Royal Ontario Museum

Collections & Research Staff

Arni Brownstone
Assistant Curator
Anthropology

BFA (Honours), Visual Arts, York University, 1974

Arni Brownstone has curatorial responsibility for the ethnographic collections from Mesoamerica and South America, as well as, from the Plains, Plateau, Great Basin and Southwest regions of North America. His scholarly research focuses on the material culture of Canadian Plains Indians, with a special interest in Plains Indian pictographic painting. Arni developed the display of the Edmund Morris Collection in the First Peoples of Canada Gallery, as well as the United States and Latin American ethnographic sections of the Gallery of Africa, Americas and Asia-Pacific. He currently has two books ready for publication. One is on the pictographic painting of the Tsuu T’ina (Sarcee) Indians. The other is a co-authored volume on the ROM’ sixteenth century Mexican pictographic manuscript, the Lienzo of Tlapiltepec. His next project is a richly illustrated book which will survey the extant corpus of large-scale Plains Indian paintings.

Arni developed the display of the Edmund Morris Collection in the Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples, which opened in 2005, and worked on the United States and Latin American ethnographic sections for the new Gallery of Africa, Americas and Asia-Pacific, which opened in 2008.

Publications

In press	Brownstone, A. "Painting and Engraving East of the Rockies." In Handbook Of North American Indians, Vol. 16, Technology and Visual Arts, edited by C. Feest. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
2011	Brownstone, A. "Mysteries of the Sculptural Narrative Pipes from Manitoulin Island." American Indian Art Magazine, Summer 2011, 36(3): 54-63, & 84-85. - View article (PDF)
2010	Brownstone, A. "Composition and Iconography in Painted Plains Indian Shirts." In Generous Man/Ahxsi-tapina: Essays in Memory of Colin Taylor, edited by A. Brownstone. Wyk, Germany: Tatanka Press. - View article (PDF)
2008	Brownstone, A. "Reverend John Maclean and the Bloods" American Indian Art Magazine,33(3): 44-57 - View article (PDF)
2007	Brownstone, A. "Explorations War Paint: Tipi liner tells the tale of one Blackfoot warrior's exploits." ROM Summer 2007: 21-22 - View article (PDF)
2007	Brownstone, A. "Big Nose and His Painted Elk Skin." Plains Anthropologist 52(202): 195-207 - View article (PDF)
2007	Brownstone, A. "Bull Head's Revenge." Open Letter, A Canadian Journal of Writing and Theory (Egregore: A Festschrift for Ray Ellenwood) 13(1):136-145 - View article (PDF) - More Information on Open Letter, A Canadian Journal of Writing and Theory
2005	Brownstone, A. "Bear Chief's War Deed Tipi." In The People of the Buffalo, Volume 2, The Plains Indians of North America, The Silent Memorials: Artifacts as Cultural and Historical Documents, Essays in Honor of John C. Ewers, edited by C.F. Taylor and H.A. Dempsey. Wyk, Germany: Tatanka Press, pp. 43-55 - View article (PDF)
2005	Brownstone, A. The Many Shots Robe. Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum. - View document (PDF)
2005	Brownstone, A. "Treasures from the Bloods." Rotunda 38(2):22-31 - View article (PDF)
2005	Brownstone, A. "Spirit of the Plains." Rotunda 37(3):14-21 - View article (PDF)
2004	Brownstone, A. "Animal Arrays and Geometric Pictorials: Commercial Aspects of Plains Painting." European Review of Native American Studies 18(1):9-19 - View article (PDF)
2003	Brownstone, A. "Rosettes Abloom: Solving a Beadwork Mystery." Rotunda 36(1):5 - View article (PDF)
2002	Brownstone, A. "Beyond Bridle Fashion." Rotunda 35(1):5 - View article (PDF)
2002	Brownstone, A. "Completing the Circle. Akaitapiiwa Ancestors." J. King and W. Wood eds. Lethbridge, Sir Alexander Galt Museum and Archives, 10-13
2002	Brownstone, A. "Ancestors: The Deane-Freeman Collections from the Bloods." American Indian Art Magazine 27(3):38-49, 73-77 - View article (PDF)
2002	Brownstone, A. "Anatomy of a Fake." European Review of Native American Studies 16(2):55-56 - View article (PDF)
2001	Brownstone, A. "La Couverture blackfoot de la collection Foureau du Musee de l'Homme." Gradhiva 29: 62-76
2001	Brownstone, A. "Seven War-exploit Paintings: A Search for Their Origins." In Studies in Native American Art: A Memorial Tribute to Norman Feder, edited by C. Feest. Vienna: European Review of Native American Studies, pp. 69-85 - View article (PDF)
2001	Brownstone, A. "The Musee de l'Homme's Foureau Robe and Its Moment in the History of Blackfoot Painting." Plains Anthropologist 46(177):249-267 - View article (PDF)
2000	Brownstone, A. "A Whip is Just a Whip." Rotunda 33(1):6 - View article (PDF)
1998	Brownstone, A. "Stretch to Fit." Rotunda 31(1):48 - View article (PDF)
1998	Brownstone, A. "Slippers Fit for a Bride." Rotunda 31(1):5-8 - View article (PDF)
1998	Brownstone, A. Book Review. "Catlin’s O-Kee-Pa: Mandan Culture and Ceremonial, The George Catlin Manuscript in the British Museum by Colin F. Taylor." European Review of Native American Studies 12(1):55-56 - View article (PDF)
1997	Brownstone, A. "Fit for a Cinderella?" Rotunda 30(2):48 - View article (PDF)
1997	Brownstone, A. "Not a Decoy." Rotunda 28(4):48 - View article (PDF)
1996	Brownstone, A. "Lienzo of Tlapiltepec: A Weaving of Ancient Mexican History." Que Pasa 1(4): 15-18.
1996	Brownstone, A. "Blackfoot Beadwork: A Tradition Embroidered in Glass." Rotunda 29(1):11-21 - View article (PDF)
1995	Brownstone, A. "A Headdress Fit for a Horse?" Rotunda 28(1):41,47 - View article (PDF)
1994	Brownstone, A. "Shirt Tales." Rotunda 27(4):48 - View article (PDF)
1993	Brownstone, A. "War Paint: Blackfoot and Sarcee Painted Buffalo Robes in the Royal Ontario museum". Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum Publications.
1991	Brownstone, A. "Rare Buffalo Robe Acquired." Rotunda 24(2):5-6 - View article (PDF)
1985	Brownstone, A. "A New Perspective on the Blackfoot." Rotunda 18(2):40-45 - View article (PDF)

Galleries
Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples
Gallery of Africa, Americas and Asia-Pacific

ROM Images
Canadian First Peoples

ROM magazine
ROM's 40 Influential Research Projects

Other Links
New Stories - Africa, Americas & Asia-Pacific
ROM Friends of the Canadian Collections(FCC)
American Indian Art Magazine
Open Letter, A Canadian Journal of Writing and Theory

Podcasts

Chief Sitting Bull’s Headdress - September 13, 2008
Arni Brownstone, Associate Curator of Native American Ethnography and Culture, shares the history of Sitting Bull's Headdress. Chief Sitting Bull was a great leader, a holy man and a central character in North American history. Discover the story as the headdress, shirt and other personal artifacts Sitting Bull once wore are brought out of the ROM’s vaults and prepared for temporary display in the Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples.