That’s why she launched the tattoo campaign. “These forces that we’re standing up against, I wonder sometimes how human they really are.” “Peaceful, prayerful people getting attacked,” Big Eagle says. In efforts to dismantle the camps, law enforcement and mercenary agents resorted to pepper spray, rubber bullets, attack dogs, arrests, and undercover spies. For nearly 10 months, these peaceful protestors maintained camps to block construction of the 1,172-mile oil pipeline that would burrow under four states and the Missouri River, threatening Indigenous land and water. The campaign raised more than $153,000 to support the No Dakota Access Pipeline (NoDAPL) movement and its water protectors. Tattoo artists around the globe offered the image and donated a portion of each sale to a GoFundMe launched by Big Eagle and Elle Festin, an international organizer for traditional Filipino tattooists. Within weeks, the design decorated the flesh of thousands of people from Arkansas to New Zealand. The bird-being hovered above zigzags and dots, representing the river of life and seven bands of the Great Sioux Nation. “My heart was just poured into it,” she recalls.Ī tattooist and descendant of Dakota and Lakota Sioux, Big Eagle rendered an eagle-like figure, with tail feathers morphed into a tipi. Maybe that is God in us.In late 2016, after joining protests at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline, Stephanie Big Eagle designed a tattoo to help the fight. That is who we are as humans, isn’t it? We don’t expect much and yet are constantly being surprised by the unexpected, especially through our ability to dream and imagine and create. When we stop and notice it in ourselves, it can be soul-stirring. After so long a time we’re still battling, still fighting, still striving for something greater than ourselves. After all these thousands of years we’re still trying to understand the Divine all around us and in us. It was fitting that I drew something that comes from the powerful myths of humankind. Not magical because I am such a great artist, but magical because it taps into the mystery of creation. In fact, when I was done I was a bit taken aback by it – Where does this come from? How is it possible? The impulse to create and then what we are capable of creating – Why are we not more blown away by that than we are? This is a simple sketch, done in a few minutes time, but it is something magical. I certainly didn’t expect that kind of drama when I started scribbling on the page. When I read that, I realized I had drawn the beginnings of that mythical combat so I inserted a giant snake beneath that attacking bird. To the Menominee, the Thunderbird is the enemy of this serpent, who inhabits the Great Lakes and threatens to overrun the earth and devour humankind. In Algonquin mythology, the Thunderbird controls the upper world but the underworld is controlled by a great horned serpent. With the magic of Google I discovered some themes that predominate around the idea of the Thunderbird, one of those being its role as protector. I began to think of the legends of the Indigenous people of North America and specifically of the Thunderbird, a common motif in Native totems and art. After I drew in the bird, I thought it seemed to look almost mythical and kind of in combat mode (wings curled in, talons out). As I was drawing, it was reminding me of a bird so I went with that. Having no idea what to draw exactly, I just started scribbling a line across the upper part of the page. They give whatever you’re drawing a totally different feel from other media. It’s a limited palette of colors – rusty reds, browns, black, grey and white. I like the almost sepia-toned result you end up with as Conte crayons are made with natural pigments. Conte crayons were a favorite of mine in college. I felt like drawing with my Conte crayons over the weekend. If that sounded profound on your first read, read it again… Still think so? Start by expecting nothing and you’ll often get the unexpected. Jason Youngman on Thoughts on an Ice Cold Blue N… Shirley on On Trees and Suburbia and Civi… Thoughts on an Ice Cold Blue November Morning.On Trees and Suburbia and Civic Disobedience.Peace Tower on Earth, Good Will to All People.
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