- I can tell you who I am.

I can tell you who my ancestors are, and they would say Taino-Ti, which means good be on to you.

That led to them being identified as the Taino people.

It is important for me to say it so that you know it and you can at least have heard it.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) My name is Joel Rosario Tapia.

I'm also known as Caciques Tureygua Taino Cay.

I'm the chief of a tribe of pre-colonial families called the Cibuco-Bayamon Taino Tribe.

I came up with the idea for Remedy from the Providence Biennial for Contemporary Art.

Because of the three Rs, it comes from remedy, redress and repatriation.

Remedy is medicine, Remedy is a resolution.

And today, I feel like a lot of this honest dialogue about who we really are is needed.

(upbeat music) So hold on one second, let me look at the Ganzas real quick.

For me, it's her delving into her identity, discovering, well, I put this one before this one.

Remedy was 50% of a curatorial vision by the Providence Biennial for Contemporary Art.

Again, what I was thinking about this one, I don't really have enough room to lay it out.

I curated the work of about 14 artists, so it required me getting to know them very well.

Balance of color, bang.

I have been studying the art of curation, I've been in and out of many exhibitions, and I usually see artists that may have a lot of say when you have a conversation with them, but they don't necessarily have a lot to say to the public because everyone doesn't always know who they are.

(gentle music) For Remedy, I thought about the audience.

I thought about how the flow would feel for someone visiting this space for the first time.

I kind of like this setup, it's just this little one, 'cause it's such a different scale than the rest of them.

Let's see.

Move this one slightly over this one.

- So this way?

- Yeah.

It's more at a eye level.

I'm gonna switch these again.

This one for this one.

The scale of that one is just, I like the way it looks.

I needed to be physically involved in the process because it's part of the ceremony of it.

You aren't doing it if you're not doing it.

I gotta go run to my gallery and get a mannequin.

I did have a mannequin in my gallery that I usually show some of my clothing designs on and I can go grab it and bring it and it would bring another element to the presentation.

Okay.

And it was perfect.

So yes, I deviated for an hour.

I went, I ran, I sweat, to make that happen because I knew it would add the value and I think it did.

My ability to interface with institutions, I gained and learned in the military.

When I went to Iraq for my first time, I became basically a jack of all trades.

So I was hanging outside of a Humvee as the only person to deal with the threats when they came.

I've been through all kinds of treatment and support groups and different things like that at the VA for post-traumatic stress.

But I had to go through all of those steps to be able to have a better way of understanding it.

You gotta go through the struggle in order to realize the vision and yeah, that's me.

(upbeat drumbeat and singing) - [Man] Thank you everybody.

- It's important to me to understand the language and traditions of the cultures that are the inhabitants of the lands that I live on.

It's important for me to speak the words of the Algonquin speakers.

(upbeat drumbeat and singing) The opening night for me was, it was a process of mindfulness, but the medicine of the drum kept my energy levels really high and it was like, it was like a dream, it was surreal.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) Remedy was a milestone.

It served as a milestone in my artistic career and it allowed me to have a voice and combine that voice synergistically with others.

I think that this concept in trying to represent artists and let them tell their stories, that's what I wanted to contribute with Remedy is allow us to be seen and allow us all to have these conversations.

I think it's been very effective here and it can be a model in the world of art.

(upbeat drum music and singing and chanting) - Thank you.

- Aho.

- [Man] Bring a little venison.

(upbeat music)