The director Ava Duvernay added her voice on Thursday to those who defend the Smithsonian Institution after the efforts of President Trump to try to reform the representation of American history.
Mrs. Duvernay, a prominent black filmmaker whose works “Selma” and “13th” have recorded, received the Great Americans medal In a ceremony in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington.
Talk about The award ceremony, Mrs. Duvernay, praised the Smithsonian for a place of education and inclusiveness. “Let me tell you about the families – black, white, native, immigrant – who run through the doors of Smithsonian Museums and feel that this country could just make room for them,” she said. “That is not indoctrination. That is part of. That is education. That is democracy.”
Her comments came after An executive order by President Trump in March That accused the Smithsonian of promoting ‘stories that display American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive’.
The orderentitled “Truth and Sanity Restioning to American History”, said that there had been a “attempt to rewrite the history of our nation, where objective facts were replaced by a distorted story driven by ideology instead of truth.”
In this, President Trump called to an end to the expenditure for exhibitions or programs that “demolish shared American values, distribute Americans by race or promote ideologies that are not consistent with federal law.”
The order was seen by some as a threat, especially for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, which was cited by President Trump.
Several hundred protesters marched to the museum On Saturday that black history and the museums that explore are protected against interference.
In A public letter Last month, four democratic members of a house oversight committee insisted on vice -president JD Vance, who is on the Smithsonian board, to impose the attempt to impose the president’s own opinion on American history. The legislators said that the effort would threaten the curatorial autonomy and excellence of the Smithsonian.
Mrs. Duvernay called Mr. Trump not in her comments, but she clearly spoke to the current of the executive order.
She said that the understanding of the Smithsonian about history “now feels particularly urgent at a time when the truth itself is revised and feels fear like an animating power, fear of mirrors, fear of memory, fear of the entire American story told in his dazzling complexity and devastating contradictions.”
“We know that what is sometimes labeled an incorrect ideology is in fact attached that what some have been distorted is just a new perspective, long buried, now revealed,” she said.
The speech attracted loud applause, including at a time when she praised Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian, who came under it criticism of the administration. “At the helm is a man of vision, of class,” she said and called him “a curator of courage.”
“Under his excellent stewardship, the Smithsonian has done what America should continue to do, confront the contradictions in our founding, relieve the fault lines in our systems,” she said.
“There is no honor in history that flatters itself,” she said, and added, “let’s remember those who try to recover a scary, division of the past that the future belongs to all of us.”
Mrs. Duvernay received the prize from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History “for her extraordinary contributions to the nation as a director, writer, producer and film distributor,” said the Smithsonian website. Previous recipients of the Award are Madeleine K. Albright, Gen. Colin L. Powell, Anthony S. Fauci and Yo-Yo Ma.
According to the De Smithsonian website: “Since its foundation in 2016, the Great Americans has honored Medal trail blazers that have had a lasting impact on their fields and whose philanthropic and humanitarian efforts have distinguished them.”
She received the prize on stage with Mr Bunch, David M. Rubenstein, Smithsonian Regent Emeritus, and director of the History Museum, Anthea M. Hartig. The Smithsonian has posted A video on her website describe her performance.
“The extraordinary impact of Duvernay by the medium of film, which used it to throw American history, brought her to the fore as someone who is an example of the highest ideals of artistry, altruism and advocacy,” Mrs. Havig said in a statement. “Her service and performance embody the true meaning of a great American.”
Mrs. Duvernay, who was often critical of President Trump, praised the Smithsonian earlier this week On MSNBCWhere she noticed that the institution got hold of her honor despite her criticism. She said she welcomed the prize at a time when the Smithsonian is under pressure.
“If you can keep the artists, if you can let us look away from history, then you have the servants, you check the moment,” she said.
In that interview, she attacked the executive order as ‘laughable’ and accused the Trump administration of obsessed by race.
“I actually take a lot of comfort in reading these executive orders because their absurdity actually calms me down,” she said.
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