What We Do To The Mountain We Do To Ourselves

While reading about Native Feminist Theories, I was reminded by artwork I pass by almost every day. Something about the words brings me so many memories to my experience in the Amazon of Ecuador working alongside the Achuar, a native group (a future post series). I dream of being able to help Elle understand the importance of honoring the land that we live on, as it is NOT ours. It is that of the First People, the Native Americans that once occupied this space before they were colonized. They have a name, a tribe, customs, and beliefs we should know and understand as we occupy their space.

I must also remind her that those first people living in the Amazon are also affected by our everyday decisions. The Amazon is the lungs of our globe and its interconnectedness is more vast than we may ever know. How we treat our land, air, and water affects everything we have to live and breathe.

I googled the words and found the meaning behind it. See below:

Artist: Chip Thomas

Artist Statement: In Flagstaff, Arizona, there is an effort on the part of the Navajo and Hopi tribes to not use reclaimed waste water on a local ski resort, the Snowbowl. The thirteen surrounding tribes hold the San Francisco Peaks as a sacred mountain and land. The tribes believe that deities within their respective cosmologies reside there. To use reclaimed wastewater is considered a desecration in a place where Indigenous people go regularly to pray, collect herbs and to be in the presence of the holy ones.

Artist Bio: A black doctor in his 50s working on the Navajo reservation, now, naturally, a street artist. Soon after Chip Thomas started practicing medicine on the Navajo reservation, the North Carolina native built his first darkroom and began to document reservation life with his camera. But in 2009, his art became not just of the community, but for it as well. He began wheatpasting enlarged images of his photos on abandoned roadside stands, water towers, and sheds under the moniker Jetsonorama, turning ramshackle walls into arresting black-and-white installations. Three years later, he launched the Painted Desert Project, and began inviting other street artists to spend a few weeks at the reservation and then create installations based on their experience. They are all, essentially, offering the Navajo a reflection of themselves, as seen through an artistic lens. In his own words, Thomas, who has become an internationally acclaimed artist with installations around the globe, describes his work in the context of his community.

Reference: http://www.galeriadelaraza.org/eng/events/index.php?op=view&id=6489