“The Land Remembers” Fall Arts Walk 2025
Dates: October 3 - November 22, 2024
Location: 120 Olympia Ave NE, Olympia, WA, 98501
ARTISTS
Sophia Anderson (Shoalwater Bay Tribe), Alison Bremner (Tlingit), Aganaq (Curyung Tribe), Hexe Fey (Oglala Lakota), Malia Peoples (Kanaka Maoli), Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos), Taylor White (Skokomish/Squaxin), Amber Stephens (Puyallup), Rachel Kopel (Tlingit), Andrew Roibal (Acoma Pueblo), Griffin Quinn (Tsimshian), Arlin Yazzie (Diné)
The Land Remembers was presented in collaboration with the yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective and curated by Mikaela Shafer.
This exhibition explores the profound and sacred relationship between Indigenous communities and the land, emphasizing the ongoing work of rematriation and the Land Back movement. It celebrates how the land holds memory—both of our ancestors and of ourselves—and how these stories are alive within the landscape.
The artists featured in this exhibit will be using a diverse array of materials and mediums, including bones, cedar, beadwork, paintings, ceramics, and poetry, to share their personal and collective stories. These stories from the past and present serve as a powerful reminder of our enduring connection to the land. Through their work, the artists aim to evoke a sense of remembrance and reverence, encouraging visitors to reflect on their own relationship to the land and their place within this ongoing work of caring for the land.
We hope that everyone who experiences this exhibition leaves with a deeper awareness of indigenous peoples' connection to the land and the importance of honoring and restoring our relationship with it.
About the curator: Mikaela Shafer
Mikaela Shafer (Hopi) is a mother, artist, and community builder in Olympia, Washington. Her work explores memory, healing, and cultural reconnecting through unconventional techniques like sewing, painting, and natural pigments. Focused on matrilineal storytelling, her mixed media paintings evoke home and meaningful places, emphasizing generational bonds. Recognized with awards from Santa Fe Indian Market and Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, she also leads initiatives supporting artists and indigenous storytelling.
About the organization yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective
yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective is a community of intertribal Indigenous artists rematriating 1.5 acres of land in South Seattle, on Coast Salish territories. Our mission is to help improve Indigenous well-being through art-making, community building, and equitable creative opportunities for personal and professional growth.
We achieve this mission by offering radically inclusive, trust-based arts opportunities for creatives at every stage of their careers, always paying well above industry standards. These opportunities include exhibitions, installations, performances, residencies, markets, publications, grants, and other community-led projects. In all our work, we center the voices of women, Two Spirit, and young people. Our practices are accompanied by relationship-building and mentorship opportunities to support continued creative development in our communities, with the intent that all participants will gain experience, exposure, and grow sustaining connections.
CSMoFA is made possible thanks to funding from the Inspire Olympia Grant and by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission.
