Welcome to All Arts' presentation of the 2024 Artist in Residence program.

I'm James King.

The film you are about to see, "Realms of Resilience," was conceived, produced, directed, and edited by multi-hyphenate artist Marlena Myles during her time as an All Arts Artist in Residence.

Marlena is a Minneapolis-based member of the Dakota Nation who employs augmented reality and digital technology to unveil hidden Indigenous connections with the natural world.

The resulting stories inspire strength, hope, and love for future generations.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Myles: Dakota people understand that Grandmother Earth is the land that we walk upon, the air that we breathe, and the water that we drink.

She is the source of all life and the home of all living things.

The land also stores our memories.

Every hill and valley, every stream and river, every tree and rock is a reminder of my ancestors and the stories they have passed down to me.

The land is my living history book.

But to some people, cemeteries are the end of that book, a place where the dead are buried and forgotten.

But to Dakota people, cemeteries are a sacred place where ancestors remind us that we are all part of something much larger than ourselves.

We are all part of the sacred hoop.

♪♪ My Great-Great-Grandmother Winona was born before we established the Spirit Lake Reservation.

During her life, she fought for her American citizenship, the right to vote, and she represented our people when President Franklin Roosevelt visited.

She taught me that we should honor our traditions but embrace the times that we're born in.

We must help others see through our eyes so that we can all live in a more understanding world.

We have to teach others what it means to be Dakota if they are living on the lands that contain our history.

She worked hard so that my life could be better, and as an artist, I honor her and create work with the next generations in mind as well.

♪♪ [ Drums playing, group singing ] ♪♪ [ Music ends ] [ Horns blaring ] ♪♪ [ Horns honking in distance ] ♪♪ My name is Marlena Myles, and I'm a Spirit Lake Dakota artist.

But I didn't grow up on a reservation.

I grew up here at Little Earth of United Tribes, an urban native community in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I attended a Native magnet school called Four Winds.

Outside of these areas, I never saw anything that reflected that Minneapolis is Dakota homelands.

So as an adult, I create public art that teaches people what it means to be Dakota.

I traveled back to my rez every summer as a child, and that's where I first learned about the sacred places from my mother, who grew up learning about the different nature spirits that still live there.

♪♪ Using augmented reality, I bring our ancient stories to life in the physical landscape, empowering everyone to see the significance of our homelands through our eyes.

With just a cellphone, anyone can connect more deeply with our sacred places.

When I say something is sacred, now you can understand what I mean.

♪♪ As a young child, the first sacred place my mother shared with me was Miniwakan Cante Paha, or Spirit Lake, Heart Hill.

It's a powerful place, like the beating heart of our community.

Some people call it Devil's Heart, even though no such thing exists in my culture.

Heart Hill holds profound significance, serving as the resting place of Cotanka, a legendary medicine man in my community.

♪♪ Originally born as a bear, Cotanka acquired his plant-medicine knowledge from his bear mother.

We believe the bear is the one who taught us which plant and root medicines to harvest in order to heal ourselves, and so Cotanka's powers grew with each challenge he faced.

And with the cunning of turtle by his side, he even outran a young thunder being, earning even greater medicine to mend and protect.

One day he was enticed by a beautiful sacred woman to enter her teepee, where he couldn't escape.

Once he did finally emerge from her teepee, he re-entered the world as a human baby.

His supernatural origins have not been forgotten by my people, and because this hill is the highest point around, we know his spirit still watches over the Spirit Lake nation.

Because my people respect such power, none wanted to own it when my reservation was open for land allotments.

So now a white man legally owns something that means so much to my people.

This reality merely adds another layer to the history embedded in the hill.

We know it's impossible to claim ownership of such sacredness.

We have had successes in reclaiming sacred sites on my reservation.

White Horse Hill, named after a horse seen racing into the hills during a thunderstorm, had its name restored recently.

It used to be called Sullys Hill, and it was named after General Alfred Sully, who had committed massacres against my Dakota people when we were exiled from Minnesota in 1863.

[ Horse snorts, whinnies ] ♪♪ The connections to our sacred sites have always been with me, even growing up in this urban area.

And using augmented reality, I can teach about these histories and the significance of the land anywhere, even here in Minneapolis, where there are many sacred Dakota places and historical locations that many people just don't know about.

These sacred sites have been waiting to be acknowledged once again.

And as an adult, I found a purpose in my art when I started to create resources to teach about them.

[ Vehicles passing in distance ] ♪♪ To help others see the world through Dakota eyes, we must start with the foundation of our society, our deep reverence for the land.

This is reflected in our language, which I use to create my Dakota land maps that connect the past and present through Dakota thought.

As Dakota people, our name for ourselves means "friendship" and "alliance."

Our society is built on being good relatives to all that surrounds us.

We call this wodakota, which means striving to live in balance with the universe.

Our language reflects our relationship to our homelands through kinship terms such as Uncí Makhá, which means "Grandmother Earth," honoring the land's nurturing and life-giving power.

The Dakota language is poetic and descriptive and allows the speakers to see the land in new and deeper ways.

A single Dakota word can evoke the beauty and complexity of the natural world in a way that takes a sentence in English to describe.

♪♪ Man: Mahpíya Hóta Win Wíta.

Ohéyawahe.

Wíta Thánka.

Wakpá Thánka.

Imnízaska Othúnwe.

Bde Ota Othúhwe.

Myles: It is a language of nuance and detail, embedding us in the movement of the seasons and the star world above.

We are the Wicahpi Oyate, the Star Nation, reflecting our cosmic origins among the stars.

In Dakota, there is no word for "art."

Instead, we use the complex word sicún, or spiritual potency and influence given to each human from a distant star at birth by the sacred motion of the universe.

When we use our sicún to create, we put our spirit in it for others to feel, and it creates a lingering presence that lasts long after we have returned to the stars.

We can feel sicún in the words of our favorite writers, the poems of our poets, the movement of dancers.

In the melodies of singers and their creations, we feel the eternal presence of their spirits.

♪♪ In Dakota culture, women have always been the creators.

Our sicún infused everything we made for our loved ones.

Women were honored for our generosity, spirit, our artistry, and our love.

The sicún has been passed down throughout the generations.

I draw upon the many Dakota women who have come before me.

As a Dakota artist, I feel their presence in the land, in our communities, and everything I create on my own.

I want my art to be a bridge between the seen and unseen worlds.

Augmented reality is the perfect metaphor for Native presence.

Dakota peoples' histories and stories are here, invisible at the moment to many.

Yet folks only need to look with new eyes at the deeper powers held here.

♪♪ This technology, augmented reality, brings that ancient knowledge into the present for future generations to access.

♪♪ I want my art to help people understand the sacredness of our land and our stories which are stored here.

I want my art to build relationships and interconnectedness.

My art is motivated by a desire for a better future, one where we build wodakota.

♪♪ When I look over my homelands, I'm reminded of how my ancestors honored our traditions in this sacred place.

We come from the stars, and to the stars we return.

This belief is reflected in Dakota thought, known as kapémni, the mirroring of worlds above and below.

We symbolized this mirroring of the worlds with inverted triangles.

The Milky Way above is known as Wanági Thachánku, the spirit road that we travel both in this life and when we pass on.

On earth, this road is reflected as the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers.

This is why my ancestors built burial mounds all along these bluffs overlooking the rivers, so that we could be buried in a place of honor close to our sources of power.

When I look at this landscape, I see the past, present, and future of our people.

Behind me are burial mounds over 2,000 years old.

My seven-time great-grandfather's village was beneath these bluffs, And he's also buried here.

Countless Dakota women came to this area to a place called Wakán Tipi Cave to give birth to the future generations of our people.

Our community would come together to bury our dead also in this place of honor, honoring the endless sacred hoop of life.

There used to be 40 burial mounds here, but because the European colonizers did not know how to treat the land in a sacred manner, they ravaged and destroyed many.

Today, only seven remain here in this park.

These actions can't be undone, but we can learn from mistakes.

Today, people from different communities are learning from Dakota people how to be good relatives to these burial mounds, to the different communities, and to the lands we live upon.

In the heart of Imníza Ská, the village along the white bluffs, also known as Saint Paul, Minnesota, I conceived the Dakota Spirit Walk, which is an innovative GPS-based augmented-reality installation using the Revelo AR app, crafted in collaboration with Pixel Farm and Todd Boss.

The inspiration for this endeavor struck me years ago while playing my flute at this site.

During one memorable instance, as my sister splashed water in time to the music, the evaporating droplets left behind delicate footprints, as if spirits of little children had danced to my songs.

In that moment, I sensed the lingering presence of them, patiently waiting for us to learn from them once again.

And so through the lens of a smartphone, augmented reality acts as a conduit to the spiritual energy, allowing stories older than land deeds to be shared without disrupting the natural landscape.

Along the Dakota Spirit Walk, visitors engage with Dakota spirits, who weave tales of history, mischief, warning, and wisdom, fostering a profound reconnection to this sacred place.

♪♪ [ Cellphone dings ] Uncí Makhá: Han.

I am Uncí Makhá, Grandmother Earth.

Pidamaya ye.

Thank you for visiting us.

I ask that you be humble to plant and animal relatives around you.

Be mindful of your actions on this journey, for you are on sacred ground.

If harm is done, you must repair it, as is being done with the land restoration happening here.

Please tread softly as you walk among the spirits and life forces here.

We are all related and must unite with the natural world as human beings.

Mitakuye owas'in.

♪♪ Myles: Mitakuye owas'in, meaning "we are all related," reminds us to be good relatives to all life because everything in the universe is sacred and related through Wakan Tanka, the great mystery.

This echoes the Big Bang theory that all matter and energy originated from a single point, reinforcing our cosmic connections and underscoring the sacredness of existence.

With the many challenges facing humanity, such as climate change, poverty, and inequality, the philosophy of mitakuye owas'in serves as a reminder of our interconnectedness.

It underscores the imperative need for collective action in shaping a better future for all, and failing to unite and address these issues could mean confronting the harsh consequences of our own actions.

[ Whooshing ] ♪♪ Unktehi: [Speaking Dakota] human.

I am Unktehi, the protector of the waters.

Look around all these pejuhuta.

These plants are medicine that come from Uncí Makhá.

And if I see you misusing or mistreating them, I will bring my terror upon you.

They are a gift to be cherished, just as the clean water.

Learn to value them the same as you value the love of your family.

♪♪ Myles: Tunkashila Inyan, Grandfather Stone, addresses us as his grandchildren.

Having witnessed the unfolding of countless worlds before ours, his enduring presence contains the many layers of history, uncovering narratives to the times that came before.

♪♪ Tunkashila Inyan: Oh, takoja.

I am Inyan, the Grandfather Stone.

Beneath these white bluffs we call Imníza Ská was once the village of Kaposia.

Their kinship with the land the village shared still flows around us.

If we are quiet and listen, the traditions of that village are still alive today as knowledge passed down from elders to the children.

Grown men may learn from very small children, for the hearts of children are pure.

And therefore [speaking Dakota] may show to them many things which older people miss.

♪♪ Myles: This sacred cave, known as Wakan Tipi, is a dwelling place of the sacred.

Throughout the ages, Dakota women came here to give birth to the future of Dakota people.

♪♪ Wakínyan: Now that you are nearing the end of this spirit walk, I, Wakínyan, the thunder, whose glance is lightning, come to tell you -- find balance.

Live in a good way.

Build a strong community with nature and mankind.

My thunderbolts represent the balance between life and death, earth and sky, as it connects land with the heavens.

As you stand on this earth, look above at the stars, where the energy of life comes from and where life goes after its journey ends on Earth.

Honor the burial mounds on the bluffs above as they are watching you, just as your ancestors watch over you from the heavens.

Feel the love in your heart of your relatives protecting you and take it with you as you leave this park.

[ Train chugging ] ♪♪ Myles: Inspired by the Dakota Spirit Walk, curator Wendy Wendy DePaolis invited me to work together to create the Sacred Hoop Walk at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.

Guided by Wóhpe, the Dakota spirit whose gentle hand wove beauty, compassion, and harmony into the fabric of life, visitors walk within the Cangleska Wakan, the sacred hoop that unites the sacred motion of the universe.

In a pivotal step towards kinship, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum embraced transformative change and now offers free admission to Indigenous people.

They dismantle the barrier that long separated us from this shared space.

This act transcends mere physical access.

It symbolizes a profound recognition of reclaiming the land as a relative.

For this opportunity to honor Wóhpe's teachings and nurture this profound relationship, I express my deepest gratitude.

♪♪ Wóhpe: In a former time I arrived as Wóhpe to bring harmony to Uncí Makhá, Grandmother Earth.

I returned later as Ptesan-Wi, White Buffalo Woman, to teach the Dakota people how to be good relatives, how to protect the Cangleska Wakan, the sacred hoop of life.

And I will return again, as all moves in a circle.

Look in each direction.

Protect the land, the water, and the animal people of all nations.

Restore the plant nation of Minnesota.

Restore the hooves of the Buffalo Nation to the prairies before our relatives, such as the Dakota skipper, monarch, Karner blue butterflies, and rusty patched bumblebees, fade forever away from the sacred hoop.

There is still time to mend the Cangleska Wakan, to heal the human impact on earth, to understand how to live in balance as your existence is intertwined, braided together in the sacred hoop.

Renew your relationship to the world around us.

Be good relatives to each other and protect those facing extinction using your gift of intelligence before they vanish from the sacred hoop forever.

[ Speaking Dakota ] Hold each other sacred.

♪♪ Above us is the [speaking Dakota] The pine trees whisper amongst themselves no matter the season Yet much of their conversations take place below us, deep with Grandmother Earth, the Uncí Makhá, Life above her may never have emerged without the relationships happening beyond the human eye.

The roots share resources with each other through a community of fungi.

The forest lives because of this cooperative harmony between the mother trees sharing her resources with her seedlings.

The kinship of trees protects them from the strong winds.

Neighbors holding each other up, passing down messages through the generations through their roots.

We can learn from this unseen mutualism how to live longer and stronger if we protect and honor our roles in the Cangleska Wakan, the Sacred Hoop.

♪♪ Myles: I partnered next with Cheryl Caponi of Caponi Art Park in Eagan, Minnesota, to bring the Wodakota Walk to life.

In historical encounters with Europeans, we entered into treaties, with the term "treaty" being translated to us as "wodakota."

This enduring principle remains an active commitment that we must honor as we cultivate community, creating a future where Uncí Makhá, Grandmother Earth, serves as a teacher, guiding us towards healing and reconciliation.

♪♪ By practicing wodakota, By learning to live in harmony with Uncí Makhá, Grandmother Earth, we can make a difference in the health of our planet and communities.

We are all born to protect and honor Grandmother Earth.

By being aware of her actions and making choices that are more sustainable, we can make a difference for future generations.

Grandmother Earth is watching.

♪♪ Step within Tunkashila Inyan, Grandfather Stone.

He has seen the birth and death of stars, the dance of planets around their suns.

He is the silent witness to the passage of time.

Grandfather Stone is a sacred place, an enduring place where one can connect with the deeper mysteries of life.

It is a place where one can learn about the past, the present, and the future.

It is a place where one can find wisdom, healing, and peace.

♪♪ Dakota people say we come from the stars and to the stars we shall return.

What is above is reflected below.

When we look upwards to the constellations, they instruct us in how to live in a good way.

We are each born with a star power that protects us.

Our ancestors and the stars above watch over us, offering us guidance as we strive for wodakota.

We are all connected above and below.

♪♪ ♪♪ Together, we can make a difference.

We can create a better world, a world where all beings can live in wodakota.

We are the intellect.

We are the dream.

We are the vision.

We are the hope.

We are the ones who see.

We are the ones who know.

We are the ones who care.

We are the ones who act.

We must use our intellect to dream of a better world, a world where all people are equal and all beings are respected.

We are the ones who can change the world.

We are the ones who can save Grandmother Earth.

We must act now.

We must not delay.

We must use our intellect to protect our Grandmother Earth.

Together we can make a difference.

We can create a better world, a world where all beings can live in wodakota.

We are the intellect.

We are the dream.

We are the vision.

We are the hope.

We are the ones who see.

We are the ones who know.

We are the ones who care.

We are the ones who act.

We must use our intellect to dream of a better world, a world where all people are equal and all beings are respected.

We are the ones who can change the world.

The messages embedded in my augmented-reality installations have been in the hearts of my people for countless generations.

And within each of us resides [speaking Dakota] the potency for creating positive change.

♪♪ To see the world through the eyes of Dakota people is to see a world of beauty, harmony, and interconnectedness.

It is to see a world that is full of potential for healing and transformation.

It is to see a world that is worth saving.

Together we can make a difference.

We can create a better world, a world where all beings can live in wodakota.

We are the intellect.

We are the dream.

We are the vision.

We are the hope.

We are the ones who see.

We are the ones who know.

We are the ones who care.

We are the ones who act.

We must use our intellect to dream of a better world, a world where all people are equal.