This piece was a collaboration with Deborah Anderson, director of the newly released documentary 'Women of the White Buffalo' where I was asked to add to the wonderfully powerful photo by Deborah.
I used oil paints on a canvas print of the photograph and let the inspiration flow.
As a man I was humbled to have been invited to add to a cause that empowers the women's voices by being given a platform to be heard. The women are the bearers of the deepest pain and it's time they were honored by listening with our hearts and supporting them.
The minting of this piece is to help bring awareness of life today in Indian country that's the driving force behind the newly released documentary and to use a percentage of sales for supporting people directly affected by the traumas of the the cultural genocide that continues today.
This piece tells the story of the spirit of the White buffalo surfacing at a time of the MMIW genocide upon indigenous women. The Ancestor women all wear red dresses and gather around the Inipi (sweat lodge) as prayers are offered up from a place of grief and hope.
Buffalo spirits also gather protectively towards the women and suffering communities.
Very faintly in the background are abstract images of oil drills as the fossil fuel industries are directly connected to many of the MMIW victims which in turn is the continued rape of Mother Earth.
As there is a Sacred Hoop which needs healing and there is also the Hoop of destruction and extraction which must be broken.
