The first week of February Dustin Mater and I were invited to the National Geographic Storytellers Summit in LA. The Summit is a gathering of National Geographic grantees who come together annually for a few days of inspiration and presentations.
We presented our work on the Mural of America.
Our project seeks to reframe American History to include the first 20,000 plus years of human habitation of the American continents. We do this by looking at artwork -rock art, cave art, and geoglyphs that are embedded on the landscape. Those images tell a story of complex human history and cultures that thrived in the Americas long before European contact.
The project is complex. We are building Virtual Reality models for 10 sites across North America and have a storytelling process that places Native American descendants at the root level of storytelling. We also assemble education activities around the sites as a way of bringing grades k-8 into the conversations started by Native Americans with their artwork on the landscape.
The Mural of America reminds us all that the landscape can be sacred and that in the Americas sacred landscapes are indigenous.
Dustin is the Mural of America’s art director. His experience as a Native American artist shapes how we approach storytelling. It was a pleasure to be on stage with him!
To find out more about the Mural of America, watch the trailer below or head to the Mural of America tab.
If you want to support our work please go to the Donate Page and, sales of the Chauvet limited edition prints benefit the Ancient Art Archive.
