BFA Group SHow

Hesci, Ally ceocefketos. Vm Mvskokvlke, tepaket yat hvlpvtvlkes. Estonko? All of that loosely translates to- Hi, my name is Ally. I am a Mvskoke citizen and alligator clan. How are you? Language is very important to me, and to many other Indigenous tribes and peoples. They hold our identity, preserve our culture and empower us. Power is very important to me and is an integral part of my works overall theme. That theme being missing and murdered Indigenous women and people. There is an epidemic of violence on Indigenous bodies, the third leading cause of death for indigenous women is murder and 82% of Indigenous men are victims of violence. These statistics should shock you as Indigenous people only make up 2% of the population here in the U.S. There are generations of violence, generations of trauma from colonization and assimilation. My own mother is a survivor of violence and has raised me to watch for the signs and to look out for myself. Which brings me to my work and a prominent character I use within both my sculptures and my drawings, Deer Woman. Deer Woman is the first missing and murdered Indigenous woman who has returned as a spirit, preying on those who commit adultery and violence. She is often seen as either a woman with the legs of a deer, or as a doe. There are a handful of tribes that have their versions of Deer or Antelope woman. Those being the Lakota people, Ojibwe, Ponca, Omaha, Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Choctaw, Otoe, Osage, Pawnee, and the Haudenosaunee. I have remade myself and my mom into our own versions of deer woman, to bring to light those who have faced violence and are still missing. In my drawings I have me and my mother designed with deer legs and ears, with me being sometimes adorned with antlers. Within some of these scenes I have me and my mom surrounded by deer, with them interacting with the viewer more so than either of us. They are the murdered and the missing. In these drawings my mom guiding me, letting me go off into life with her watching intently from the sidelines, and me also leading my mom in turn.  My mom was not raised deeply in the culture, we didn’t even know what clan we were in until a handful of years back. I have been trying to learn our language, our history, and giving that information back to her. What I have learned has inspired me deeply and has filled a void I didn’t even know I had for the longest time. Getting back to some of the symbology of my work. Red is an important color I have adopted; the red handprint is the symbol used for missing and murdered indigenous women with it usually being placed on the face, covering the mouth. Red used within my own culture is used to depict power, victory. I usually have my mom adorned in red or outlined in it while I am in yellows and blues. My mom is one of the most powerful people I have yet to meet, I always tell her that she should write a book about her life because of everything she has gone through. Despite all of that, she tried her best and I am who I am today because of her. Her story matters. My story matters. Indigenous voices need to be heard, need to be understood. To tell our stories, to show our growth and the generations of violence that follow us. Theres an amazing TED talk I recommend everyone listens to called “We Are More Than Missing And Murdered” by Tamara Bernard. She talks about Indigenous violence in Canada, but there was a powerful thing she said within that talk that I will repeat here, “My great grandmother Jane, she’s listed with the murdered and missing. Then there’s my grandma, Irene, who’s a survivor of violence. There’s my mother, Christianne, who’s a survivor of violence. And then there’s me, Tamara, a survivor of violence. That’s a lot of energy, a lot of healing, a lot of questioning my self-worth”. Our voices being heard, our stories being told is healing. Stories are important to our culture; they are what keep us alive, what warns future generations about greediness. They tell us the importance of community, our culture, our language, and why we should take care of our world. Mvto, thank you.