Welcome Aho!
Murals
Awaken the Healing, 2023
UW-Stevens Point Campus
Created as a memorial to honor our ancestors, the Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe, Menominee and Potawatomi that are buried on the UW-Stevens Point Campus. The mural captures the essence of our ancestors through the monochromatic color scheme and imagery in the background. The male wearing the headdress, singing with the hand drum symbolizes that our culture and ancestors live on through our languages, songs and teachings. The ancestors in the background support, encourage and uplift future generations through spirit celebrating our successes. The four graduates represent our tribal UW Alum, current and future students. They stand on the land of their ancestors and feel their presence, gathered along the water to signify their camps along the Wisconsin River. The University's colors of purple and yellow are incorporated in the sunset. Accompanying the mural is a poem titled, "Earth Diver", written by Christopher's cousin, Denise Sweet (White Earth Ojibwe).
"Earth Diver"
Through shards of pots
And musky tangled roots
We swim the crushed soil
And clumps of clay to wind
our way from the underground,
Our hands reach for the sunlight
Like shimmering arrowheads
Voices emerging, dust to dust
Still breathing our names
Still singing our songs.
Denise Sweet
Song for the Seven Sisters, 2021
Commission for CREATE Portage County
Amherst, WI
Inspired by the story and constellation, the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, daughters of the Greek God, Atlas. The galaxy represents our connection to our star stories, important origin stories for Native people. The Native women hold hands as a unified voice to represent the women's suffrage movement. Using their voice to influence decisions not just for today but for the next seven generations. The first stanza of the poem, "Song for the Seven Sisters", written by Denise Sweet, is handwritten on the mural by the artist. Barn mural is located at Fernwood Acres and can be viewed on Highway 54 between Plover & Waupaca driving west near Hartman Creek State Park.
"Song for the Seven Sisters"
Hear my voice. It is my voice.
I speak to your naked heart
— Native American Dream Song
Those that kept us true
to course, those that held
our strength, that led us
to stand as people of this land,
those that lean together like stalks
of corn against the fierce winds
of change without waver,
without compromise
with songs so simple—
melodies of Crane and Wolf
and sometimes Thunder,
songs deepened by somber memories,
songs echoing through the chambers
of every heart yearning to be heard
yearning for peace and justice—
They spoke to our naked hearts.
Even when hallowed halls are ablaze
and marble chambers collapse into dust,
even while statues tip and fall
They will know this beloved land
They will draw every breath
as though for the first time
delivering songs of courage and joy,
to a blue horizon of endless possibility.
Denise Sweet
The Creator and the Four Lakes, 2019
Commission for Madison College
South Goodman Campus
Inspired by the Ho-Chunk creation story of the four lakes of Madison.
In the beginning, or not long after, the Creator, the Earthmaker, came down from the North. He stopped here, in a clearing surrounded by forest and marked with four deep hollows. Famished from the long journey, he filled his clay cooking pot with water from a nearby spring, added some deer meat and edible roots, and started cooking. While waiting for his meal, he continued his exploration of the woods – until he heard a loud hissing back at camp. He rushed back to find his pot overflowing, the water bubbling up and pouring down the sides to fill the depressions one by one: Mendota, Monona, Waubesa, Kegonsa.
Raising Our Sisters, 2022
Commission for the Farm/Art DTour
Temporary Art Installation
Inspired by the Legend of the Three Sisters (corn, beans and squash).
The companion crops are planted together to lift, nurture and support one another.
The piece humanizes the sisters to remind us to treat all living things like our relatives.
