November is Native American Heritage Month

KU Staff Senate D&I Committee

 

“I’ve done these installations all over the world. I feel very strongly that whenever you step out the door with art, it’s a dialogue. You have to allow people to respond to your work. If they graffiti it, well, that’s part of their response.”

― Hock E Aye Edgar Heap of Birds, on the vandalism of Native Hosts in New York in 1988

We began the semester learning that panels of the “Native Hosts” exhibition in front of the Spencer Museum of Art had been vandalized and later stolen. The series of panels created by KU alum Hock E Aye Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho) uses language to call viewers’ attention to the Native nations whose land they occupy. Heap of Birds created the piece hoping to highlight the roles of hosts and visitors and to envision generosity in contrast to the history of violence against Indigenous peoples. “Native Hosts” invites reflection on our relationships to one another and the past.

In that spirit, we invite you to use November – Native American Heritage Month – to explore and support the diverse cultures, histories, and contributions of Native peoples.

"Territory map of Indigenous Nations"

“Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”

― Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass