We acknowledge the traditional homelands of the Indigenous People which Purdue University is built upon. We honor and appreciate the Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi), Lenape (Delaware), Myaamia (Miami), and Shawnee People who are the Indigenous caretakers of the land.

“May creativity be our guide as we remember and uncover regenerative ways of caring for each other!”

- Liv Palepoi

Exemplifying the various forms of survivance, adaptation, and flourishment of the contributors’ Indigenous communities and guided by the words quoted above, this exhibition is an explicit celebration of the contributors’ individual and collective connections to place and people. Each contributed piece celebrates one’s rich and rooted connections – to where and from who one derives – that together celebrate the multiple connections that comprise each person. 

Through various mediums and expressions, pieces in this collaborative exhibition destabilize multiple assumptions about Indigeneity at once using both digital and physical mediums, as well as recycled materials, paint, faux glass, and beading. Many pieces are centered on a contributor’s perspective of cultural fluidity contending that Indigeneity is not a static identity to time or place – not history, but continuity.  

As academics, this exhibition also contends with the boundaries of what is considered research knowledge. With many contributors having backgrounds in STEM fields at an institution that privileges them, these pieces depict scholarly work that exceeds typical STEM research products in their centering on creativity and an active incorporation of non-STEM elements. Through the gathering with one another, these pieces collectively illustrate that to be an Indigenous student, scholar, and/or researcher in academia is not a monolithic experience but a point of connection and departure.