Ancestors in Prayer

This installation began as a site specific project on Nisenan land working with Shelly Covert, the spokesperson for the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe. After visiting their land I reached out to Shelly, asking her about her peoples history there and the land I was visiting. She told me about the mountain side where I was working and the bluffs it overlooked, I learned that the space where I was camping was a place of gathering as evident in the large rocks that held mortars people used to grind acorns. Being in that space, recognizing its history and remembering the people who called the place home helped me understand that the ancestors touch this space before they go onto the spirit world. I imagine them returning to the land to visit, understanding that many of those ancestors grew up in their traditional way. Shelly shared some photos of her family with me, telling me their stories and how their lives traced the history of bloody conquest. From the arrival of the 49’ers to our contemporary times, their experiences reflected what Indigenous people faced with the US’ westward expansion: land theft and genocide. To honor their history I created four ash paintings based on their photographs on pieces of birch wood, these pieces were placed on the mountains side where I was working, leaving them there for four days. At this site the paintings overlooked the bluffs across the valley, they sat in a sacred space, reconnected to their ancestors land. 

This set of paintings were recreated for the “Bones of our Ancestors” at the Mission Cultural Center, an exhibition honoring the original people of the Americas who experienced genocide at the hands of European invaders. This installation remembers the original people of California whose cultures were decimated and their lands stolen. The four people whose portraits are included lived through the aftermath of this phenomenon of death and destruction, dealing with the institutions of the US government that was created to detribalize Indigenous people and kill their culture. But the US government was unsuccessful, although people believed that the Nisenan were extinct, they are very much alive and reclaiming their culture for the generations to come.