17 Apr
A new book about The Border Crossed Us is available for order on lulu.com.
The book includes 42 full-color pages with maps, photographs, two essays, and other documentation of the work that made The Border Crossed Us possible.
21 Nov
This time-lapse video was compiled from photos taken by a motion-sensing camera designed for hunting. The sound is from the Eagle Song, a song of welcome and strength sung by Ofelia Rivas of the Tohono O’odham to the students on the UMass campus. During the installation, the song played from the underground vent in front of the fence.
25 Apr
An inspiring and disturbing portrait of the Tohono O’odham situation on the US-Mexico international border.
By Jason Jaacks of Cordillera Productions
24 Apr
The University Museum of Contemporary Art partnered with Artists in Context to present this tour on a rainy, rainy, rainy New England spring day led by Ofelia Rivas & Flora Marietta (Tohono O’odham) and Catherine D’Ignazio (the Institute for Infinitely Small Things).
22 Apr
In conjunction with the Native Studies program. With guests Ofelia Rivas (Tohono O’odham), Solomon “Rocky” Bear (Maliseet), Curtis Lazore (Mohawk), and moderator Ramona Peters (Director, Cultural Survival Board, Cambridge MA). The panelists discussed their experiences of living on both sides of the “imaginary” borders of US-Canada and US-Mexico, being repeatedly asked to declare their citizenship, and the ways in which they subvert the border, initiate educational sessions with border patrol staff and assert their identities as original peoples of the land.
22 Apr
The sound alternates between a blessing sung by Ofelia Rivas of the Tohono O’odham and helicopter field recordings and construction sounds from the border. The sound comes from a large vent in the ground.
22 Apr
By Phoebe Mitchell for the Daily Hampshire Gazette
Visiting her neighbor used to involve a 15-minute walk for Ofelia Rivas. But since the fence went up along the United States-Mexico border in 2007, dividing the Tohono O’odham reservation in southern Arizona where Rivas and other tribe members live, that visit now involves at least a two-hour drive, as well as passing through a border checkpoint. [READ ON]
22 Apr
By Brian Canova for the Massachusetts Daily Collegian
From afar, bicyclists slow as they inch up, peer around the corner and disappear behind the fence while disrupted foot traffic files in and out one by one. They approach what appears to be a construction site and hear the sounds of Native American ceremonial hymns, with the clanking of machinery and noisy helicopters surrounding the exhibit… [Read on]
This project was commissioned by the University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass Amherst.
Thanks to Ofelia Rivas and O'odham Voice Against the Wall.
Thanks to Artists in Context and the UMass Anthropology Department & Native American Studies Certificate program for collaborating on the programming.
Thanks to those who worked on the project including Rob Coshow, David Raymond, Larry Sampson and the staff at UMass Amherst.
Our sponsors include Technomad, the UMass Hotel at Umass Amherst, the Berkshire Taconic Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, Artists in Context, RISD Professional Development Fund and UMass Amherst.
