This is my power, my strength

Matriarch's power  regalia

                                  by Venaya Yazzie

                          ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2018

From time immemorial my Indigenous people, the tribal relatives from across 'Indin' Country has trekked the beloved spaces of their cultural homelands.

The land is in our blood, the DNA we carry as Indigenous people is as sacred as many of our ceremonies.  Today in 2018, we Indigenous are still here, we are still on our ancestral homelands via reservations and bordertown communities.  But, in today's climate we are have little peace.  The land we love is being ravaged and in some instances being out right taken from us.  This story is not new, for the establishment of this Euro-American government  was done under the act of theft.

Today I am an artist, I am an Indigenous artist that because of her ethnicity is labeled an "activist" simply because I make art about my life experiences. I am unconsciously political because I am a 21st century living Indigenous person.

I share this image above in this blog because I can exist in two worlds, two places in this place called America. Some days I wear Levis and Converse and on other days I am dressed to the 'nines' in my southwest matrillenial cultural regalia; this is my power, my strength.  I am a Dine' -Hopi woman, and I dwell in my culture and lands and language and among my people.  Then I exist in the chaos of modern society, when I want to that is...

I, like all my Indigenous people/relatives are stronger than how we are perceived by mainstream culture. We exist in two spaces one that is in the present, but also one that is unseen.  Believe it!

Posted 01-30-18

by Venaya Yazzie

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2018