Snapping Turtle, Plains Coreopsis
- ink on tyvek
- Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez
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Not For Sale
Snapping Turtle
Chelydra serpentina (Linnaeus)
Khewóyuspa (Lakȟóta)
Traditional Lakota culture followed a lunar calendar, with thirteen months of twenty-eight days. Because the khéya (turtle) had “13 large scales on its back, and 28 small scales around the shell,” it “became an important symbol in Lakota society.” Thus the “spirit” of the khéya is “the guardian of life, longevity and fortitude. An amulet in the shape of a keya is made for every newborn baby in many families” (Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, “Keya”).
Plains Coreopsis
Coreopsis tinctoria (Nuttall)
Čhaŋȟlóǧaŋ wakȟályapi (Lakȟóta)
The Lakota name translates literally as “boiling weed.” And so, according to Linda Black Elk, “This plant is known as ‘life-medicine’ and the dried plant is used to make a coffee substitute.” Perhaps more interestingly, “Lakota women made an infusion of the shoots [. . .] when they desired a female child” (“Culturally Important Plants of the Lakota”).
For this collection, the artist would like to acknowledge the following people:
Thomas Gannon, Associate Professor, English and Ethnnic Studies, UNL for writing the accompanying texts. Sofía F. Echeverry for her work as studio assistant.
Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez is a Colombo-American, mid-career artist with an interdisciplinary practice. She grew up in Colombia as the child of a Colombian and a United States citizen and migrated to the US as an adult. Her art is about the curious and intense experience of having physically migrated, yet still having a piece of herself rooted in Colombia. She is creating an intersectional feminist visual novel that is a multifaceted project comprised of paintings, sculptures, objects, and mixed media that together—and in different voices—weave a synchronicity of dialogues, passages, and punctuations about hybridity and cultural ownership.
- Created: June 2021
- Inventory Number: 20V.739.2021
- Current Location: University of Nebraska Lincoln - Enterprise Technology at Nebraska Hall - 1400 R St Lincoln, NE 68588 (google map)
- Collections: 1. New Acquisitions, University of Nebraska Lincoln