WHY HERE WHY NOW
Performance and Video Installation;
donated annuity cloth, Rotinonhson:ni white corn,
burnt corn flour, soil, salt, corn husks
Traditional Haudenosaunee Singing by Ahosenae Edgar Rodriguez
Silo City, Buffalo, NY August 2019
Squeaky Wheel Silo City Workspace Residency
The items used in the construction of the dress and apron worn, as well as the corn, burnt corn, burnt corn flours, and soil, remind us the devestation of the Sullivan Campaign 240 years prior, at the behest of Town Destroyer George Washington - devestation that lead to creation of the Buffalo Creek Reservation.
Despite these onslaughts, the Treaty of Canandaigua was signed in 1794 between various Haudenosaunee nations and Town Destroyer George Washington.
It ensures undisturbed rights to land extending far beyond current territorial boundaries.
The original territorial boundaries of the Buffalo Creek Reservation are projected on the walls - footage shot from a moving car tracing the memories that are now stamped down by expansive wealth, forced poverty, car dealerships and farmlands.
The Treaty of Canandaigua promised "perpetual peace and friendship".
The only portion of the Treaty of Canandaigua upheld today is the distribution of annuity cloth.
WHY HERE WHY NOW offers an interrogation into the notion of history, of place, of placemaking, of present responsibility to the land that Buffalo, NY now sits on. For generations, we have enacted our primary responsibility of gratitude through, in part, song and dance; songs and dances that made this land and our lives possible.
When was the last time the earth in this place felt these movements? When was the last time she heard these songs? Are we only responsible to the land we are legally allowed to call ours?
Despite four cameras running as well three audio recorders running - no footage or recordings remain of this attempt at honoring. The memory cards inexplicably failed, the hard drives crashed, and all that remains is the hope that the land and the people remember.
