‘Our Painted Responsibilities,' 2014. Acrylic on canvas. 20 ft. x 24 ft. Currently in tour.
A project that documents different points of view on a given subject — made visible for knowledge exchange.
★ Part of Kwel’ Hoy: We Draw the Line — Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, 2018
★ 6,000-mile journey across the Salish Sea, Alberta Tar Sands, and Powder River Basin, 2014
Our Painted Responsibilities
What does it mean to protect what is sacred?
Led by the Lummi Nation’s House of Tears Carvers, a totem pole traveled 6,000 miles from the Salish Sea to the Alberta Tar Sands — visiting Native and non-Native communities in the path of proposed oil and coal exports, raising Indigenous solidarity and public resistance.
At each stop, participants contributed to this mobile mural around the theme of protecting the sacred. The final work holds renderings of heron, Indigenous canoes, eagles, and human figures, alongside poems, prayers, and personal messages from communities across the continent — hundreds of hands from dozens of places, making visible what they were unwilling to lose. Video.
Artists/Facilitators: Nati Garcia, Jen Castro
Social Artist Lead & Facilitator: Melanie Schambach
Led by: House of Tears Carvers, Lummi Nation
Master Carver: Jewell James - Sit ki kadem
This was a volunteer-supported project.
