Jim, Ruth, and Gabe Yellowhawk are Indian Native American artists and performers who will be appearing at the upcoming Festival of Art and Creativity.

Jim Yellowhawk is a Lakota artist and performer who has been recognised internationally. He works in a variety of media, often using found objects in combination with painted and drawn images of his relatives and family. He celebrates the place of Native People and also questions issues from the past. His wife Ruth Yellowhawk is Wyandot/German. She is a writer, audio producer and co-director of the Indigenous Issues Forums, which works to help families and communities work through complex issues, using art to unify.

Along with their son Gabe, they are spending six months in New Zealand, paying respects to the land and meeting new friends. Jim Yellowhawk recently opened an exhibition of artwork at Momentum gallery in Nelson, which you can read about here. Jim and Gabe are also sharing Traditional Northern Plains American Indian Native dance in various communities as they travel around. The Learning Connexion is privileged to have them perform at our Festival of Art and Creativity on Saturday the 6th of March.

You can view Jim’s work here.
You can view profiles of the Yellowhawks here.

Below is an article by Ruth Yellowhawk, from a book called “Mamow Be-Mo-Tay-Tah: Let Us Walk Together”, published by the Canadian Ecumenical Anti-Racism Network of the Canadian Council of Churches that talks about their work with the Indigenous Issues Forums.

Creativity and Our Path to Healing

These days it feels as if so much of our lives are marked by separation – we can spend whole days separated from the natural world, from visiting, from singing and dancing. Creativity is a vital place to continually revisit our path to healing. Making our visions live and breathe reflects our gratitude to be part of life. To be in a continuum of creation is one of the greatest gifts to humanity, nature and the universe.

As we heal, we sharpen our ability to give back to one another to the highest vantage points of our selves. We only need to observe a healthy plant to see what can happen with appropriate nurturing. Participating in a creative process allows us to fertilize and water ourselves so that we too can bud, blossom, and bear the kind of “soul fruit” that sustains us on our journeys.

Art reflects our Creative Spirit at it’s finest. In most Native languages there is no word for art. Rather art is viewed as part of the everyday way of creating order, balance and integrity in the world. Many marvel at the extraordinary beauty of the accoutrements of dance and culture – the beadwork, porcupine quillwork, and such, as well as baskets, pottery, weaving, jewellery, and many other things that Native minds and hands have dreamed and made. And while the items in and of themselves certainly reflect beauty, what is often missing is the understanding that such things are meant to be used. The relationship and identity are intrinsic to the maker.

I believe that art today leads us through a process of “remembering”. “Member” is such a valuable word to describe what happens when art is used for healing purposes – as it reflects all possible definitions: 1) bringing someone back into family and human relationships, 2) putting vital organs back into place, (even the most vital organs of creation), 3) being a separate and distinct part of a whole, 4) becoming a beam wall or other possible structural unit, and 5) becoming an equal part.

Providing the means to remember Is the hard part. This is what many of us who work in Indigenous communities are doing – finding ways to brings art into a setting that can create wholeness. Doing this is an art which requires our ability to face the anguish that lies beneath the surface of our hearts. It requires the courage to examine our past, to know the paths we have walked, and to discern the patterns that have been shaped by forces outside of ourselves. The journey also requires that we soften our hearts in order to release and transform our hurts. It requires patience.

We have found resilience and strength in revitalizing Indigenous processes for walking together. One of the best ways that we have been experimenting with using the arts in a healing process is by creating safe spaces to reflect on our relationships to art and to one another. In the quest to reclaim healthy Native Lifeways, we draw strength and wisdom in reviving and evolving the practice of talking circles. Alongside friends and relatives we work to hold each other accountable to our own thoughts and feelings as we experience art, film and books.

We formed a group called The Indigenous Issues Forums (IIF). Indigenous Issues Forums work to provide safe and respectful, family-centred environments to talk through complex issues. We believe in the power and beauty of the Human Spirit, in the transformative purpose of language, in noticing what can happen when people are given the liberty to break through false constructs and constraints that too often serve to dis-integrate identity, place, and nature.

Our gatherings support natural movement towards wholeness, mirroring a disciplined and family centred approach to our growth. We use guidelines and talking circle processes to talk together. And we use art to unify.

When folks experience art and are freed to simply feel what rises up for them, it can be liberating and scary. Our circles are designed to honour these emotions and allow individuals to connect to those feelings in order to make positive progress on their journey.

We’ve shared visual arts, many painting my husband has made specifically to spark reflective dialogue on themes as far ranging as addiction and alcoholism, boarding schools, gangs, dealing with the systemic oppression of government agencies, racism, humour, transcendence, and protection of mother earth.

We’ve also shared documentary film and poetic film, and other creative media that explore tribal issues. Recently we played audio tapes of elders sharing their experiences on boarding schools while folks were looking deeply at the piece called Resurrection. Books also serve as catalyst for reflective thought and healing. We run a seasonal reading program that allows anyone to lead circles using Native authors as a starting point. Once we lead a very powerful poignant circle with Native Hawaiians that started with asking folks to describe an artful table arrangement of poi ponders, paddles, flowers and taro leaves.

A sense of what is right can emerge through art dialogue. Just as art can encourage us to look at historic injustices, art can also offer a balm to us, a vision of what we can be as we begin nurturing healthy identities and imagine truly constructive purposes for our lives. This takes us into the powerful realm of making art, everyday art, just as our ancestors did. Art can nurture us on our paths to becoming both whole and beautiful to behold.

-Ruth Yellowhawk.