We are proud to present our Summer 2022 digital art exhibition! The artists responded to a variety of issues they feel passionate about. Some practiced artistic rituals of healing and remembrance, while others wanted to document important people and objects. Still others just wanted to paint! You hold in your hands the results of countless hours of hard work but also creative play. This is just a sample of artwork HINU students created this semester. For more, please visit our Instagram, @hinuarts. Cover Image: Sidney Dick We’re Still Here (detail), Acrylic on can
Colored pencils
I took a picture of the sky and in that picture, I could see a man sitting in the clouds. I drew the man in the clouds very similar to the picture I took. The yellow stars aren't random, they're constellations. The light blue stars are shooting stars, the dark blue dots are dying stars, and the black dots are dead stars. Flip the piece and the man is on the same side, this time he's a human and sitting with his phone while a wildfire is raging in the distance.
Dylan Yupik/Athabascan Day 'N' Night
Arnariak
Burtel Navajo/Lakota Redskin Acrylic
Cloud on canvas I painted a version of Jimmie Durham’s “ Redskin” (1992) because it stood out the most after taking a deeper look into his portfolio. This is blood red material nailed to a pole. It’s bold and captivating and puts you in the position of awkwardness by its intensity.
The Crab Bucket Blocking The Yellow Brick Road Mixed Media
Monica Chesarek Crow/MHA
I have always felt I had to hide or calm my ‘rezziness’ to make those around me who do not understand my culture comfortable. As I grow on my path to adulthood I am learning it is nothing to be ashamed of but to something to grow with and from. In my collage, a n American flag bucket represents the government who ever-so-kindly provided the bucket for the crab like mindset that has been generationally installed in my people. I included the red hands to represent the different times when I was almost a part of the MMIW (my MHA reservation ha s oil and money running through it and dark human trafficking tunnels) . Growing up I was also taught that the reservation is an impossible island to escape unless you had an unforeseen way out. I lost my mother and several other family members to the lifestyle on the reservation. Although it seemed like a dream and a long time waiting I had my escape chance, my education. Haskell was my emerald city of hope. I wish that my art challenges others to find out what their emerald city is to escape and eventually dump their buckets of the crab mindset.
Sidney Dick Colville Tribe: Nezperce/Wenatchee We’re Still Here Acrylic on canvas We’re Still Here illustrates a group portrait of my elders on the right at our camp back in my hometown, sitting and smiling towards a phone camera on the left. There are five elders in the phone we don’t see outside of the screen. This represents how our elders are never gone but are still with us in spirit. The vibrant colors and the technology that is incorporated imitate the work of Frank Buffalo Hyde, who was my inspiration for this painting.
Jeshua Estes II Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Medicine Pouch Thread, needle, medicine bottle, string, and white cloth. This is a Lakota medicine pouch. I was inspired by James Luna and the way he incorporates contemporary materials like pill bottles into healing rituals , like in his 2005 performance Emendatio.
Amaya Harris Apache Tribe of Oklahoma 2022 No Choice Pen, book No Choice shows the struggles and sayings I hear as an Afroindigenous woman. Living in two different societies, where I don't know how to feel in a rightful place, always feeling like the odd sheep out. Growing up, I always felt this emotion of being left out; I never felt like I could find the right crowd to be around. It left me feeling alone and completely lost. The style of drawing is ledger art. Since the late 19th century, Indigenous people would use pages from ledger books and sketch their history. I have been drawing in this style since middle school. The drawing is on a page from the book Pan's Labyrinth, written by Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke.
Trey Jimboy Tlingit, Muskogee Creek, Seminole, Sioux Redman's Travel O's Mixed media
Growing up, I have encountered non native people who would want to talk about the history of the United States and how they 'conquered all of America' and it always ended with 'Get Over It' or a ' We Won, You Lost' mentality. History is not that simple. I want to remind people of the many treaties the U.S. broke with our ancestors; how our ancestors were forced to quit their culture or die; how they were forced to read the Bible and dress in suits ; how our objects that may have once been sacred are now sought after by non-native collectors and seem more important to them than our living cultures and peoples.
TheDESCRIPTIONfrontofthe box has a white man dressed stereotypically as an 'Indian.' He is showing his teeth to show his inner 'savagery.' The front also reveals that there is an Indian Artifact inside the box as a prize. The bottom left corner reads "Measured by Blood Quantum not Volume." The right side of the box is the Redman's Chant. This is in reference to Erica Lord's Redman video. The lyrics to the racist campfire song are written in red and blue. Under the chant is a missing poster with James Luna dressed in his regalia from Take a Picture With a Real Indian . Under Luna states "PLEASE CONTACT CHURCH OR SCHOOL IMMEDIATELY IF SEEN. THIS INDIVIDUAL IS DANGEROUS, HOSTILE, AND KNOWN FOR HIS SAVAGERY." The back of the box
I created my own cereal box to educate others about a multitude of issues related to the United States and Indigenous people. I feel that schools in the U.S . do not teach about Native American history. The box is used to show stereotypes as well as addressing broken treaties, ethnocentrism, assimilation, blood quantum, and religious conversion. What better way to address these issues than using a cereal box that adolescents, teenagers, or adults will look at while eating breakfast?
Many Americans also do not know about b lood quantum. What would they think if they knew our blood was measured the same way as dogs or horses? Technically, according to the federal government, I am only 1/4 native (enrolled Tlingit) even though I am a Full Blooded Native American.
Numerous artists have addressed these issues with their work, however, my primary inspiration has to go to Professor Eric Anderson and Professor David Titterington, without whom I would not be as informed as I am now.
show's Oscar Howe's Wounded Knee Massacre painting. In a red bubble, it states "Draw yourself by the soldiers to help kill the Indian and save the man!" Under Howe's piece is a word search. The words are bordered by the American flag. In the word search USA is circled. The left side of the box is my own recreation of the song This Land is your Land by Woody Guthrie. Inside the box is a miniature dream catcher and a red hand print. On top of the box is the Redman's Travelo's on one tab and the motto "Assimilate your Senses" o n the other.
ThisPhotographyisadigital photograph of me holding a picture of Sherry Levine and her 2005 Edward Curtis, which Levine photographed and claimed as her own. I am performing a similar kind of "artistic reenactment," reclaiming it back for my ancestors because I do not appreciate that colonizers, both Levine and Curtis, can just take anything they want and not have consequences for it.
Jazmine Johnson Cheyenne and Arapaho Reclaiming
Caili Mora Jemez Pueblo Untitled Digital photograph I visited Taos Pueblo a few months ago and fell in love with the little town that they have. Everyone was so nice! I also fell in love with this picture of an adobe house that is located in their plaza. I wanted to replicate Andy Warhol’s panting of Marilyn Monroe to show that this is also a n important image worth celebrating.
Notice my Comanche roots, see where I draw my strength, and see how I spend my free time. I am influenced by the Native Warriors and ledger artists imprisoned by Richard Henry Pratt at Fort Marion.
My ledger art is on top of my DNA test broken down into percentages. It is not a piece of paper or the color of skin that defines a person. It’s the small details, the things that take time to learn, that make up a person. So, this is me, unapologetically.
Amber Quis Quis Comanche Nation/ Kiowa Me, Unapologetically Colored pencil, pens, paper
Bryan Strom Nation
Quinault/Yakama
Two Survived Sisters Digital photograph Here is an image of my great grandmother (on the right) and her sister at boarding school. I was inspired by Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie’s series "Portraits Against Amnesia" to add digital shapes to this picture and transform it from an old image to a living, contemporary one.
