February's Theme is NATIVE

Our theme for February is NATIVE. It was chosen by our Honolulu chapter and illustrated by Jack Soren.

Where you are from shapes who you are. Where you call home influences your worldview. Understanding the traditions of your ancestors can help answer the question, “where do I belong?” Your connections to a place and the past should rightfully be a source of great pride.

The unique customs, art, and languages of native cultures makes the tapestry of human civilization more vibrant. Yet many indigenous communities have faced marginalization, land dispossession, and cultural erasure. How much have we lost and what can be preserved?

By respecting and celebrating the traditions and achievements of native people everywhere, we can discover a deeper sense of connection and unity. What does our history have to teach us? What can we learn from each other?

(You can read about the significance of the imagery in this month’s illustration in this post.)

INSPIRATION FROM OUR COMMUNITY:

Each month, we ask the readers of our Weekly Highlights newsletter to submit creative work inspired by our global theme.

Here are the featured submissions for February:

Love Letters to Cities: Mumbai by Rhea Zaveri in Mumbai, India.

This is both, a drawing and journal entry about what my hometown means to me and everything it reminds me of.

Serated wrack by Eimear Maguire in Belfast, Ireland.

Inspired by warm summer swims in the clear waters of Atlantic Ocean on the Donegal coast, Ireland. This piece celebrates native irish seaweeds and are a celebration of the comfort we can all find in nature.

You can buy a print of this piece on Eimear’s site. (Photo by Elaine Hill.)

The Women of Flying Earth by Sheridan MacKnight in Tongva Territory (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA) USA.

My piece consists of ink and gouache watercolors on Archival paper. The image represents the multi- generational matriarchal line of my family on our ancestral land. The original land of the Hunkpapa Lakota people of HeSapa (the Black Hills) in South Dakota.

Honor Remnant by Dennis Krull in Moorhead, MN.

This is a Encaustic piece made from found objects, part of a building structure and a feather. I have been recently creating art made from found objects in my area. I am always picking up objects that speak to me and tell a story. Both of these objects are native to my area and were created to work together with the silver foil showing the edges of the large feather. The name “Honor Remnant” I feel tells the story of objects tossed aside but still have a use to create something beautiful.

You can see more work on Dennis’ instagram.

Making My Own Mountains by Marne Meisel in New York, New York.

Mixed media in Beacon, New York.

You can see more work on Marne’s instagram.

The Tibetan natives in the Himalayas by Alena Aichlmanova in Prague, Czech Republic.

A photo taken in the Himalayas some time ago. I was staying with the native Tibetans there for several months and I still feel blessed by their wisdom, carried from generation to generation.

Native Blue by Elizabeth Baca in San Diego, California, United States.

Being native to this place means that my heart and home are in the simplicity of each element that lives here. The sea, the sun, the blue sky and the plants. The noise of small and large creatures coexisting, the smell and taste of the breeze, and the breath of the Pacific transformed into waves that come and go… that is how I feel in this world, I come and go and at the same time, the earth does not belong to us, we flow listening to it, to our mother earth.

Being native for me is not about appropriating that space, but about admiring the scenery and taking it with you wherever the path called life takes you.

You can see the rest of the photos in this series on Elizabeth’s site.

Meeting Ammamma After Ages by Sunayana Reddy in Chennai, India.

An autobiographical essay about me visiting my maternal grandmother from my native place.

Ammama now started talking about her early years and how life has been in those days. She described that the place she was born was surrounded by hills. They had letter and post cards instead of phone calls when people travelled. When Ammama was newly wed, she stayed in houses made of dry coconut leaves called Kottams and sometimes in Burujulu.

You can read the rest on Sunayana’s blog.

Native by Francesca Aniballi in Rome, Italy.

“Native” is a poem inspired by a sense of common belonging to the Earth, despite human-made divisions.

We are all natives on this Earth
Holding space for birth
Keeping time at bay
As best as we can.
We hold the ancient vision
Of what is to come
The golden thread of care.
We plant our feet
In the ground like sturdy trees
With long twisted roots
And pray to the sky
With uplifted arms
When our hearts are down.
We dare to hope
We dare to soar
On the wings of inspired action
As Earthlings
Dwellers of the Earth
Beyond walls and borders
Of our own making
Into the wild
Into freedom
Into the heart of the cosmos.
We are all natives on this Earth.

You can see more poems and books on Francesca’s site.

Want to see your creative work featured on our blog? Subscribe to our Weekly Highlights newsletter to find out when submissions for next month’s theme are open.