“But Altogether Unique”

Words on cover:
“a force in nature”
“but altogether unique”
“This is the story of our life.”

When did you start resenting your regality, exchanging natural elegance
for colonized casualness that originates from fear and is irreverent?

Details:
108pp.
5x7”

Materials: freshwater pearls, tusk seashells, glass beads, various paper

Notes:
Our peoples are regal—it’s a natural expression. A HUGE part of our becoming westernized meant we were forcibly or mentally conditioned into stripping of our regality and taking on the confirmative dress of our oppressors. When we wear our cultural dress, they can’t handle us; they don’t know what to do with us, they make laws or “dress codes” to suppress us and keep us from donning the dress that connects us with our innate, unapologetic regality. From bobos to saris to the textiles we weave and the bones we carve for jewelry—our cultural dress is something to which we must return. Screw how they look at us when we dress like who we are without their interference. The Western lie is that our nonwestern wardrobe is a costume worth nothing more than display in a museum or to be appropriated by oppressors.