A collaborative project by Tyra Huyana Blackwater and Nihi K’é Baa’ (For Our Relatives) in /room/, juried by Aaron Harbour and Jackie Im.

Nihi K’é Baa’ (For Our Relatives) is a collective of Indigenous grassroots organizers working in Diné Bikeyah (traditional Diné Homelands now known as New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah) to provide mutual aid and healing to the land. In 2021, Nihi K’é Baa’ cleaned and restored a historical landfill in Ch’íhootsooí (St. Micheals, Arizona) that began with settler-owned trading posts and churches that were colonizing the area. Historically, settlers brought materials to Diné Bikeyah that they were unable to naturally dispose of. Today, access to landfills and transfer stations is limited across the reservation, making illegal dumping prevalent in many areas.

During the restoration project of Nihi K’é Baa’, they found artifacts that told the history of the land: a large stack of degrading Navajo Times newspapers, cans from the trading post era, and wagon wheels. Even after restoration, many artifacts remain, some even grow into the land and take permanent residence in the soil. Tyra Huyana Blackwater’s series, Remnants, documents the lasting presence of the landfill, telling the story of this once-abandoned site that has been given the opportunity to heal.

/ (Slash)