Many might know today as Columbus Day, which celebrates the Italian explorer’s arrival to America in 1492. But to many others, today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a counter-event that honors Native Americans whose lives were destroyed by colonial rule.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day has been celebrated since it was first introduced in 1977 at an indigenous conference but took over a decade to be officially acknowledged and remains overlooked.
Today, the artist-founded initiative For Freedoms is launching a country-wide billboard project honoring the day, featuring more than 50 different billboards designed by artists including Ai Weiwei, Marilyn Minter and Shepard Fairey in everywhere from South Carolina to Montana and Alaska. It’s what they call The 2020 Awakening, and is inspired by the Wide Awakes, a group of 19th-century activists who helped cultivate the youth vote.
“Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day is an attempt to change the narrative by changing the narrators,” said Claudia Peña, the executive director of For Freedoms. “We’re showcasing artists who ask provocative questions, and in this, the narrative of the 2020 election will involve conversation between artists and the residents who see these billboards, mostly in rural areas.”
Seven artists in the country-wide project speak about what today means to them, their billboards and voting next month.
( source – https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/oct/12/indigenous-peoples-day-billboard-project?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other )
