Tears of Tahoma: Collaborative Art Project with Avanti High School
Tears of Tahoma
The below description of the collaborative art piece I created with Avanti High School students was written by the students as they reflected on the project. I am incredibly moved and humbled by their ability to maintain hope, take action, and help me understand what it is like to be a young person today. Thank you Avanti students and leaders! You can view more about this project on Instagram in my Reel videos HERE and HERE.
Tears of Tahoma
This was a collaborative piece between local artist Carrie Ziegler and the Avanti climate crisis and action class. This art piece represents climate change and how we can choose to change our future for the better. This piece has visible ties to Avanti high school and Olympia as a whole. It draws inspiration from Mt. Tahoma and the indigenous knowledge of the tribes of this region. The words in the mountain were rewritten to fit Avanti; the original speech comes from the Haudenosaunee tribe, who reside in the area we know as New York. We strive to spread awareness of climate change and the impact we have on our planet.
The climate crisis is having immense damage to our environment and ourselves. The snowpack on Mt. Tahoma is decreasing, we have to wear masks because of smoke from wildfires and our city’s downtown is flooding. Despite this crisis, we choose to hold on to hope. Our title, “Tears of Tahoma”, was inspired by the devastating effects that pollution has on our environment. Even though the name might have a scary meaning the raindrops have two sides to show the duality of a regenerative vs an extractive economy and how we choose to make that shift. We choose to have a reciprocal relationship with our plant teachers and environment. By making these very deep and personal internal shifts, we change the world. We challenge you to find one way that YOU can make the shift. From extractive to regenerative. From a model of scarcity to one of abundance. From despair to hope. From crisis to action. What would the world look like…?
