“Tecumseh Ceaser: Water Connects Us All”
YoU Exhibition
October 2, 2021
Year of Uncertainty Artist-In-Residence Tecumseh Ceaser’s project, Water Connects Us All, is tied to the artist’s journey of learning the languages, culture, and history of his ancestors. Here, Ceaser (Matinecock Turkey clan) shares the power of language to hold vital interconnected teachings between Indigenous communities. A video visualizes the ongoing language reclamation research that he has been participating in with many communities as part of the Algonquian Language Revitalization Project. By animating the spoken and written words for “water” across sister languages in the Algonquian language family, the artist demonstrates the deep connections between them. The work stands to represent the power of collective memory to recover dormant or resting languages. These languages are never truly lost but, like water, can be seen as a shared life source for regeneration and healing.
Ceaser invited Shane Weeks (Shinnecock) to include Mishoon (2021) a video documenting a collective paddle journey and Lydia Ann Wallace-Chavez (Unkechaug/Blood) to showcase her woven wampum necklace, Heart Protector (2019). This comingling of perspectives on the relationship between water and traditional Indigenous lifeways in Sewanhaky (Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn) further embodies the notions of kinship and shared history. The project is also accompanied by a series of public programs that center culture, stewardship, and legacy, as well as ongoing collaborations with QM’s Queens Teens program and YoU Community Partner Guardians of Flushing Bay to explore the ways that one can be an accountable guest or cohabitator on unceded Indigenous land.
Image Description: A blue wall has small white wall text on the left. In the middle, a large monitor with a blue water droplet displays ways to say “water” across languages in the Algonquian language family. There is a large white wall text on the right: “Tecumseh Ceaser Water Connects Us All”
Image Description: A short blue wall with a small video monitor displays the sky meeting the water. To the left are headphones, carved wampum necklace and shells in a blue glass vitrine, and wall text in a bright gallery with glass windows.
Image Description: A bright room has two blue walls on opposite sides, and a large floor-to-ceiling window wall in between looking out on the green trees and gray pathways of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. A simple box/bench in between is painted the same blue as the walls. The left wall has a large monitor displaying a water droplet with text inside, and to the right of the monitor is a large wall text. The right wall has a glass vitrine, a small monitor, and smaller descriptive text.
Image Description: A short blue wall with a small video monitor displays a man with dark skin speaking in front of a beach, wearing a blue tanktop and yellow hat. To the left of the monitor are headphones, a woven wampum necklace alongside shells in a blue glass vitrine, and wall text next to each artwork.
Image Description: A close up of a woven wampum necklace by Lydia Ann Wallace-Chavez: thick, flat rows of cream shell beads, with blue shell beads woven in a round shape. On the collar is woven brown fabric and a white cowrie shell.
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