Exhibit gives voice to Native concerns on environment

Protecting the earth is a core value shared by Native American cultures. A new show at All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis tracks more than 30 years' worth of Native American art in support of environmental causes.

It's a national show that has gone out of its way to involve the local community.

Titled "The Art of Indigenous Resistance," the exhibition features posters, paintings and collages that champion clean water and air while protesting what co-curator Kim Smith refers to as "extractive industries."

"You have oil, you have gas, you have coal ... and what's unifying all of this is water. Without water, none of these developments could happen," said Smith. "And they are direct threats to water as well."

The designs range from direct political posters to pop art, mixing graphic design and Native imagery. Several posters refer to oil pipeline projects, such as the Sandpiper pipeline in northern Minnesota and the Keystone XL. One poster focuses on the harmful environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing, while another depicts a gas mask alongside the blunt phrase "Coal Kills."

The show is a collaboration among All My Relations Gallery and two organizations: Honor the Earth and Honor the Treaties. Smith serves on the board of Honor the Earth, an environmental group founded by activist Winona LaDuke in 1993. It promotes both sustainability and art. Honor the Treaties focuses on art and advocacy. Smith said one goal of the travelling exhibition is to spread the word about environmental concerns beyond the reservations.

"It's not just a Native issue anymore. We're really at a global crisis with climate change and with water, and with this addiction to consumption, this addiction to energy," Smith said. "What does that mean? When you turn on the light switch, where does that energy come from? When you turn on the faucet, where does that water come from? Chances are it comes from low income communities of color."

Smith speaks from experience. Water from a reservoir near her home in Arizona is pumped to Phoenix, while the people living on Navajo and Hopi reservations have no access to running water and are forced to haul it every day.

There's a local component to this show, too: a series of paintings displaying a wide range of color and style. Graci Horne, an assistant curator at the gallery, explained that community members in the Phillips neighborhood were invited to the gallery to make their own artwork. Fifty or so turned up.

The work reflected a number of themes, Horne said. "It's racial, it's environmental, it's the police brutality, it's cultural retention."

Horne pointed to a long history of protest in the neighborhood, home to one of the largest Native American populations in the United States. Phillips is where the American Indian Movement formed decades ago.

Smith said it's important to provide a space, like the gallery, for people to stay rooted in their cultural traditions. "This is the outlet that they don't necessarily know that they have, but it's deeply embedded in who we are."

"That is where the wisdom is embedded, through our self-expression — whether that's song or dance or in storytelling," Smith said. "It already is a part of them."