Salmon Pins at the Washington State History Museum Gift Shop

Delicately made small salmon pins, created with glazed micaceous ceramic are now available at the Washington State History Museum gift shop. Visit the site to learn more!

Here are some photos of the process I used in making them:

Bisque fired

 Glaze applied in layers

 Fish pin with shell imprint

Linocut water design for pin backing board

Some finished pins

Dakota in the Pacific Northwest

65" x 52" x 52"
Cotton, ribbon, jingles, buttons, clay, wire, found object

2017

 I’m a Dakota in the Pacific Northwest, living in the diaspora that was created as a result of the Dakota War of 1862, when our people were exiled from our homeland of Minnesota. The Indian Relocation Act further dispersed Dakota people, from reservations around the Midwest and in Canada to cities around the country. Suspended from a cascade of rain jingles and fluffy clouds, Anpa O Wicanh'pi, the morning star form embodies the beauty and resilience of our people, even when far from home.

"Dakota in the Pacific Northwest" is showing at the Washington State History Museum's "In the Spirit: Contemporary Native Arts Exhibition" this summer. It won the Honoring Innovation award, receiving a tie with "Micro Spill" by Ryan Feddersen (Colville)!

You Are On Native Land

Leaf pot

micaceous clay, 2016

This little coil-built pot decorated with leaves is pictured here before firing.

Serpent's Tracks

Serpent's Tracks

Acrylic with linocut on canvas, micaceous clay tiles, sewn with sinew

2016

9" x 12"

The Dakota Access Pipeline, like all pipelines, has been called the black snake by our tribal people. I depicted two here, pressed into earthen tiles, crossing spaces which signify great distances. Each space is designated a home with a tipi. People's addiction to oil is represented by tire tracks indented into clay and printed in black on the background of the painting. 

Created for the "Protect the Sacred: Native Artists for Standing Rock" show at Spaceworks Gallery in Tacoma.

Protect the Sacred: Native Artists for Standing Rock

Pit Mine Peril, 2016

My son, Samuel and I have created new pieces that are showing in "Protect the Sacred: Native Artists for Standing Rock," at Space Works Gallery in Tacoma this month. Sam is 15,  and this year he won the Congressional Art Award for our district. He wanted to create a piece about the pipeline and I'm excited that his work is in this show.

Curated by Asia Tail (Cherokee), the show features some of my favorite artists. See the press release below for the full listing. The works are for sale, and Sam and I will donate proceeds to the Standing Rock tribe for their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The opening reception took place on Thursday, January 19th, and the show will remain up until February 16th.

The event has been reviewed in the Tacoma News Tribune, which noticed one of my works: "Erin Genia (Sisseton-Wahpeton) translates the oil threat into reality using thick black vinyl lino-printed with flowing teal 'water.'" In Indian Country Today, my piece, "Mobile Spill Response, pictured below, was featured in a February 10th article in Indian Country Today. It states, "Erin Genia’s (Sisseton-Wahpeton) 'Mobile Spill Response,' uses clay, vinyl and found art as a mobile above a child’s crib. Showing the dangers of oil spills, it plays on the usage of the word 'mobile' and the Exxon-Mobil company."

"Mni Wiconi: Water is Life, Oil is Death" and "Mobile Spill Response", 2016

The show received a rave review in Susan Noyes Platt's blog Art and Politics Now. Of my work and Sam's piece, "No DAPL," it states "Erin Genia creates highly original ceramic sculptures with hard core messages like  Facing/Not Facing: Toxic Devastation From Oil, just above) or Mobile Spill Response (top images) and finally, not illustrated, (Mni Wiconi: Water is Life Oil is Death.) Next to Genia is the work of Samuel Genia, her fifteen year old son with a bold graphic statement." This is Sam's first published review of his work, which you can see below. In addition, his piece sold and the proceeds will go to the ongoing legal battle of the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes.

Sam Genia (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) "NoDAPL"

It's a beautiful show, with Native artists in our region creating work in solidarity with the water protectors who are defending the ecosystem surrounding the Missouri River against exploitation by the oil industry, and Native artists who have donated their existing work to the cause.

 *The new president's memorandum, signed on January 24th, signals his readiness to move forward with the Dakota Access Pipeline, bringing the struggle at Standing Rock to a critical level. The Army Corps of Engineers abruptly ended the Environmental Impact Statement process, and the owners of the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners will continue to drill under the Missouri River to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline. This development makes it even more important for this show to be seen, and efforts against the pipeline to be supported.*

Here is the press release:

Protect the Sacred: Native Artists for Standing Rock An Exhibition of Contemporary Indigenous Art in Tacoma

Tacoma, WA – Spaceworks Gallery is pleased to present the group exhibition, Protect the Sacred: Native Artists for Standing Rock, featuring over 25 Indigenous artists from across the Pacific Northwest. Protect the Sacred runs December 31st to February 16th, with an opening reception on Third Thursday, January 19th, 6pm-9pm. The gallery is located at 950 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma, WA 98402, and an entrance off 11th Street. This exhibition is curated by Tacoma-based artist Asia Tail (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), and proceeds will support the fight against DAPL construction in North Dakota. 

Describing the exhibition, Tail states, “Protect the Sacred gives voice to the diverse Urban Indian community of this region. As Native artists, we reject externally constructed expectations for people of color, who are often confined by the recognition of their ethnicity in the mainstream art world. This exhibition empowers Indigenous artists to represent themselves, whether in traditional or contemporary contexts. Through our work, we hope to showcase the complexity of our cultures and identities, and broaden perceptions of Native American art”.

Although the water protectors achieved an incredible victory with the permit denial, the fight is not over. So close to the inauguration, it is more urgent than ever to protect Native land, rights, and sovereignty for future generations. 

For additional information, contact Asia Tail, 253-230-3980, asiamarietail@gmail.com or visit www.asiatail.com/news.

Artists: Natasha Alphonse Christine Babic Natalie M. Ball Peter Boome Bradley Castillo Anthony Duenas Alano Edzerza Ka’ila Farrell-Smith Ryan Feddersen Yatika Starr Fields Lisa Fruichantie Erin Genia Samuel Genia Raven Juarez Linley Logan Geri Montano Nahaan Marvin Oliver Shaun Peterson Cheyenne Randall Sara Siestreem Fox Anthony Spears Jeffrey Veregge Haley Waddington Melissa Woodrow and more…

####

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article126894564.html#storylink=cpy

Bowls with Legs

An assortment of bowls with legs made with glazed clay. They have recently been exhibited at the gallery at Kenneth Minnaert Center for the Arts.

Bowls with legs in process:

Six-legged beauty, made during my artist demonstration at the SPSCC Mini-Clay fest in June:

Water Protector Vessel #NoDAPL

Water Protector Vessel
Coil built glazed micaceous clay

2016

Mni wiconi, water is life.

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe -- backed by every other tribe within the Oceti Sakowin/ Great Sioux Nation, along with people from tribes all over the globe and non-Indigenous allies worldwide -- is fighting to protect the Missouri River basin, tribal lands and sacred sites from invasion by the Dakota Access Pipeline. The people who are standing up for water and the living earth at Sacred Stone Camp are protectors. To protect and defend is a sacred duty. Protestor has become a loaded term, used by media outlets and politicians to demonize and dismiss the efforts of those labeled as such, especially if applied to people of color.

Our water protectors will not be dismissed. The #NoDAPL struggle comes at a crucial time in our collective present: energy extraction industries, empowered by government institutions are destroying our environment to the detriment of our survival as a species, and the entire web of life. It is a battle the people are fighting with non-violent means and spiritual power against the destructive and corrupt forces waging a war on the earth.

Violence as a tactic against our people will not work in this long term struggle. For too long, Indigenous peoples have endured the brunt of environmental racism. Might does not make right, despite the show of power American forces (military, police, agencies and corporations) have used to impose their will and subdue people they deem lesser, or a threat to their profits.

This struggle is bringing forth the necessary voices of Indigenous peoples, which America and other colonizing powers have tried to silence for hundreds of years. Without our voices the world is out of balance. Our indigenous peoples and cultures are essential to this human family and this world. We demand the respect we deserve beginning with free, prior and informed consent.

This vessel pays tribute to the water protectors past, present and future.

Wakinyan Speaks

Wakinyan Speaks

Micaceous clay, glaze, brass, wood, acrylic

36" x 36" x 5"

2016

With a red earth palette, clay is used to render a convergence of epic storms. Air currents, clouds and whirlwinds collide to depict atmospheric turbulence, connecting increased climactic disturbances to human activity - portrayed by a tiny human face caught in the fray. Streaks of clear glaze bring a deluge of rainfall. A shining brass lightning bolt captures the moment the Wakinyan, or Thunderbeings, speak a warning of imminent chaos and large scale earth crises.

Work in progress: forming the clay wind swirls, preparing to air dry before firing:

One of the bisque-fired swirls, you can see the sparkling mica flecks in the clay body:

Monstrosity

Monstrosity 

Mixed media: gourd, glazed ceramic, brass, acrylic, wood, vinyl

12” x 9” x 8”
2016

From an indigenous person’s perspective, American culture can be depicted as a monstrosity, guilefully devouring other peoples and cultures in order to claim them. 

This piece was made for a show, #HandsOffMyHeritage appearing at the Duhesa Gallery at Colorado State University from July - December 2016, in which ten indigenous artists explore concepts surrounding appropriation of Native American culture. I wrote an artist statement explaining my thoughts on this issue for the show.

Three Reasons Explaining Why Cultural Appropriation Is Wrong

I’ve often encountered people within the dominant society who do not understand why cultural appropriation is wrong. Many people think that wrongdoings against Native peoples are all in the past. Cultural appropriation is a contemporary wrongdoing and it matters because it represents a continuation of an approach to indigenous people that involves theft. It also relies on an unequal balance of power, and it’s harmful those who are in the process of recovering from cultural genocide.

At its core, cultural appropriation constitutes the taking of aspects of Indigenous peoples’ cultures for monetary or personal gain, and it is no less than a continuation of the colonial dispossession of Indigenous peoples. Historically, American settlers took every unjust advantage to gain the land and natural resources belonging to Native people, through corrupt treaty-making, murder and policies based on dehumanization of Native people. It’s a fact that the USA, as it exists today, is a result of thievery. American culture, as practiced and propagated by settler descendants is based upon this theft and is propped up by the flawed notion that American settlers have a divine right to that which belongs to Native people. This notion, which overrides ethics, did not disappear with time, it has in fact become entrenched, as evidenced by the epidemic of cultural appropriation in today’s consumer markets and beyond.

Sometimes, people will defend cultural appropriation by stating that it’s simply cultural sharing. However, this comparison is problematic due to the fact that sharing implies that the parties are on equal footing, or that there is an equal distribution of goodwill of both sides. The power dynamic between indigenous people and settlers is exemplified by inequality – Indigenous peoples are in a state of occupation, and there can be no equal sharing of cultures. Furthermore, Native peoples were forced to join American culture through cruel assimilation policies. With true cultural sharing, one people would not be subjugated by another.

After centuries of calculated genocide and assimilation, Native cultures have been pushed to the brink of disappearance. It’s been less than 40 years since the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act which allowed Native Americans to legally practice their sacred traditions within the United States. For many Native people, we have to work very hard to access important aspects of our culture, to preserve and strengthen them, and sometimes we are unable to access them at all. It adds insult to injury to see aspects of our cultures cheapened and taken out of context by people working within the infrastructure of the dominant society who seek to selfishly gain by taking what is ours.

Despite today’s capitalist society, in which cultural appropriation runs rampant, I am constantly struck by its normalization, and the insensitivity towards Native people which reveals widespread ignorance of Native people’s issues. I’m proud of those who stand against the practice with an enlightened critique.

Also appearing in the show is this acrylic painting:

Dilution: resiliency

Acrylic

24” x 36”

Cultural assimilation of indigenous peoples is carried out through many different mechanisms, including cultural appropriation. Here, Dakota morningstar patterns interact in layers on canvas, representing the beauty and complexity of our culture and people. Each layer has been tinted with white, which, like assimilation, obscures them. On the top layer, the star is empty of color, yet beauty remains.

Here is a poster for the exhibit: