GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — For decades, the Grand Rapids Public Museum has housed an exhibit dedicated to West Michigan’s first inhabitants. Over the next two years, that exhibit will get an upgrade.
Museum officials announced this week that the exhibit — Anishinabek: The People of This Place — will be overhauled.
“Museum staff and Native partners will complete a redesign and expansion of the space to breathe new life into the exhibit for future generations to learn and enjoy,” a museum spokesperson said in a statement.
Dozens of carved figurines are part of the Anishinaabe exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The exhibit will close after Jan. 5, 2025 to be redesigned. (Courtesy GRPM) 
The Anishinaabe exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum will close after Jan. 5, 2025 to be redesigned. (Courtesy GRPM) 
The Anishinaabe exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum will close after Jan. 5, 2025 to be redesigned. (Courtesy GRPM)
The museum also announced that Katrina Furman, a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, will take over as the museum’s Anishinaabe curator.
Furman graduated from Grand Valley State University with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and a master’s degree in nonprofit management. She has 18 years of experience working in tribal government and has been working with the museum for three years.
“I am deeply honored and excited to be selected for this position. I look forward to the exhibit redesign and continued collaboration with our partners to create something very empowering for our community,” Furman stated.
The updated exhibit is expected to incorporate new technology and give visitors a chance to dig deeper into topics important to Anishinaabe communities. It will also feature art from local Anishinaabe artists and honor the culture’s past, present and future.
The Anishinaabe are a group of Indigenous people that lived across the Great Lakes region in both the United States and in Canada as early as 1200 A.D. The group is comprised of at least eight different tribes, including three that hold land in Michigan: the Ojibwe (Chippewa), the Odawa and the Potawatomi.
Those three hold a longstanding alliance called the Council of the Three Fires, each with a specialty. The Chippewa are considered the oldest tribe and were regarded as renowned hunters and fishermen, establishing a large fishing village near the rapids of the St. Mary’s River in what is now Sault Saint Marie. The Odawa made their mark in trade and were known for their bark canoes. The Potawatomi are considered some of Michigan’s earliest farmers, settling in southwestern Michigan to grow squash, corn, melons, beans and tobacco.
The exhibit will close for renovations after Sunday, Jan. 5. The museum hopes to have the exhibit ready to debut in the fall of 2026.
