let me be (minwaadendamowin) is a photo-based installation that co-exists with traditional and sentimental objects. Accompanied with recorded sound to come together to act as an offering into a sacred installation that shares concepts around respect and distance between viewer and subjects. Minawaadendamowin means respect in Ojibwe. The photos come from the backyard of my home on my native land. It is a place of memory, truth, humility, and happiness. It is to be kept safe and secret with me. It is where I remember swinging back and forth, back and forth on the large pine tree. As the pine tree begins to settle down for winter, losing its needles to create an orange blanket on the ground. I am reminded that as the season changes from cool to cold, as all of creation prepares to rest, I must rest too. I must heal and protect. Blanket me as nature does. I must take time. Listen. Silence. I must rest my eyes earlier in the night and wait for the warmth just as creation does. We must let creation be. Minwaadendamowin. We become one, resting together. Healing together. So I ask.
Let me be.
Give me space.
Minwaadendamowin.