Liberation

What does an Indigenous liberation for Sewanhaky look like? In one sense, liberation is always about resistance—resistance to being defined by colonial governments, resistance to land theft and brutality, and resistance to historical narratives that attempt to diminish the validity and on-going connection between Indigenous peoples and lands. We see liberation in the efforts of Montaukett and Matinecock people asking for recognition and land reparations in what is now New York state, through the hard work by Shinnecock people protecting their ancestors' lands from further desecration from development, and in the vibrant artwork pictured here that interrupts a Western-centered art history narrative. Indigenous art of Sewanhaky asks us to question inequities in our communities and it insists that we critique the systems that create disparity.

Sewanhaky is approximately 1400 square miles of land. The lands federally recognized as the Shinnecock Nation amount to less than 1 and a half square miles (800 acres), and Poospatuck (Unkechaug Nation), covers even less territory (52 acres). In 1640, when the first English colonists arrived on Shinnecock lands, they were warmly greeted and given land. In the almost 400 years since English settlers arrived, Shinnecock and other Indigenous peoples of Sewanhaky have fought and continue to fight to protect their lands from development.