ka’yasu’/ne’nakw

[ka] (‘ya) (su’)/[ne] (‘nakw)
[driven away/returning home]

What is present in absence? What is absent in presence?

A shadow is formed by the presence of a form disrupting light. Paint, cracked and faded, conveys the presence of sunlight, weather, and the passage of time. An empty pedestal suggests the absence of a statue… but was it torn down, removed for repairs, or is it yet to be installed? Do freshly plowed fields indicate the absence of crops or signal fresh crops to come? And what becomes of the forests, animals, and grasslands displaced by agriculture?

While visiting the Earthworks, I became acutely aware of the contrasting absence and presence of Ohio. Marked by the Mounds, the quarries at Flint Ridge, and the abundance of artifacts revealed by erosion, tilling of fields, and excavation for expansion and development, Indigenous presence is everywhere. At the same time, I read text describing these sites and objects as prehistoric and primitive, suggesting they were made before sophisticated knowledge and social systems, and reinforcing the narrative that the cultures and peoples who made them no longer exist. But the scale, materiality and precision construction of The Great Circle and Octagon testify to intelligence, initiative and communal systems, and although the descendants of the Moundbuilders may have been driven away from their traditional territories, they carry with them an understanding of the sun, moon, and stars, knowledge passed through generations that affirms their enduring presence and connection to this place.

This work is about absence and presence, removal and return, and cycles of loss and regeneration.

Gilakas’la

Carey Newman - Hayalthkin’geme