  
  About the Artwork
  
  
  In this sculpture, Anishinaabe artist George Morrison creates a horizon line by joining two kinds of wood (purpleheart and padauk). This symbolizes the spiritual meeting point of earth, water, and sky in Ojibwe spiritual beliefs. The word churinga refers to stone tablets of a similar shape made by Aboriginal Australians that are engraved with maps of their spiritual world. In the mid-1980s, Morrison was inspired by an Australian churinga he encountered at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
  
  
  Title
  Churinga Form
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1987
  
  Artist
  George Morrison
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1919 - 2000
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Minnesota Chippewa Tribe - Grand Portage Band
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  Ojibwe
  
  
  Medium
  Purpleheart and padauk
  
  
  Dimensions
  Including base: 11 1/2 &Atilde;&#151; 7 3/4 &Atilde;&#151; 4 inches (29.2 &Atilde;&#151; 19.7 &Atilde;&#151; 10.2 cm)
  Mount: 4 &Atilde;&#151; 7 3/4 &Atilde;&#151; 4 inches (10.2 &Atilde;&#151; 19.7 &Atilde;&#151; 10.2 cm)
  Overall: 7 1/4 &Atilde;&#151; 5 1/4 &Atilde;&#151; 1/2 inches (18.4 &Atilde;&#151; 13.3 &Atilde;&#151; 1.3 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Sculpture
  
  
  Department
  Indigenous Americas
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase, Edgar A.V. Jacobsen Acquisition Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum&acirc;&#128;&#153;s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems&acirc;&#128;&#148;no longer assigned&acirc;&#128;&#148;that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2005.29
  
  
  Copyright
  Non-commercial all standard museum
  
  
  
