensional pieces and traditional forms like weaving and beadwork, according to the Arts Walk Olympia listing.

Artists come from tribal nations across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

The title references the present tense. CSMoFA says museums too often portray Indigenous people as relics of the past, disconnected from modern life, according to Oly Arts.

The organizers frame that disconnection as a form of censorship.

"This show is all about Indigenous futurism, imagining a world where indigenous people are at the forefront, in control, and designing our world," Shafer said, according to Oly Arts.

Among the standout works is "The Long Walk," a giant beadwork piece by Tammie Dupuis of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Shafer told Oly Arts the piece cascades from the ceiling down to and across the floor.

Dupuis is also showing "War Shirt," which she described as calling back to the protective painted war shirts of the Plains tribes, with beaded faces representing ancestors and relatives.

Cynthia Matherson, a Comanche artist, is showing beaded household objects alongside interactive pieces. Her "Game of Telephone," a restored Western Electric candlestick telephone covered in beadwork, lets visitors make a call and leave a message.

She also has interactive beaded vending machines where visitors can collect their own beads and a digital video piece.

The exhibition features artists from a range of tribal nations. They include Dupuis, Justin Olmstead (Santa Ynez and Barbareno Chumash), Liz Chikayaasix̂ Morrow (Unangax̂), Epiphany Couch (spuyaləpabš/Yakama) and Carissa Eich (Navajo).

The roster also lists Matherson, Inanna kʷaɁowišč tyee McCarty (Makah/Tsawout), Mikiʻala Souza (Kanaka ʻŌiwi/Native Hawaiian) and Megita Denton (Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan). Daniel R. Smith (Swinomish), Woodrow Hunt (Klamath/Modoc, Cherokee), Ash Frantz (Makah) and Stefan Gonzales (Prio/Manso/Tiwa) round out the group.

Admission is free.

Shafer has been involved with CSMoFA since its start in 2023. Since last year, Indigenous Creatives Collective has had full autonomy to curate shows free of traditional museum and gallery structures, and participating artists are paid, according to Oly Arts.

The exhibition is open Fridays from 2 to 6 p.m., with extended hours until 9 p.m. on first Fridays, and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.