My intentions with this piece is to acknowledge Indigenous people through four Indigenous figures that I feel represent the ideas, actions, and morals of Decolonization and a thriving Indigenous future. The woman in the middle is there to represent the active youth, I based her design upon Calina Lawrence, a Suquamish activist and musician that sings in Lushootseed, and Indigenous actor and climate/land activist Ta’Kaiya Skoden Stoodis Blaney. Both represent the current living and loud movement towards decolonization as they bang on the drums of revolution. The man on the right is based upon Chief Spotted Elk who was a Lakota chief who died tragically at Wounded Knee; where an infamous picture of his body was spread around as a Settler souvenir. This story is obviously disgusting however recently Indigenous artists have retaken this image and given it a new context; which was something I learned about at Chadwick Allen’s Katz Lecture. I wanted to be a part of this movement and help rewrite Colonizer narratives and stereotypes. I included Spotted Elk to represent Indigenous hardship and resilience as more than a decade later there are still calls to rewrite the narrative. At the top I put my interpretation of Frenchie; a character from Cherie Dimaline’s “The Marrow Thieves”. Frenchie and “The Marrow Thieves” represent a hugely important emphasis on storytelling in Indigenous communities as well as the power of stories in general. He represents the necessity for loving families and the importance of being a good ancestor; two things that are key in the battle for Decolonization. Finally on the left is an Inuit woman; who I choose to represent a thriving Indigenous community and a thriving Indigenous future. Inuit’s live in close communities; mostly isolated from colonizers and they still practice their traditions today. Inuit people have been found to defy our Eurocentric notions of science as they live mostly off high in fat food and rarely see vegetables or fruit however they’re exceptionally healthy compared to the average person living in a large city. Originally I wanted to include them due to the concerns about their Native sign language going extinct however once I had done the research I found a thriving people who are actively relearning the language. The Lushootseed word for four is buus; these four characters I feel represent the core ideas of Decolonization and the reconstruction of Indigenous communities. The background is a contour of a mountain known to the Sioux as Six Grandfathers; however, we know it as Mt.Rushmore. I chose to include it how it looked before Settlers decided to deface it with literal faces. I also chose a brownish black set of stars and stripes to share a similarity with the USA's flag. Lastly, the text in the bottom left is Lushootseed for “Family” and “Land”. Two words that I feel are more important than ever.
An anonymous student contribution to the blog.