Brave Heart Fellowship
Champions for Change
CA Native Youth Collective
Remembering Our Sisters
Building Communities of Hope
Creative Native
Democracy is Indigenous
Yá’á’tééh Norwegian nishłí, Bit’ahnii bashishchiin, Croatian dashicheii, Tó’aheedlinii dashinali.
I am a Diné artist with a focus on printmaking, jewelry making, painting and mixed media art. Originally from Pine Springs, AZ, now settled in Michigan, I spend my free time creating various art projects inspired by my Diné identity and the perspective it gives me. In this way, I am able to use the world around me and my culture to create pieces that make people think and acknowledge Indigenous cultures as modern people – and not “a thing of the past”.
Submission 1: This piece to me represents all symbols of home. As a Navajo who lives off the reservation and away from my culture and tradition, I made this print pattern inspired by repeated bandana patterns. Serving as a reminder of my homelands in the four sacred mountains, corn, and continued use of corn pollen and hogan to physically represent home and my community. As well as being my way to remember where I come from and the resilient Diné people who survived so much for me to be in existence today.
Submission 2: This piece is acrylic painted on to a black jean jacket. It represents my homelands of dinétah, the Navajo homelands. As seen with the southwest landscape, hogan, Navajo basket and with the corn. The hands represent the way that I am connected to this community and it is connected to me. The words “Land Back” bring awareness and a reminder of the place and people whom I come from. Because community, for me, means there are people who claim me. As long as I have that, and connection to the land, then I AM DINÉ.