By Alliance Communications Coordinator Amy Durr
Rebecca Lee Kunz is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma who describes herself as a visual storyteller, animist and folklorist that draws upon Native American iconography to grapple with the climate crisis. Her series Story Paintings reimagines Cherokee mythology through the lens of animals living in the contemporary epoch of the postindustrial world and global climate change, according to Institute of American Indian Arts. Kunz uses printmaking techniques, paint and natural materials like leaves and stones to create her dreamy, tender pieces.
“I believe that there is one divine creative place where all humans can meet,” Kunz says. “We are all born with inherent creativity…When I’m in that magic space, I try to listen and take it in like a healing salve. In that place, there is nothing dividing or separating any of us from all of creation — from the animals, from each other, from stardust. It’s all there, waiting to be remembered. If we can just remember to go to that creative place, we can come up with brilliant and innovative solutions to problems such as climate change.”
The Cherokee Creation Myth that Inspired Kunz’s Sky Vault Descent
As Kunz writes:
According to Cherokee mythology, when animals, plants and humans were equal, when animals still spoke, they lived on the Galun’lati, the Sky Vault, high above a vast body of water. There was no light and no dark. The animals and people looked at each other and felt crowded. Something had to be done. As they looked down to the water’s surface, they wondered what was beneath it.
Could there be a new safe place to live? Water Beetle and Great Buzzard went down from the Sky Vault, and though a series of events, made land from water. This land became Mama Earth and it was now floating on a vast ocean, attached to the Sky Vault by cords, one on each corner of the four directions. This Earth provided all that they needed.
But alas, this was not made to last forever. According to prophecy, when the Earth one day becomes old and worn, the cords will begin to fray and eventually break. The Earth will sink back into the sea.
Editor: We all had different takes on the meaning of this work and would welcome yours.