When we have heard and spoken the language of the land, we are always timelessly connected to the land wherever we travel, wherever we go, wherever we pray, and wherever we think. Chances are, these are places where our ancestors lived, died, cried, danced, sang, and received their names.
To do that, she began a program in clinical psychology, but upon enrolling in an introductory fiction writing class, she found her voice that she had been expressing in her youth. It turns out that she is healing people in her creative writing and poetry, just as she would have been doing had she chosen a path in clinical psychology. Steven, Jeremy, and Danielle all conveyed, with their own unique voices, how the land speaks to them. These are places familiar to them; they are familiar to all of us. Familiar because we have been there before, and they are places where we still exist. The spiritual connection to these places is not lost to them, for they were born there; we all were. ABOUT THE CURATOR Sean Chandler is an artist and enrolled member of the Aaniinen (Gros Ventre Nation). He is also the President of Aaniiih Nakoda College located on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. In 2016, Sean was appointed to the Montana Arts Council, and in 2022, he was appointed to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Sean acquired a Bachelor of Arts in Art in 1997, as well as a Master of Arts in Native American Studies in 2003 from Montana State University-Bozeman. He also attained a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from The University of Montana in 2014. He has always been involved in art, starting at an early age when his father taught him the traditional arts of his ancestors, including hide and tipi painting. Integrating those early teachings, Sean voices his own style to communicate the contemporary life he lives. Themes of racism, loneliness, depression, anger, humor, stereotypes, sovereignty, dependency, and cultural genocide reside within his work. Sean’s work has been collected by the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minneapolis, MN, and the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, MT. Most recently, Sean was selected as one of five artists for the 2023 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship of the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana. He resides in Harlem, Montana, where he creates most of his artwork in his home studio.
SEAN CHANDLER (Aaniiih)
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