STANDING STRONG: The Awakening | Josué Rivas

Standing Strong, 2020,
Josué Rivas

Littman + White Galleries

Standing Strong: The Awakening

February 10 – March 15, 2020
Reception: February 19th, 5 – 7 PM

The Littman + White Gallery are proud to present, Standing Strong: the Awakening, an exhibition featuring photography and film works by Indigenous artist Josué Rivas. Standing Strong is a reflection of the #WaterIsLife movement that began at Standing Rock in 2016. As stated by Rivas, “this body of work is a record of the spirit, of the land, water, and all our relations.” Curated by Safiyah Maurice.

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Artist Statement:

”The sound of drums and singing was the first noise heard at the Oceti Sakowin Camp in Standing Rock, North Dakota. Young men at the security entrance greeted new arrivals with a bucket of burning cedar, which was used to solemnly smudge arriving vehicles. Once finished, they would nod and say, “Welcome home, relative.”

The camp was like a magnet that pulled people in and brought them into a state of reverence. Each day, tribal nations from Turtle Island (North America) and around the globe came together in an act of unity. Each tribe brought their customs, foodways and traditional ceremonies to share with each other. Standing Rock was the largest gathering of Indigenous peoples in modern history, an awakening for Native American identity and the manifestation of our ancestors’ wildest dreams.

One day, as I watched a delegation from the Hopi Nation enter the camp, an auntie came to me and said, “Here is a bundle of tobacco, go offer it to them, their story is important.” I received the bundle wrapped in a red cloth and walked over to the man leading the group, handed him the tobacco and asked if I could make a portrait of the dancers after the ceremony. He said, “Thank you for asking, and yes you may take their photograph.” This experience shaped the way I documented the movement for the next seven months.

In the United States, there are 562 federally recognized tribal nations and many still unrecognized. These tribes represent a wide spectrum of culturally distinct ceremonies, creation stories, and languages. However, they all have one thing in common: they remain after 525 years of attempted colonization and genocide. From the first contact with European settlers to present day, Native Americans have battled forced removal from their homelands, involuntary assimilation, cultural appropriation and public ridicule. Despite these forces, there are still 6.7 million “American Indian” and Alaska Natives in the United States as of 2016.

For the first time since the civil rights movement, Native Americans have entered the consciousness of mainstream society and are reminding us all of our place as caretakers for future generations.

I see this work and the movement as an awakening for humanity and also as an opportunity for healing and reconciliation. The extreme genocide against the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere is very much present today. Standing Rock allowed for these communities to come together, not only to oppose another project by a big oil company but also to create a renewed sense of identity and resistance. Prayer and action were combined as tools to tell the world that we, as Indigenous peoples, are still here and that we were not vanished by colonization. This body of work is a record of the spirit of the land, water, and all our relations.”

~ Josué Rivas

Josué Rivas

Gallery View, Littman