KYLE WHITE

Oscar Kyle White, 18, University of New Mexico majoring in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. Resides in Crownpoint, New Mexico, currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. An indigenous public health activist and an ambassador for the Navajo Community Health Outreach (NCHO) and Native youth in Food and Agriculture summer summit at the University of Arkansas School of Law. He studies biology to fight for Native food sovereignty. He identifies as Gay, and always had a strong passion for art. The complexities of textures, colors and rhythms of mixed media represent the struggle of past and present life elements.

In my piece Nizhóní, I shifted my work towards modern day Indigenous lack of cultural recognition. I personally struggle with this issue, especially when a Diné college student is far away from the protective four sacred mountains. The turquoise cloth that encompasses the face of a blinded Navajo child demonstrates how Navajo people reject their own cultural identity, but only embrace it when it is their time to do so. The white and turquoise pattern flowing on the skin of the Navajo child shows a sign for “hope”, zigzagging for a change, thus contrasting with the stillness of the cloth.