In Our Own Words: Native Impressions—It Helped Us to Breathe

Abstract

The pair of original prints is from the “In Our Own Words: Native Impressions” portfolio. Focused on individuals from the Tribal Nations of North Dakota, this collaborative project was intended to chronicle lives of contemporary Native American people through a series of original artworks. Four North Dakota tribal colleges hosted visits from two UND art professors, Kim Fink and Lucy Ganje, as well as Philadelphia artist Daniel Heyman and Leigh Jeanotte, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Director of UND\u27s American Indian Student Services. During these visits, they talked with twelve tribal members, while Heyman drew their portraits. Produced by Sundog Multiples at the University of North Dakota, the portfolio contains twelve reduction woodblock prints based on the portraits by Heyman, along with fourteen letterpress prints by Ganje that contain words taken from interviews. The production of the prints was overseen by Fink.https://commons.und.edu/lam-all/1170/thumbnail.jp