Memorial Wall 2021, A memorial wall was something I thought about but wasn’t sure about how I would go about it. I wanted to do something that incorporated all clans so that even if someone didn’t have a clan, it could still represent what family they come from. After reading a piece about another artist doing something for his community, he had put up teepees with different color lights at night, to represent those lost due to covid. This shaped an idea for me, but I couldn’t go out and build up some different color chickee’s, for there would be a lot of red tape or hoops for me to jump through to get that accomplished. It was something I wanted to do and get done without having to go through anything formal, something sincere I could offer my community that didn’t need “approval”, didn’t seek praise, or something anybody could attach their name too in any way. Just something this artist could offer his community. Something I thought would be cool, seeing that we come from a colorful culture and community, something to brighten and bring these dull, brown walls to life. This is the idea I came up with after finding other inspirations and the next thing was to include a message of some kind, something I could do in 9 words. A word for every clan, not something just thrown together. I also didn’t want to make the memorial wall just related to covid but to include but not limited to things such as accidents, sicknesses such as cancers or whatever else, overdosing, suicide or anything else that can be attributed to losses. This is where the message “For all those we lost and those still fighting” comes from. It took me a few days to come up with and I didn’t want to settle on the first thing I thought up, as I didn’t take this lightly. This I felt encompassed what I wanted.
After settling on a message, the image was used as it symbolizes our camps, our first homes, our history, a part of our culture. The chickee was much easier to find but how would I color it, fire colors with a black background of course lol. It’s just a lot of black paint to use but I did it. This piece took me about a day, from around 10 or 11 in the morning to about 7 or 8 in the evening. At least me and the few people who saw it before it was taken down 2 or 3 days later got to enjoy it. I still don’t agree with it having been taken down as it wasn’t anything vulgar or profane and it showed solidarity. It showed that we weren’t alone and had others, a community who supported us in some way. We’ve all felt a loss in one way or another and for me this gave me an outlet. Outlets, not acting out, can do a lot for a person, this is an outlet for me. This is probably why I don’t agree with the “approval” process or with the removal of my art, seeing it was something supportive and is welcomed in other places.
I guess the “powers that be” wanted a “clean, plain, gated community look” and was afraid others would start to paint elsewhere like on people’s houses or what not (this is another story). That can be labeled “speculation” though, because I don’t know why they took it down and it was never addressed to me directly, either by mail, phone call or in-person. I can tell this though, a few days later the police were sent to my parent’s house to give me a message saying “The family didn’t want me using their family’s image” or something along those lines. When my parents asked what family, the police just stood there with a dumbfounded look on their faces. Again, my parents asked, “What family? He can’t ask if he don’t know who to ask!..”. Still with a dumbfounded look, they didn’t answer and turned away to leave. This is what I was told happened afterwards when my parents called me to let me know immediately after.
