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Video Introduction
Poem
Artist Statement
Artist Statements
It is common among Indigenous Peoples to grow up on the ancestral lands of another tribe. I grew up on the Coast Miwok and the Pomo lands in the North Bay but my ancestors on my mother’s side were from New Mexico. Throughout my life, my mom did her best to provide some Indigenous Community to connect with while living in the North Bay, this often meant attending local Indigenous celebrations and listening to the wisdom of California Indigenous elders. My mother often felt saddened by her inability to share Diné traditional wisdom with me, she attended boarding school and in order to succeed she had to assimilate. As I got older I found a deeper connection to my Indigeneity through the wisdom, magic, and medicinal power of plants. I spent time learning about the relationship Indigenous Peoples from all over the Americas have with their local plant relatives and how they use them for healing, in prayer, for journeying, to nourish their communities, and in art. This mural is meant to honor the California Indigenous Peoples that have been so supportive and gracious to me, my Diné heritage and to those that helped me to connect with the traditional ways lost to much of my family during my grandmother’s generation, and the plants that so generously give us healing and magic. This mural is also meant to recognize how plants continually offer Indigenous Peoples throughout the Americas pathways to our ancestors and tools to heal our communities and planet. This mural is also meant to encourage Indigenous Peoples to learn about their own tribe’s plant knowledge and grow your own medicine. I am forever grateful for and could not have painted this mural without the help of Theo Knox, Redbird Willie, Andrew Samuels, Alexis Fineman, Dana Hawke, and my son Avi.
Incorporated throughout the image is symbolism: the strawberries represent the work I have been fortunate to do with Theresa Harlan for the Alliance for Felix Cove working to reIndigenizing Pt Reyes National Seashore, the earring on the rabbit honors my friend Edward Rebird Willie and all of the knowledge he has shared with over the years, the rabbit is dedicated to my friend Kim Shuck and the times I spent at her kitchen table talking about tricksters, the stripes on the coyote woman’s dress are the four sacred colors of the four sacred Diné mountains, the corn honors the many tribes that all share corn in their creation stories, the background represents the everyday chaos of the world around us, the popcorn popping off the wall is from the memories of watching popcorn popping off ceremonial Mayan fires, the small cross shapes scattered throughout the middle of the mural are stars representing balance, the four directions, the four elements and magic and the figure in the middle is a spirit being based off of many different figures I have seen in my studies, they represent a holy being and portal between realms.
