Unraveling the Akokisa Timeline

A case study in culture work and art

2017 - 2019

As a Dallas native, the Trinity River was a landmark we crossed to get across town. Sometimes we would smell the River before we saw River. In 2017, when I was asked to participate in Decolonize Dallas, I paused and reflected on West Dallas. Childhood and generational memory of West Dallas were interwoven into my work for Decolonize Dallas: West Dallas. Drawing upon personal experience as a West Dallas native, my work explores two themes of environmental racism and familial history. Decolonize Dallas led me to the River.  

In 2019, Jerry Hawkins of Dallas Truth and Healing asked me to speak to the 2019-2020 Racial Equity NOW Cohort and collaborate to create a zine of Dallas History. Jerry shared the article that Peter Simek wrote, and I included that research into my zine.  

Brian Larney of American Indian Heritage Day was a part of the cohort. Brian and I had simultaneous projects in Decolonize Dallas, and I shared my idea to create a Future monument about the Arkikosa. Brian Larney, Jerry Hawkins, and Peggy Larney began to meet and talk about the River in Fall 2019.  

Local artist, Sara Cardona of Teatro Dallas, asked me to create a Monument of the Future to be featured at the MAC in Dallas. During that time, I was asked to develop a TedX called Welcome to the Great Arkikosa. 

2020

In 2020, the pandemic and the movement for racial reckoning began. Our efforts to organize social events around the River came to a halt with the uncertainty of the pandemic. Our organizing with Our City, Our Future gained steam as we joined the Black Lives movement and began pestering and informing city hall about innovative ideas to invest in the community and the people of Dallas in our 2020 budget. In our demands, we asked that the city rename the Arkikosa.

On Instagram, Omar announced, "Today we held out 2nd Annual City of #Dallas #indigenouspeoplesday Ceremony. We honored the people that passed away to Covid and the @missingmurderedindigeouswomen. We also celebrated our future as #OneDallas I also announced that my office will form the @arkikosa Task Force so that we can continue to bring forward the native history of the lands we now call Dallas.

2021

In 2021, I continued to connect with our natural surroundings, I started thinking differently about the River.

Who is water? If water could talk, what would they say? What might the West Fork and Clear Fork River bodies remember when meeting the great Arkikosa River (Trinity River) in Dallas?

I created a body of work called The Grammar of Animacy, and it is the foundation of the work with the New Stories: New Futures project called "Remembering: Water has a memory." The exhibition's title, The Grammar of Animacy, was derived from Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, a scientist and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

In Braiding Sweetgrass, the author describes how English does not give us many tools for respecting animacy. In English, one is either a person, place, or thing. Our grammar boxes us in by our choice of reducing a non-human being to an "it," or we assign gender inappropriately as he or she. Where are our words for the existence of another living being? This work explores the animacy of the River and their tributaries

Wild West Murals @ 4720 Battan Street

Water is life

2022

2023

Coming soon.

Akokisa!