The colonial culture called them “Indian uprisings,” imbuing the second word with connotations of illegitimacy and savagery. It is, in its way, a perfect object lesson of what colonialism does to land and language, to culture and people.
I have written at length, for many, many years, about how specific words can be chosen, defined and redefined, and applied to populations, dynamics, and simple states of being for the express purpose of legitimizing the oppressor while eliminating the oppressed, in whole or in part, in appearance or in fact. The oppositional tension between the words “fierce” and “ferocious” is an example I frequently use to illustrate this point: “Fierce” is a compliment; “ferocious” reduces the wearer to the level of an animal, savage and subhuman.
So it is with the tension between the word “uprising” and its more active two-word locution, “rise up.” The former belongs to the world in which indigenous peoples are redskins and renegades, deemed illegitimate occupiers of the very land mother Earth herself gave to our ancestors before the dawn of recorded time. The latter, now a catchphrase in the hottest Broadway musical, has long been coopted by colonialism as an expression of freedom’s pursuit, of liberty’s very essence . . . even as its early progenitors on this land sought to shift the blame for their allegedly brave acts onto the indigenous population by dressing in redface.
The Boston Tea Party was nothing if not a textbook example of these linguistic (and literal) gymnastics in action.
But we have retaken the word and redefined it for reality. In a colonial culture, an uprising is an act of grace. More, it is an act of love: love one’s people, culture, ways; one’s ancestors, children, grandchildren unborn for centuries yet.
It is this definition, this dynamic, that Wings captures in the first of today’s featured works. From its description in its section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Uprising Coil Bracelet
While the outside world considers it a bad thing, to our peoples, uprising is the natural act for a spirit imbued with courage: defense of the people; protection of children, elders, the vulnerable; a willingness to stand up when required even as one remains rooted firmly in one’s ancestral tradition. Wings infuses this coil with the colors and symbolism of an uprising, beginning at either end with the fiery earth of old-style copper barrel beads. Next come turquoise nuggets in equally earthy matrix, the rich blues and greens of the waters aswirl with boulders and rich brown soil. Next are bright green nuggets of peridot, the brilliant green of the grass, the trees, the medicine plants, all firmly rooted in the earth, stretching upward toward the light, catching it and refracting it. The plants reach up through the air, bright blue turquoise with webbed clouds of matrix. At the center, the apex, is the ethereal blue of the upper atmosphere, chunky bits of amazonite in hues ranging from the color of ice to the indigo of the desert sky. Memory wire expands and contracts to fit nearly any size wrist. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; blue amazonite; blue turquoise; boulder turquoise; peridot; copper
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
Yes, it’s a work that has already sold, but I wanted to include it today anyway: most obviously, for continuity’s sake, so that the whole series may be featured consecutively, as Wings has ordered their appearance in the collection; but also because the one depicted above pairs itself naturally, both aesthetically and conceptually, with the one shown below.
After all, one has to be willing to rise up if one is ever to resist.
And that is the link between those above and below: Uprising, a continuous hoop of the rootedness of our identities and histories and ways and very lives, that gives us the strength, the power, the bravery, the essential courage to engage those lives in active Resistance. From this work’s description in its section of the same Gallery here on the site:
Resistance Coil Bracelet
True resistance requires a thorough grounding; it requires firm deep roots from which to draw sustenance and strength. When one is rooted in history, in tradition, in the power and spirit of the ancestors, one is granted the spiritual abundance needed to resist on behalf of the people. Wings pays tribute to such roots, and the literal and metaphorical warriors that grow from them to stand tall and strong, with this coil in earthy browns and the greens of abundant life: Tiny green turquoise chips are interspersed with bits of earth and fire and water, tiny copper barrel beads and golden-brown olivella-shell heishi.Spiraling around the center are segments of chunky blue and green fluorite nuggets in emerald, forest, and leafy green shades. Accenting each section of fluorite beads is a segment taken directly from the old warriors themselves: warm brown cedar-berry beads, harvested directly from the cedar trees, dried, drilled, and polished. Memory wire expands and contracts to fit nearly any size wrist. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; blue and green fluorite; green turquoise; cedar berries; olivella-shell heishi; copper
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
We are, as many of our peoples know, living in times of prophecy. The events we see coming to pass on a daily basis were foretold many long years ago — decades, centuries, even millennia. But just as our existence has always been and will forever be one continuous hoop, so, too, must be the way in which we actively choose to live our lives, from uprising to resistance.
For if, in our current circumstances, an uprising is act of grace, a life of active resistance is a gift: to ourselves, yes, but also to our ancestors, to our children, and to our grandchildren’s grandchildren, unto the Seventh Generation and far beyond.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
