On #IndigenousPeoplesDay, @forgeprojectny Digital Storytelling Fellow @canoecanoa attended the SHATTER/// performance by Demian DinéYazhi’ @heterogeneoushomosexual and Kevin Holden @navahomo at @ccasantafe. SHATTER/// heavily resonated with the revolutionary ambitions embodied by the artists. The performance completely enveloped attendees, those who were in the theater and those only a few feet away from the artists in the gallery. The sense of anticipation and excitement was contagious as the performance increased momentum. After the first item was thrown, shattered pieces of glass and ceramic flew across the concrete floor. The wall in the gallery that had been neatly arranged with an “accumulation of dishonorable Indigenous stereotypes” became sparse and slowly, every item was transformed through the cathartic act of destruction. Destruction, then, was the vehicle in which community and ceremony were activated. “Indigenous performance art is more than a mere spectacle,” DinéYazhi’ says. “It has the potential to be ceremonial: to be offering: to be prayer: to be a conjuring force that supplements the revolutionary force(s) that fuel radical ambitions.” “The shattering is cathartic: the catharsis paves the way to beauty: the beauty was always present in our survival: our Survivance is an ancestral legacy that demands nurturing.” DinéYazhi’ (they/them) is a Diné transdisciplinary artist, writer, and curator who uses social interventions to interrupt colonial power structures. Holden is a Diné, Irish, German, and Norwegian composer and sound artist based in and around Portland, Oregon. The SHATTER/// performance is dedicated to DinéYazhi’s cousin Lee Renee Anderson, as well as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Trans, Femmes, 2Spirit, and Queer relatives, commonly known as #MMIW or #MMIP. (Forge Project is also excited to share that an iteration of the SHATTER/// performance will be activated in the Mahicannituck River Valley. Follow this feed for updates!) Photos by @canoecanoa + @heterogeneoushomosexual