Imaging Indigenous Resistance

Cannupa Hanska Luger with Rory Wakemup, Mirror Shield Project, Oceti Sakowin camp, Standing Rock, ND, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.

January 10 – February 7, 2020

Artful Protest Workshops: Friday, Jan 10th, 17th, 24th (2-5pm)

Closing Reception: Thursday, February 6, 2020 (12-2pm)

Read “Photographers of Standing Rock” by Corrian Kellogg

And “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women” by Summer Morgan

Curatorial Statement

by Scott Gleeson

Across the spectrum of American culture, basic protections provided by the First Amendment to the US Constitution are under assault. Imaging Indigenous Resistance examines 1st Amendment protections from the perspectives of activists, artists, and scholars who have participated in non-violent direct action protests at Standing Rock, Mauna Kea, and in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) campaigns. For Indigenous communities, the freedoms of speech, religion, the press, and “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances” are not honored equally. Each exhibit in the show in some way addresses the erosion of these freedoms held sacred in democratic civil society, yet which are threatened by ongoing processes of colonization and discrimination by government and corporate interests.

Curated in partnership with the EOU Office of Diversity & Inclusion, this exhibition invites members of the community, regardless of personal heritage or political affiliation, to engage in the act of creation as a show of solidarity with those resisting the insidious forces of state violence, invisibility, voicelessness, environmental racism, sexual exploitation, and the wonton ecological devastation of resource extraction. Configured as a series of interactive murals around a central workspace, Imaging Indigenous Resistance takes visitors on a tour of real and virtual spaces, from the slopes of Mauna Kea and the open plains of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, to the barren highways of British Columbia and the rhizomatic social networks of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We encourage you to take a break from your daily routine by taking a selfie in front of Valen Ahlo’s viral drone shot of Hawaiian protestors and by making your own Mirror Shield like those designed by renowned artist Cannupa Hanska Luger and used by Water Protectors at the Oceti Sakowin camp in North Dakota. At each station, you may investigate viral social media protest strategies, digging deeper into the issues about which you are most curious.

The final stop along the tour is the IIR Research Station, where we have assembled a selection of resources that provide context to each protest movement. We encourage all visitors to return to the show periodically throughout its duration to see how participant-generated content develops over time. Due to the limits of space, only a fraction of creative protest strategies are surveyed. Thus, our list of resources includes social media accounts and websites where you may follow protest groups, activists, photojournalists, artists, and policy makers.

Imaging Indigenous Resistance is supported with a Responsive Programs Grant from Oregon Humanities* and would not have been possible without the advice and contributions of Protect Mauna Kea, Matika Wilbur, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Ryan Vizzions, Monroe Gallery of Santa Fe, Valen Ahlo, Mary Louisa Cappelli, and the EOU Native American & Pacific Island Student Curatorial Advisory Board.

*Any views, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily reflect the views of Oregon Humanities.

Ku Kia’i Mauna (Protect Mauna Kea)

From the summit of Mauna Kea, the tallest peak on the Island of Hawaii, one may glimpse two divergent worldviews. For an international scientific community the mountain is the ideal vantage point from which to observe the cosmos through extremely large visible-light telescopes due to the site’s high elevation (13,290 ft) and dark, clear skies. For Native Hawaiians the mauna (mountain) is the piko (umbilical cord) connecting the people to the heavens and is revered as the sacred birthplace of Wākea, father sky. Indigenous Hawaiians have opposed the Astronomy Precinct on the mountain since its establishment in the late 1960s; however, the planned construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope in 2009 sparked renewed debate resulting in a series of protest actions beginning on October 7, 2014 at the telescope’s groundbreaking ceremony. 

Calling themselves kia’i (protectors), protestors developed artful strategies for raising awareness about the site’s cultural importance. Barricades in the form of religious ahu (altars), meticulously constructed from uhau humu pōhaku (dry stack masonry), bock the main access road to the construction site. Musical performances, daily protocols, and educational programs teach visitors about traditional Hawaiian beliefs. Branded hashtags and celebrity allies like Jason Momoa help distribute social media imagery to an international audience. One such viral image is a group selfie taken with the aid of a drone by videographer Valen Ahlo, presented in this exhibition on the opposing wall. In the image, a group of female kai’i display the mauna hand sign, a pyramidal void formed where the thumbs and index fingers meet. Distributed across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, this image signifies the spirit of kapu aloha (sacred compassion expressed through non-violent direct action) of the Protect Mauna Kea movement.

#NoDAPL

Standing Rock, North Dakota

Lakota lore foretells of a black serpent that will ravage the landscape. Many believe the Dakota Access Pipeline represents the realization of this mythic threat. Announced in 2014, this 1172-mile pipeline owned by Energy Transfer Partner, LLC carries crude from the Bakken shale oil fields in North Dakota under the Missouri River to Illinois where it joins another pipeline on its journey south to Texas. The route avoids metropolitan areas, instead passing through 380 archaeological sites deemed culturally significant to Indigenous groups and threatening the water supply of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. In response to renewed construction in 2016 grassroots groups established the Sacred Stone and Oceti Sakowin camps, blocking the construction and serving as sites for spiritual resistance. 

Social media played a vital role in disseminating the message of the Water Protectors. Posts on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook circulated under a variety of hashtags, identified in blue on the gallery’s south wall. Professional artists aided in the development of creative resistance strategies, while photojournalists documented protest actions, circulating content to online audiences. Internationally recognized artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, whose Mirror Shield Project is displayed on the gallery’s west wall, promoted his open source shield design, inviting members of the public to fabricate and send shields to protesters. Each shield offers protection against the militarized security and police forces while also allowing police to witness their own use of excessive force in the shields’ reflection.

#MMIW

Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women

In 1999, Puyallup tribal member and La Grande resident Leona Kinsey vanished from her home without a trace; she was never found. This story is the same for thousands of Indigenous families in Canada and the US whose loved ones go missing every year. An epidemic known as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (#MMIW), federal and tribal authorities are unable to stem the tragedy due to conflicting jurisdictions and a lack of interest and resources. Many causes have been cited as contributing factors, including poverty and systemic racism, however, most activists agree the crisis amounts to genocide. 

Lawmakers have been slow to respond, hampered by faulty data and bias, so grassroots activists and artists have responded with creative means of raising awareness about the issue. Métis artist Jaime Black initiated the REDress Project in 2010, exhibiting red dresses at universities and museums internationally, and since then the project has taken viral form, being restaged by activists and artists in various forms. According to Black, red is believed to be the only color the spirits can see, offering the living a means of communion with the dead. The dresses on display in this exhibition were collected by the EOU Native American Program from donations made by community members. 

Another viral initiative includes the circulation of portraits and selfies online in which Indigenous women paint red handprints over their mouths to symbolize the victims’ silence. This motif is prominently featured on the gallery’s rear wall where students and members of the public were invited to add their own handprints to the mural. Together, the handprints and dresses signify the magnitude of the crisis and the high number of victims, 5712 in 2016 in the US alone.