Swamp Milkweed
- ink on tyvek
- Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez
-
Not For Sale
Swamp Milkweed
Asclepias incarnata (Linnaeus)
Wahíŋheya íphiye (Lakȟóta)
“The Lakota people would rub the root on sores caused by a rare form of tuberculosis called scrofula. The medicine man would sometimes use swamp milkweed in his recipes to purify the sick. The Sioux would gather the flowers in the morning, while they were covered in dew, and then squeeze out and boil the juice from the flowers to make a brown sugar. The Dakota would cook the flowers and fruits of the milkweed like any other vegetable. The plant is referenced in an Ojibwa myth known as the Ladder in the Sky.” (Ethnobiology: Indigenous Knowledge. Rdway Field Station) “An infusion of the roots [of this plant] is used to treat asthma, rheumatism, syphilis, and a weak heart” (L. Black Elk, “Culturally Important Plants of the Lakota”). Apparently, syphilis was not one of the diseases that the “white man” brought with colonialism, given the “very popular hypothesis” the “Columbus fleet [. . .] brought the affliction on their return form [sic] the New World in 1493” (Tampu et al., “Brief History of Syphilis,” in Journal of Medicine and Life).
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.755.2021
- 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