Jamie John’s Indigenous identity is central to much of his art, and the mural he has created for ArtPath is no exception.
They're a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
"I call my people the Kitchi Wiikwedong Anishinaabek which means the People of the Big Bay," he said.
The background of John’s mural is made up of three different colors: blue for both the sky and water, green for the land and brown for the earth.
At the top of the piece is a turtle with trees on its back to represent the Anishinaabe creation story of Turtle Island. It’s what some Indigenous tribes call North and Central America.
In the story, the Creator has flooded the Earth to start life anew. All of the animals each try to swim down to collect dirt to recreate the land, but only the muskrat is able to succeed, though it dies in the process. The soil the muskrat collected is then placed on a turtle’s back to create what we today know as the North and Central Americas.
The muskrat is right near the middle of the mural, outlined in white paint, holding a clump of dirt in its paw.
"I'm really excited to see the muskrat go up too because he is the one that gave his life for the earth as we know it now to be born on the back of the turtle."
John has added more than a dozen other animals around the center of the scene including a beaver, a porcupine and even a spider.
"We have a moose and a deer, bear, a crane, buffalo, an otter, and some hummingbirds and dragonflies and fish," they added.
At the bottom of the mural is a woman whose long, flowing braids almost frame the piece. She is the "Land Defender Elder" that John has named the piece after.
"As much as she is symbolic, she is also, you know, my aunt Connie. She's my mom. She is my great grandma Alice. She's the little girls that I see that are my cousins that are gonna grow up."
John says these women are the backbone of native communities.
"Often, it's women who are on the frontlines of these spaces against pipelines, against energy development, against water pollution."
It’s intentional the woman John painted is older because it means she has fought and survived.
"It doesn't come without scars. It doesn't come without signs of aging. It doesn't come without certain traumas."
They say these fights almost always go back to the environment.
"We have relationships to bodies of water, to land sites, not only ceremony sites, but sites of contemporary cities, urban settings, rural settings. But this was all at one point and still is indigenous land."
It's women who are on the frontlines of these spaces against pipelines, against energy development, against water pollution.
For him, acknowledging that is the place to start, but more can be done to show solidarity with Indigenous people. Actions like keeping waterways clean, encouraging the growth of native plants and protecting wildlife can have an impact.
I would hope that someone would take the time to understand like, oh, this fish is actually a sturgeon fish, or this is actually a rusty patched bumblebee, or this is a sandhill crane because these are all indigenous animals to Northern Michigan.
John says even he has learned to respect animals he doesn’t necessarily like, because of their importance to the greater ecosystem
"I didn't love insects or maybe like slimier creatures when I was growing up, but I am now learning to be more ecologically mindful of what these creatures do, what teachings they're able to give us, why they're here," they said.
In the same way, John wants people to understand their own connections to the animals he’s included in the mural.
"I would hope that someone would take the time to understand like, oh, this fish is actually a sturgeon fish, or this is actually a rusty patched bumblebee, or this is a sandhill crane because these are all indigenous animals to Northern Michigan."
Jamie John’s mural Land Defender Elder is located on the side of the Shiawassee Bridge on the West side of the Grand River.
The Lansing Art Gallery and Education Center is a supporter of WKAR.
