Midsummer wandering

As the rainy season cloaks us in the cavern of rhythmic cycles of downpours and sunshowers... we wait cautiously to see what the east winds bring our way and do our best to prepare ourselves for the disciplined routines that must come with the close of the summer break and the opening of the new school year.

As usual the summer flew by in the blink of an eye, filled with memories of joy and sorrow, fear and bravery, optimism and despair... it was like a microcosm of many lives lived in fullness, watching the sun rise and fall across lands familiar and yet unrecognizable.

We listened to each other and to the sounds of the earth conversing with us through her various chorus of voices, of which we are but a fleeting melody. Remembering our past, we set a course of goals for our future, together. As individuals seeking the pursuit of our greatest possible development while simultaneously working to find a way to ensure that all beings are afforded equitable access to this opportunity. Life is not easy but it is in the struggle for balance that we find equilibrium.

Here are a few highlights of summer activities:

Mesoamerican Danza performance and workshop at Broward Schools Equity Conference

Education panel with Seminole Art from the Frontlines Artists at Florida Alliance of Art Educators


Native American Bowling Tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada live broadcast by Gordon Wareham Opening Ceremonies livestream

Mesoamerican Danza performance workshop at Miramar Cultural Center photography by Adrienne Chadwick and Reina Christian.

Pat Bellanger Memorial at Rural Coalition Retreat in Onigum, Minnesota

Reconnecting with family (Reina and Evy, EBB and WM, Julia, Louis, Amy and Katy, prairie, wetlands, woodlands, sage, sweetgrass and that word for bergamot that I can't remember)

In the weeks and months to come, our lives will become overflowing with tasks and obligations, timelines and due dates, homework and classwork and assignments of all kinds... but for now, we are thankful for a few moments of calm, still reflection on the life we've lived and the path we are trodding... we will do our best to keep moving toward that goal of healing while being healed, of figuring it out while helping others figure it out, of learning while doing... we are because we are.

Let's rise, together!!

99 red poppies

On this 99th anniversary of the birth of my paternal grandmother, and in the absence of a digital record of her life, I will write her a memorial obituary, now that the fog of losing her have lifted a little, after fifteen years.

Annie Yvonne Iona Chadwick nee Hutchings
Born 1920 Quebec City
Died 2004 Scarborough


My grandmother was my best friend, mentor, confidante, supporter and provider of a special and unique type of unconditional love.  She was tough yet fragile, brilliant yet humble. She had a million stories yet she always prefered to draw out the stories of others rather than share her own. She was adamant that she did not want people looking at pictures of her after her death...   But her rockery was her landscape engineering pride and joy, so here is one of her checking in on the woman enjoying a moment on the slate slabs that appear to have been recently constructed... my best guess is that is likely Mrs. Hunter, from two doors down. Perhaps my dad will remember....

It is my grandmother who taught me to make time for walking, enjoying the wind and learning about the plants that surround us. She lit fires on the days that were darker, wetter or colder than the others. She took me to see ballets and operettas and she loved hearing classical music playing on her kitchen radio... the only form of media she consumed on a daily basis. My grandmother was so very careful about what she allowed into her body, and into her home. Once, she scolded me for bringing in items that were over packaged that resulted in doubling her weekly garbage output, which was one small plastic bag full. Everything else was either avoided at the source, or composted in the backyard bin. A lifelong member donor to Pollution Probe, my grandmother was equally careful about what we put back out into the environment from inside our home. Fires in the fire place were carefully monitored to ensure that plant based products only found their way up the chimney stack....

I hope as I continue my journey through adulthood, I can aquire some of the traits she had.... the balance between careful and carefree attitude, the service to community and an unwavering commitment to support life through her relationship with the earth and her community.

I love you... and miss you... and as your second great grandson reminds me... I know you are also always with us.... thank you for your service and love.

Looking Back, From the Frontlines at Art Basel and Beyond

Yesterday, I learned from Netflix that the sound of the conch shell to call warriors to battle is not only practiced within the legacy of the cultural heritage of Mesoamerica... but around the world. How amazing to see that what I saw as something unique to my regional and cultural identity also belongs to many regions and cultures.

Such is the stuff of the fluid dynamics between culture, art, heritage, appropriation, colonization, reclamation and ecological crossroads at which we find ourselves at this moment, in this time. Do we know exactly where we are headed? Have we been at this juncture before? What vision of the future will come to pass?

These are the types of prompts particularly suited to responses from within the realm of art. And in fact, there was ample evidence in this year's Art Basel Miami and satellite events that the global contemporary art world is indeed rising to the occasion of responding to some of the most difficult paradoxes of our time.

Make no mistake, in global art, the goal is to make money. But the paradox is that in order to make money, you must have marketable art. And art, if it is "good" is a tangible representation of an intangible feeling, message or vision.... a synthesis of ideas from within and without that presents a new or different or striking or memorable experience relative to the larger social context within which each of us dwells.

This year's Art Basel Miami included three galleries that featured four artists of Native American descent, including the renowned Jack Shainman with work by Kahlhamer, and Roberts Projects with Conversations panelist Jeffrey Gibson. According to last year's Conversations panel, the total number of Native artists represented in Art Basel Miami in 2017 was zero. And yet there were dream catchers, and tipis and even an Andy Warhol painting of Geronimo who of course was imprisoned here in Florida as is Leonard Peltier today. Who has the right to produce, buy and sell ideas, traditions, history? These are not easy questions and elicit fiery responses, but the considerations in formulating an answer must be vast, deep and steeped in the true facts of history which all to often are obscured by centuries of "social influence."

One of those facts is, we are in a battle. Each of us, conscious or not, consenting or not, is participating in a battle against oblivion. The ways of life that we have been following over the past 250 years are quickly changing. The industrial revolution is waning. It is time to pick up the mantle of critical analysis once again to chart a course and a goal for the future. We can not accomplish this great task without knowing, for certainty from whence we came. So let us rise together to carve out equitable spaces to share our stories, create protocols for respectful collaborations, and weave mechanisms for acknowledging and overcoming adversity and discord. We will learn from our past and together, if we are determined, we can create a future world in which many fit.

Here on a local level, I am doing what I can to help create this reality of equity, respect and mutual accountability, knowing that my work pushes boundaries, buttons and comfort zones... not moving far and fast enough for some and going way over the limit for others... this is the work of bridge building. It is an infinite test of patience, requires extensive amounts of listening, takes a whole lot of diplomacy and self discipline, and is only possible if one truly cares. I am hopeful though... with pioneering intiatives like Kitty Oliver's "Race and Change," and emerging new work like the #SistrunkAfair launched this week by Emmanuel George, and collaborative approaches to problem solving like what we experienced at this week's Porgy and Bess Gala, a path forward has been cleared and all that is left now is to keep on walking!

This weekend is the final weekend to see the epic #SeminoleArtSceneFromTheFrontlines show at History Fort Lauderdale. There has never been anything quite like it and there may never be again.

Video above: State of the Native Art Scene, Moderated by Adrienne Chadwick, December 2, 2018

Photo Gallery

All images used by permission, courtesy Gordon Oliver Wareham unless otherwise noted.

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Reflections on Water for Life Decade

A decade ago, we built a bridge to the future spanning the infinite past to what we hope will a be a future paved with harmony...

Ten years ago I was engaged in an intense effort to increase environmental literacy and motivate behavior change that would result in measurable improvements in our local efforts to achieve sustainability.

One of the many workshops and train-the-trainer sessions that was organized, developed and implemented during that #decadeforwater was the Giganawendamin Nibi Women and Water leadership retreat. At that time, the three day workshop served as a much needed break to strategize, synchronize and share knowledge among a multicultural and multi-generational cohort of women leaders.

What follows is a short post I wrote as a guest writer for Sacred Horewoman, a blog by Renee Sans Souci. Here are my wintery thoughts upon returning from one of many workshops and events we were working on at that time.

https://sacredhorsewoman.blogspot.com/2008/03/reflections-by-bawshkeeng-wabigun-tara.html

Cover Art for "Giganawendamin Nibi"by Sharon M. Day
2006 World Water Council Local Actions, Global Change
Kyoto Prize Global Semifinalist

Road to the Equinox...

On this year's observance of  #InternationalIndigenousWomensDay there is so much to be thankful for while also acknowledging how many concerning items we must consider.

I celebrated the day, like many if not most women across the globe, by rising before dawn, waking my two children, drawing water into the filtration system, ensuring my children are clothed, groomed and fed, and getting them off to school before getting myself to work.

After school I picked them up, dragged them to the local school board meeting so they could voice their opinions on the need for continued district funding for art and science fieldtrips, fed them, helped them with homework, and put them to bed before washing dishes, washing clothes and drawing water again for the next day's cooking and drinking. 

In between I fielded work and personal calls, considered the many house and self care tasks that just don't always get done, planned the weekend #miamirising climate justice art events we will participate in, and spent at least 60 minutes more than I should have on social media catching up with friends, family and whatever real news snippets make it through the mathematical algorithms to reach my eyes.

Now it's to fold and put away the laundry while the little one sleeps and the high schooler finishes off the last of the homework due. Meanwhile I do my best to allay the constant worry of health, bills and wellness, which seems so simple and yet turns out to be so very complicated in this moment in history...

Good, strong thoughts to you, my fellow warriors, as we prepare to set off in the battle to strive toward completing another day of daily life in the war against oblivion....

@bawshkeengwabigun

P.S. After writing and before publishing this post, I did manage to at least boil a pot of cedar tea, so I'm happy to report checking at least one item off on the care list, thanks for the encouragement....  ;)

Opening pathways to the future…

World Premeiere of "Creating Tradition"
American Heritage Gallery, Epcot Center
Walt Disney World Resorts, Orlando, FL

July 27th, 2018

A sea of patchwork at the opening of a new exhibit at Epcot highlighting Native Art in North America

On this day when Mars is closer to the Earth than it’s been in a decade and a half, since July 2003, a beautiful dedication and opening ceremony was held for the new American Indian art exhibit in the American Heritage Gallery of Epcot Center’s World Showcase. Amid a global display of cultures, “Creating Tradition: Innovation and Change in American Indian Art” stands as a marker, reminding us all, residents and visitors alike, of the history, contemporaneity and future that Indigenous art, heritage, traditions, knowledge hold on this continent and around the world.  With elegance, grace, dignity and courage, the exhibit speaks to the enduring role of tradition and how the cultural geography of our shared past continues to inform the future of cultural, artistic, linguistic and intellectual knowledge in Indigenous communities and the lands they influence both within and beyond ancestral homelands, locally and globally.

[Footage courtesy Walt Disney World News]

On the occasion of the recent exhibition opening, the main floor of the American Heritage Gallery was transformed into a celestial sphere, gathering community, sharing the sound of human voices and rhythmic percussion. It was a brief moment where together we created a space to celebrate the existence of life.  

This collaboration between institutions provides Epcot visitors with the opportunity to engage with various forms of authentic art and cultural artifacts within the World Showcase. The exhibit itself was conceptualized during a multiyear effort by Disney to connect with American Indian communities, including Native communities of South Florida. The outcome is a model for long term collaboration in knowledge sharing; juxtaposing ancient with modern, traditional with experimental; resulting in the co-creation of an incredible visitor experience infusing authentic art and history into the fabric of Disney magic.

[Detail of Brian Zepeda's work]

[Brian Zepeda and his parents]

Brian Zepeda, Seminole Artist, Cultural Historian and Liaison for Seminole Tribal members living in the Naples community, led a traditional dance and song during the opening ceremony. Mr. Zepeda had this to say about having his work featured in the exhibit:
   

“It means a lot to me to have my work on display for a few reasons:

[Bag by Brian's grandmother:
Juanita Osceola]

a. This is the first time Disney has included Native American Art work on a long term exhibit and it is an honor to be one of only a few artists hightlighted [from around the country].

b. My late Great Grandma’s patchwork was chosen to be in the same display case. She had a profound impact on my art and my pursuit of expression through art.

c. Epcot is a major platform to reach people from around the world in a positive way.”

[Pedro Zepeda and a few members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida dancing and singing the Catfish Dance]

Video clip of opening ceremony

Courtesy Gordon Oliver Wareham

[South Florida is well represented in the new Native Art Exhibit that opened last week at Epcot]
Photo courtesy Gordon Oliver Wareham

In a time when many communities, native and non-native alike, are working hard to gain, reclaim and share an understanding of our human interrelationship with earth’s natural cycles, the presence of this exhibit in Epcot’s World Showcase helps to bridge the gap that too often occurs in the policy and practice of knowledge sharing when it comes to the history, current role and future of American Indian presence in the United States.  

We are all connected. What happens in one community region habitat or ecosystem affects us all. The display of both historical and contemporary art in this world showcase exhibit literally provides a global platform for Indigenous Peoples of the Americas to advance their work, support their values and promote their messaging. Whatever the viewpoint from which one views the facts of history, the continued endurance of Indigenous People on this continent is undeniable. Despite everything that has happened on these lands, Native People are still here and shall remain.

78 of the 562 federally recognized tribal communities in the US are represented in Epcot's new "Creating Tradition" exhibit.

GLIMPSES FROM THE OPENING:

Artist Brian Zepeda addresses attendees at the VIP reception

Just a little clip from last week's exhibit opening... #SadieBuck pic.twitter.com/14tegwKenZ

— Tara Chadwick (@wabigun) August 5, 2018

[A recording of Sadie Buck was one of several beautiful voices filling the hall before the opening]

[Photo of Native Music interpretive panel, courtesy Tom Corless, Walt Disney World News]

 

 

Sincere gratitude and congratulations to all the artists, curators, visionaries and everyone who created this exhibit as well as this very special private opening ceremony. Looking forward to seeing the possibility of a larger, public celebration in the future!

(All pics and text (c) Tara A. Chadwick, unless otherwise noted.)

Summer solstice 2018

Beauty. Work. Hope.

These are some of the things that come to mind during this time of year when we celebrate the Summer Solstice in this region of our planet. This year we took a moment to reflect on the strong rays of sunlight that were literally shining through the clouds surrounding us this longest day of the year. As human beings, we all have those things which distract us, just as we all have gifts that are immeasurably important to the human family. A condition in which each of us has the opportunity to fully develop and share those gifts with all of humanity is, for me, the ideal goal of a healthy economy. I also published an article that describes some of the current work that I've been helping Fort Lauderdale Historical Society engage in which can be found in this month's edition of InterpNews (p. 84-88, there is a great article on concretions immediately preceeding mine too!).

#MictlaC

A post shared by Tara Chadwick (@bawshkeengwabigun) on Jun 21, 2018 at 11:03am PDT

This month I also had the opportunity to share some of these thoughts briefly with a gathering of a few of Broward County's brilliant people. I'm looking forward to contributing more to widening our base of passionate, accountable and inspired community builders.

Purpose. Plan. Position. Priceless experience being in a room with these amazing visionary women connecting and collaborating in planting seeds of love, unity, education, growth, opportunity, and prosperity in our community! ❤️ thanks for the great pic @bawshkeengwabigun #creativesconnecting #build #community #engagement #art #culture #culturalheritage #creative #women #visionary #entrepreneurs #collaborate

A post shared by Lisé Galezo (@creativesconnecting) on Jun 22, 2018 at 10:28am PDT

Beautiful performance at the pre-Synergy Summit for Cultural and Heritage Tourism! #Broward #FortLauderdale @chatsummit2018 #tourism @FTLCityNews pic.twitter.com/A6n8x0UxlC

— Invest: GFL (@InvestGFL) May 16, 2018

Today we had a great pre-summit symposium, tomorrow, join us for #chatsummit2018 and get in on some of the most important #tourism discussions for the 21st century! pic.twitter.com/5fy6JiOBc0

— Tara Chadwick (@wabigun) May 17, 2018