Song for the Moon
2002
Native philosophies offer different ways of knowing the land, including the belief that all animate and inanimate beings are alive and indivisible from the land. Nature and its many features are thought to be sacred, not scenic. According to an orally transmitted Puyallup narrative, the land was formless at the beginning of time and its beings didn’t have their distinct characteristics. The creator sent dukwibuł, the Changer, to shape the formlessness into mountains, lands, and waterways and to give animals their talents so that humans could prosper and live in harmony with all life forms. Since then, humans have moved through the landscape on seasonal journeys—from saltwater to freshwater, from beach to mountains—collecting food and materials for living. The Changer is here represented by the face in the Moon, where he went after his long journeys were done. He is instructing Wolf to protect humans through prayer and ceremony, hence the drum.
Acrylic on canvas
101 x 42 x 1 in. (256.5 x 106.7 x 2.5cm)
Purchased with funds from the Seattle Art Museum Docents, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
2022.17
Provenance: [Stonington Gallery, Seattle, Washington]; purchased from gallery by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2006
