“Colorful and contemporary in painting process, yet historical and done in good faith, the Effigy pots will confront non-Indigenous viewers to evaluate their place on the land they are on and to hold dialogue and thought in a new way to understand the past, an Indigenous past.” -Yatika Starr Fields
My initial Settlement plan for 2020 would have been site specific pertaining to Plymouth U.K. and various locations in the city upon streets and walls. I had planned to create a work of art each day, mini murals that would give me agency to extend my voice, taking space back in a foreign place- not ours but guided by divine intervention to reclaim land that's not mine. Stake claim to a new world and laying out new visual laws to the inhabitants to that land. Using my knowledge in the creation of murals and paint I would like to use this as the platform and medium to create the site-specific works within the new digital format. The new site-specific works will be created in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Oklahoma City and Kansas City for the first three parts to my digital participation. These areas are significant to stories and sites of indigenous lands, past and importance. The murals will be no bigger than 15ft x 15ft and will take a day to complete with the emphasis of imagery being a variety of Effigy pots of the Mississippian period in region and Pre-Columbian pottery.
Colorful and contemporary in painting process, yet historical and done in good faith, the Effigy pots will confront non-Indigenous viewers to evaluate their place on the land they are on and to hold dialogue and thought in a new way to understand the past, an Indigenous past. Arkansas was home to many Indigenous groups, Caddo, Quapaw and Mississippians in this period 900AD-1450AD. Much pottery was being made in many regions in this time. Many of these pots now set in museums and collections across the world- yet none are on a wall ready to confront and hold valuable goods- collective efforts and again be unearthed by new eyes.
I feel this image and process of story will be a useful tool to convey means of conversation of European/ colonial presence in America. These place makers are murals, by painting them in locations of indigenous erasure, I am bringing them back and reclaiming space that was once ours and still is. The new settlement project scope has shifted for me but like all things in time, settlements move and recreate new modes to live and survive. Indigenous people have survived the worse of atrocities inspired by man with European expansion and colonial conquest. We are here now to shift the old and create new narratives of Indigenous existence through art, conversation and land back initiatives. Thank you to the Settlement Project and team for having my work be a part of such a monumental opportunity to expand Indigenous resistance against Colonial oppressions through art, conversations and collective consciousness towards new narrative.
Effigy Pot 1. Feyetteville, Arkansas- August 27th 2020
Photos by Hayley Nichols, 2020
Effigy pot 2, Lawrence Kansas, November 10th, 2020
Cat Serpent Bowl, Mississippian period. From Mississippi County Arkansas
Thank you to Larry & Gwen Billings of the Antique shop in Lawrence for their support and space to create this work. This Effigy Pot edition wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Indigenous Artist Mona Cliff https://www.monacliff.com/ who graciously sought support to have this painted in a town with rich ties to Indigenous culture and history. Haskell, Founded in 1884 as a residential boarding school for American Indian children, it now caters to many Native students from all over as it is a part of the town’s diversity. The Wichita’s were the true Indigenous nations of this region and following, the Osage’s, Pawnee, Quapaw and Kansa.
Many hands and help were a part of this, the night was fun, in good spirits and celebration.
Effigy Pot 2, Tahlequah, Oklahoma- November 24th 2020
Traditional lands of the Caddo, now the capitol of the Cherokee Nation- before the Cherokee, it was the Osage traditional domain.
This Effigy Pot is a special one, they all are butthe location was close to my heart and upbringing. When I was a child I lived in Tahlequah, a few blocks up the road on Downing St from where I painted this. My early memories of this town and county side have had deep meaning and inspirations for me. It was almost like a full circle in a creative homecoming painting this there- it was meant. Wado to Candessa Tehee (Cherokee) https://bit.ly/3qlRGvx for making this possible.
