The Buffalo Project
I started The Buffalo Project in 2021 while I was the Artist in residence at The Institute of American Indian and Alaskan Native Arts and Culture. While in conversation with my cousin, she shared with me how one of our tribal citizens reached out to our Nation, for books from the tribal library. She informed me that this request had been refused. This conversation inspired this project.
I begin to think of how we are connected to the community when individuals in our community are displaced, removed, criminalized, and institutionalized. I began pondering what use is public art when community is removed from the public, and how we can create work that would facilitate a connection.
Within this project I began to decolonize the construct of belonging and challenge the constructs of accessible art. I decided then, to create a work of art that would exist as a symbol of reclamation, re-connection and hope. A symbol that is recognizable, one that holds familiar and beloved meaning to Native Americans throughout the plains. I began to draw a Buffalo.
The Buffalo itself has a history that is tied to the forcible removal in assimilation of Native people, particularly those of the plains. The Buffalo was targeted by the US government for annihilation. Over the course of generations in the post removal and relocation era tribal Nations have been able to restore the population of the Buffalo. In many Native communities the Buffalo has become a living symbol of returning to home, family, and community.
Drawn on an 8x6-in linoleumThe Buffalo print is hand-carved as well as hand pressed. I made a little over 300 prints that first couple of weeks, and have since created these prints periodically every year since 2021. At the time of the Inception of the Buffalo project I was able to facilitate the distribution of these prints to Native communities by reaching out through social media platforms. I was able to offer the print to nonprofit organizations, Native run wellness and care facilities, and individuals in the communities. The prints are as a gift to Native People to send to their relatives that are incarcerated, in rehabilitation care and recovery, and/or in nursing home care. This project is intended to uplift my fellow Native American People and multiple communities. To remind them that, like the Buffalo, we will return to our lands, our communities, and the strength of our Spirits cannot be taken from us.
This project allows me as an artist to physically place my work in the hands of the community. Metaphorically this work is a catalyst for mending emotional and cultural connections.
I facilitate this project through sales of other prints. But this particular Buffalo print is never for sale, it is given solely as a gift. An act of Love, and a different approach to accessible art.
