MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI) announced the virtual opening of Bring Her Home: Sacred Womxn of Resistance. This year’s exhibition is the third installment of the Bring Her Home exhibition series organized by All My Relations Art gallery and will be exhibited from December 2020 – February 2021.
All My Relations Arts is an initiative of NACDI, who organized this third exhibition of this series in partnership with the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, and Minnesota Indian Sexual Assault Coalition curated by Reyna Hernandez (Ihanktonwan Dakota).
“My hope for this exhibit is to highlight empowered work created by indigenous womxn, two-spirit, trans, and gender non-conforming artists. Hearing from the people who are directly targeted with this type of structural violence is an incredibly important and necessary step in understanding how we can challenge and resist this [seemingly]never-ending attempt to erase us. There is so much to learn from people who are often silenced and I wanted to create space for these perspectives to be heard and seen,” shared curator Hernandez.
Bring Her Home: Sacred Womxn of Resistance showcases contemporary expressions of Indigenous resistance in response to the colonial foundations of the MMIW epidemic. By creating counter dialogues in response to the colonial roots of the MMIW epidemic, curator Hernandez encourages artists to give voice to those most affected by this structural violence.
The featured artist includes Aly McKnight (Shoshone-Bannock), Avis Charley (Spirit Lake Dakota/Diné), Claire Packard (Yankton Dakota), Dyani White Hawk (Sicangu Lakota), Graci Horne (Dakota/Lakota), Julie Buffalohead (Ponca), Mikayla Patton (Oglala Lakota), Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti Pueblo), and more.
Director of All My Relations Arts Angela Two Stars (Sisseton Dakota) has been involved in the Bring Her Home suite since inception and shared, “I am so pleased to have passed the torch to Reyna Hernandez to curate this third installment of Bring Her Home. As the curator of the previous two installments, I am excited by the evolvement of the Bring Her Home exhibition. The theme of Bring Her Home has progressed from awareness to advocacy, and now with Reyna at the helm of curation, to resistance. The powerful expressions of the artists she has gathered to address this ongoing epidemic; continue to give voice to our sacred Indigenous women.”
Due to COVID-19, the exhibition is available virtually on All My Relations Arts website. In-person viewing will be limited for CDC capacity compliance starting in January 2021.
On February 18, 19, 20, 2021 from 6:00 – 8:30 pm Madweyaashkaa: Waves Can Be Heard, an animated video collage will be projected onto the 400-by-50-foot wall of the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam at Owamniyomni, created by Moira Villiard. This is presented as part of the Bring Her Home: Sacred Womxn of Resistance exhibition.
Madweyaashkaa: Waves Can Be Heard project is in partnership with Northern Lights MN, All My Relations Arts, Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI), Mississippi Park Connection, and Mississippi National River and Recreation Area and is supported through a grant from the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Board.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.