North America Native Museum, Ethnographic museum in Riesbach district, Zürich, Switzerland
The Nordamerika Native Museum (NONAM) occupies a building on Seefeldstrasse 317 by Tiefenbrunnen station in Zürich. Its permanent exhibition "Von fremden Federn und anderen Geschichten", revised in 2021, leads visitors through the Plains and Prairies, the Northeast Woodlands and Subarctic, the Arctic, the Northwest Coast and the deserts of the southwestern USA. A Bodmer Gallery shows hand-coloured engravings by Karl Bodmer from the 1832–1834 Wied expedition, rotated for conservation reasons.
The museum began as a private collection by Gottfried Hotz that the city of Zürich purchased in 1961 and first opened in the Aussersihl district. The collection was relocated to its current location in Riesbach to serve a wider public audience.
The collection is arranged by geographical and cultural regions of North America, helping visitors understand how indigenous communities developed distinct traditions. Each section represents the artistic and material practices of specific groups across the continent.
The museum occupies the upper floor of the Tiefenbrunnen railway station building at Seefeldstrasse 317, with a timber pavilion added above the entrance in winter 2008/2009. The permanent collection is on the second floor, arranged by culture area from the Plains to the Arctic. The pavilion, awarded the Prix Lignum in 2009, hosts workshops and cultural programmes.
The venue features a UNESCO-recognized soundscape installation where visitors experience Inuit, Kwakwaka'wakw, Hopi, and Diné cultures through audio presentations. This immersive experience allows people to encounter the spoken and musical traditions of these peoples in a direct way.
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