S’edav Va’aki Museum Hosting Indigenous Art Installation

The S’edav Va’aki Museum (SVM) is proud to announce its partnership with Cahokia PHX to host an immersive art installation in celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. See this pop-up exhibit for two days only on Saturday, October 10^th, and Sunday, October 11^th, in the Museum’s Community Room.

Founding Member of Cahokia PHX Eunique Yazzie shares. "As Indigenous artists, we create from a place of inherent right. The right to tell our own stories, define our own identities, and determine how our cultures are represented in the world. Leading this installation meant that self-determination was not only a theme but a practice; from the first conversation to the lessons we learned and the final touches on the canvas, we embraced this approach. We were a cohort of social entrepreneurs and brought our individual gifts to one shared space and demonstrated what Indigenous creative power looks like when it is fully in our own hands. We are an interwoven presence, and we are excited to share this traveling installation."

Roots We Water is a multidisciplinary immersive installation that centers Indigenous identity, sovereignty, and self-determination as living, inseparable forces — expressed through large-scale canvas, projection, and the material knowledge of four Native artists working in collective declaration.

The installation occupies space as an act of cultural assertion. To enter is to step into a field of memory, resistance, and continuity — where the land is not a backdrop but a subject, and water is not a resource but a relative.

Roots We Water is a collaborative creation of four multidisciplinary Indigenous artists, brought together through Cahokia PHX's artist development program:

Carrie "Cc" Curley — San Carlos Nnee (Apache) · Painter, Muralist, Photographer

Eunique Yazzie — Navajo/Diné · Designer, Multimedia Artist, Projection & Installation Artist

Diane Ovalle — Mexica/Yoeme · Photographer, Creative Activist, Cultural Altar Maker

Ernesto Burbank — Navajo/Diné · Painter, Tattoo Artist, Community Cultural Educator

Together, they form a cohort bound not by uniformity but by shared commitment — to their communities, their cultural inheritance, and the generations for whom this work is being made.

See this special traveling exhibit at SVM during our regular museum hours on Saturday October 10^th, (9:00 am – 4:00 pm) and Sunday October 11^th, (12:00 pm – 4:00 pm). There is no charge to view this special exhibit, and general museum admission applies to the museum galleries and archaeological trail.