Shaneen Johnson

ACM: Newark Museum Exhibit

Growing up in a predominately black community, it was always said “you have Indian in your family.” I am a light skinned, nappy red headed girl with freckles and I guess that was the easiest explanation. Although never verified, I assumed this identity as a child and claimed it as my own.  Elders assumed we blacks, like the Natives of this land, were victims and identified our story with theirs. This not only made us communal but also neighbors.

This tale integrated its roots within the black community and is still being told.  I believe it helps us to seek an identity since ours is unknown. It helped us seek a commonality in a land where skin color was priority and the right to live was based on someone else's value of your life.

This indian  myth may or may not be true.  I have no idea if I have Indian blood in  my veins. I look at my family pictures and see features that I've inherited from both my parents.  Both sides sell their stories of heritage differently. My father's side shares a history full of integration, migration and segregation.  This side has horror stories of slavery, addiction and family secrets. The other, was a lot more spiritual. This side speaks on building churches with brick and mortar and training their daughters to be independent members of society.  Deeply spiritual, they relied heavily on the Bible and never dared to deny their sweet Jesus. They warned us that so much as a glance at a ouija board would wither our soul.

It is interesting, that within both sides of my family, and a lot of African American families alike, they do not really pass down any mythological tales. Most truths are now being sought out and are just being realized and acknowledged through the advances of technology. My families embedded a here-and-now sense of reality within the children and to only learn from the past.  Ironically, those Biblical stories can be considered mythological. Stories of splitting seas and slaying giants seem almost too wonderful to believe. Nevertheless, these stories gave hope and faith to my family to keep them marching forward in difficult times.

Those stories are the reason I chose the following four photographs to represent a few things.  The first was to symbolize the lineage of ancestry that may or may not belong to me. The second is the many silhouettes that have come before me; I too will be a silhouette one day. The third, a chief sitting in a chair, reminds me that although I do not know if this blood runs in my veins, there may be royalty in my bloodline and I should act accordingly. The last image is to show the dimensions of this life, from generation to generation, the things forgotten and the things remembered, from time past to the times to come.

I plan to do one of those genealogy test one day.  I hope it reveals some truths about my narrative so I may correct or verify some of the myths that surround my own identity.  I can honestly say, I will be a bit disappointed if the test reveal that I am not of Indian descent of some kind. My story, like many of us born in America, started our lives on their land and in some small sort of arrogance, would like to say that we are not only neighbors but also family.  

 

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