Rewriting the narrative of myths as artists

Observing the works of Wendy Red Star and Kambui Olujimi both create a conflict in how I have experienced the world and its myths. Wendy Red Star’s work breaks the notion that Native Americans are in fact a deceased culture that can only be accessed via history books. Her images of Native American photographs with corrections with red pen symbolize the idea that the people behind the images have a narrative that deserves to be known about.

Red Star is redefining the myths we have around Native american culture and heritage as we have been taught to believe the myth of the Indian in the cowboy film or the extinct Indian who lives within relics in natural history museum.

We see a similar narrative in Kambui Olujimi's “Skywriters” series. The visual installation redefines the concept of where and who mythology comes from/ can be about. Mythology has largely been defined as myths from the Greco Roman tradition. This is true to the extent that the system for time, constellations, our calendar- are all named based on greco Roman mythology. The names and myths from Kambui's own background have largely become casualties to the same colonization process and people that created the void in Res Star's culture.

Olujimi's work is important because it rewrites the narrative of myths intertwined with eurocentrism the beauty of the myth is that it serves to create a lineage of a people to with heritage nd here, olujimi sets a point in time to redefine the very constellations and creation myths that were taken away through colonialism.