Good Relative: Creating Kinship with Fire and More-Than-Human Beings by Lydia Cheshewalla

Session Details
Date: 04/23
Time: 6:30-8:30pm CT / 7:30-9:30pm ET
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83766146223
Meeting ID: 837 6614 6223

Virtual online session
Sessions are open to the public
Closed captions available
Sessions are not posted online

Join us for TANDA: Good Relative: Creating Kinship with Fire and More-Than-Human Beings by Lydia Cheshewalla

I started researching prairie ecosystems, unintentionally, as a child through the fact of location. Growing up in rural Northeastern Oklahoma on my tribal reservation, I interfaced daily with an ecoregion, simultaneously natural and man-made, existing at the crossroads of stewardship and exploitation. The Great Plains ecoregion, spanning across the central portion of what is known primarily as the Midwest of America, is an environment geologically created through tectonic shifts and glacial retreats. It is cultivated by the Indigenous peoples of the area through the repeated and intentional application of fire to land. This practice of prescribed-burning was understood to be part of a deep and complex relationship of place that considered not just human needs or desires but also what was beneficial for more-than-human beings, such as bison, butterflies, plants, and the earth itself. The resulting prairie ecosystems were sites of ecological diversity, interdependence, and sustainability with nutrient-rich soil whose large swaths of grasses reflected light away from the planet with a global cooling effect. Its root systems sequestered carbon more effectively than forests. However, in the wake of settler colonialism, the nutrient abundance of prairieland soil became the foundation for large-scale agriculture and Indigenous practices of prescribed-burnings and land stewardship diminished as colonialism spread across the region. It contributes to environmental issues such as habitat loss, poor soil and water quality, loss of insect + plant + animal diversity, species extinction, and preventable wildfires—ongoing issues that continue to worsen, contributing directly to climate injustice.

Illinois, regarded as the prairie state, has seen some of the greatest loss of prairie ecosystems, including more recently the destruction of the 8000 year old Bell Bowl gravel prairie which was home to an endangered bee. What impact does loss of local ecosystems have on climate justice and community health? How can we combat and remediate colonial misinformation surrounding fire ecology and land stewardship as we consider climate change long term in the Midwest? How can we harness our collaborative strengths to create expansive ecosystems of care? How do we witness the role of beyond-human beings in the creation of ecosystems of care?

Lydia Cheshewalla is an Osage ephemeral artist from Oklahoma, living and working in motion throughout the Great Plains ecoregion. Through the creation of site-specific land art and ephemeral installations that are grounded in Indigenous land stewardship practices and kinship pedagogies, Lydia engages in multivocal conversations about place and relationship. By working within a framework of change and collaborating with beyond-human kin, she rejects Capitalist reliance on scarcity, immortality, preciousness, and waste production in the creation of value and remains responsive (responsible) to the realities of shifting ecologies in an age of climate crisis. Her work has been shown at Generator Space, the Union for Contemporary Art (Omaha, NE), Comfort Station, Harold Washington Library, and the Center for Native Futures (Chicago, IL) among others. She was awarded a 2020 Tallgrass Artist Residency and participated in the 2022/23 Chicago Art Department Think Tank: On Mending. She has been filling the bucket with water to see if it leaks.

About the Tanda Program
Interweaving the formats of seminars, book clubs, research groups, and tandas, Tanda is a cohort program that aids individuals with their research and practice through self-directed and collective learning. It is a program providing time and space to gather, share, think and exchange conversations, resources, and knowledge on participants’ chosen topics. Tanda is a program by Chuquimarca.

About Chuquimarca
Chuquimarca is an art library participating in the making and exchanging of art knowledge and language by gathering art books and organizing cohort-led programs. It acquires art books. It supports research through the Tanda program. It supports art writers through the Muña Art Writing Residency. Chuquimarca is based in Chicago.

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Tags: Chicago, Chuquimarca, Good Relative: Creating Kinship with Fire and More-Than-Human Beings, Lydia Cheshewalla, Tanda