Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre

A Forest Sounds Like a Ship at Sea:

Who came before

Day 11: Remote Residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland, 7/18/22 to 8/13/22, Maria Driscoll McMahon checking in from New York State

Michael Naranjo, The Prayer, bronze, 1986

The story of the indigenous people - the Native Americans - who had lived in Ridgebury in "Penn's Woods" long before their land was stolen from them by European colonists (some of whom were, no doubt, my own non-Irish ancestors) is not one for me to tell. In stealing and deforesting the land, we simultaneously displaced, sickened, and - most tragically - either directly or indirectly killed too many of the human beings who had lived where their ancestors had lived for thousands of years. This remains a tragedy on a scale so massive it can never be reversed or fixed, and yet, reparations must be made.

Although the story of the indigenous people of the United States is not a story for me to tell - it is a story that MUST be told - and taught - by the people who live it and whose own ancestors lived it. There is not a day that I walk in any forest on U.S. soil when I do not think of those who came before me, and, as a descendant of colonizers, I must not be silent about the truth of history.

With that conviction in mind, I took a visit to the Rockwell Museum in Corning, NY, to see displays of artwork created by artists indigenous to the United States - some of whom were, or are, members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy of six nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora. It is my understanding that surviving members of the Carantouan Nation (Susquehannocks, Andaste) who likely lived closest to Ridgebury, Pa. were eventually assimilated into the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

In addition to works in their permanent collection, the work of two contemporary Native artists was also on display 1) Objects in Motion: Wendy Red Star’s Accession Series and 2) Please Touch! The Art of Michael Naranjo. Additionally, Wendy Red Star's artwork is also on display just around the corner at Kids Rockwell Art Lab.

I highly recommend EVERYONE to go see these moving, powerful SUBLIME exhibits, including the work at the Kids Rockwell Art Lab!

If you can't get to the Rockwell Museum, please do click on the links to some artists included in the various exhibitions to learn their stories as only they can so brilliantly tell them.

Michael Naranjo, Deer Hunter, bronze

I was deeply moved by this piece as it seemed to exemplify for me a full awareness of the sentience and sapience of all beings and connections between the human and non-human.