Lace Bead Anachronistic Series 11 Drawing

My ancestral memory, and the oral stories told to me by my family have imprinted my soul map and created who I am today. Learning to tan deer hides traditionally came from a place of wanting ancestral knowledge....learning to make coil pots came from the same yearning to recreate the past in order to grasp a sense of identity for the future. This work is about prolonging life....this moment...this breath...the eternal heartbeat....as even though I may not have those who have come before, I do have the continued remembrance of the words and the longing of what once was. You never lose the longing; it grows stronger and becomes like a heartbeat whose rhythm is a constant presence. For me this work is about survival of the spirit, of my spirit and that of my grandfather's people and their heartbeat that beats within my own body, mind and soul. The forced integration of millions of natives is a truth that their descendants have come to know and deal with. My history of assimilation and my grandfathers forced boarding school experience at the Carlisle School is not unique. The feelings that have been passed down are now part of our genetic heritage. My current studio work deals with my ancestor's many stories of assimilation. For this body of work, it was necessary to choose a new medium and material from which to begin to bridge these abstract ideas and bring them into concrete forms. The form of the basketball was specifically chosen for many reasons; First and foremost, James Naismith was the University of Kansas' first basketball coach, where I am now currently living and in my second year of graduate school. Second, Naismith pioneered the KU basketball program, which today has become an athletic enterprise. Nearby Haskell Indian Nations University, was once a Native American Bureau of Indian Affairs Children's Boarding School, like the Carlisle School. Today, Haskell is one of the only four year accredited Native American college in the United States, and continues the Naismith tradition, with a strong basketball program for native athletes in the United States. For many Native Americans, basketball, as well as many other sports, is considered an extremely viable way towards survival, both monetarily and physically. It is also a way to achieve excellent educational opportunities through athletic scholarships. Choosing the basketball to make a ceramic cast of was deliberate; I wanted to bring the game into theses post-colonial issues.