From the first paragraph of the curator’s notes, “the past is not merely recalled but felt.”
What does it mean to have the past recalled and felt? Is it as if it were your past? Or is it her past that’s being felt? And we must all feel sad for her and other Navajos? I don’t think that what comes across.
The past is recalled by some photos whose time of capture is unknown. As I look at them I wonder if these photos old, or just some of the people portrayed. Some are young and smiling, are these photos from the past? It seems to be important that there is not enough information. A docent starts to tell me some of the artist’s or her subjects’ history, but she doesn’t seem to know much and is certainly telling the tale with a bias, which may or may not be justified, because she doesn’t know the facts. Helen Nez, shown in photos, had many of her children die from urianinum in the dirt at a relocation camp in New Mexico. Turns out the case of children dying by uranium poisoning was not from relocation but from bad environmental protections at a uranium mine in Arizona, were several of Nez’s family worked. I am outraged. Our land should be safe, sacred or not, if we care that we, our children and others have the liberty to pursue happiness.
