A Spellbinding Conversation with Jessica Metha
Jessica Metha is an Aniyunwiya, multi-award-winning, queer, multi-, and inter-disciplinary author and artist. Her writings, poetry, and art have been published and exhibited widely. Her most recent exhibit, "Beguiled," is displayed at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Jessica is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.
Jessica is finishing her tenure as the poet-in-residence at Hugo House. In one week (April 1), she will be performing alongside a local Indigenous guitarist who will be putting one of her long poems ("Her Name Was Rita") to music. She will also be reading a newer poem here in honor of the Ukrainians. Natives have a long history of friendship and trade with Ukrainians. Jessica worked with a Ukrainian speaker on this poem.
In early 2023 Jessica's artwork will be on display at Columbia City Gallery (Seattle). She is currently working with the curator to decide on pieces (as one has legal ramifications to consider)--it is a small 3-D piece that draws attention to the opioid epidemic in NDN country and honors her mother, who died of an opioid overdose. The exhibit will use her mother's opioids and ashes as part of the work).
Jessica is currently prepping for her MBA in American Indian Entrepreneurship at Gonzaga University. She hopes to be the catalyst for founding a yogic-based non-profit for Indigenous People. Her most recent publication of a collection of her writing, "When We Talk of Stolen Sisters," is a finalist for the Oregon Book Award, the awards ceremony happening in late April. Her first children’s picture book, “One of Kokum’s Kids,” received a 2022 publication prize from Lee & Low Books and will be released in 2023. I had the pleasure and honor of asking Jessica about the inspiration from her father's life and death, her artistic statement, how creating art and writing led to a bridge of self-discovery, and so much more.
UZOMAH: Can you state your artistic statement and the inspiration behind it?
JESSICA: Well, my artist statement that I typically use is a page-long lol. However, the opening sentence sums everything up quite well: As an Aniyunwiya, Two-Spirit, queer, Indigenous artist and writer, space, place, and de-colonization inform all my work—professionally, personally, and creatively.
emBODY poetry: Photographic still of a performance series in which a poem is hand-painted on nude body-as-canvas. This piece of ephemera is derived from the series debut in what is often called Washington DC (2019).
U: Your father survived being in the horrific condition of the boarding schools that forced indigenous children from their parents. As the GLEAN: Portland artist, your series "Strong FoundNations" brings attention to the history of the "Indian boarding schools." How did you discuss this project with your father and how did you want this project to bring even more awareness beyond Portland?
J: My father died 17 years ago from Hepatitis C caused by a dirty prison tattoo needle. However, my work raising awareness about this history is not confined to just this project. "The Red C[h]airn Project" debuted during my residency as the Ucross Native American artist-in-residence in 2021 and was chosen as one of four pieces to re-open the Ucross Art Gallery in 2023. My 9-month residency at Halcyon Art Labs in Washington DC (2018 – 2019) also centered on this history.
Red/Act: 8x4 feet experimental poetry overlaid on vinyl with an archival family image. This form of poetry, antipodes, is collected in a book by the same name (New Rivers Press, 2021)
U: How can indigenous artists use both literary and visual arts to bring more attention to the issues they face that are often overlooked?
J: If anything is borderless, it is our countries and art. I spent too many years avoiding weaving visual/performance art into my work as a poet because I thought I didn't belong. I was "just a poet." However, it is our responsibility as creatives to meet our audiences and potential audiences where they are—this isn't always in bookstores, at poetry readings, or at galleries and exhibitions.
Red C[h]airn Project: Mid-scale installation addressing the history of the "Indian" residential boarding "school" history of Turtle Island. Materials: school desk chairs, acrylic and spray paint, text from turn of the century "curriculum." Debuted at Ucross Foundation during my tenure as the Native American artist-in-residence, autumn 2021. Earmarked to open the renovated Ucross Art Gallery in 2023
U: What are some artistic benefits of being both a visual artist and a literary artist in creating?
J: Options breed opportunity on every level, including creatively and professionally. This provides more room to explore. It opens new means of networking which, like it or not, is a key component for working writers and artists.
GLEAN Strong FoundNations: A series of 8 pieces gleaned from the local "dump," comprised of rebar and construction materials overlayed with a poem typed on onion-skin paper. It is a complement to the Red C[h]airn Project. All materials were found/gleaned for an exhibition at Maddox Bldg Jan - March 2022.
U: How can schooling systems at all levels address the lack of historically accurate recording of indigenous people's impact on this country and throughout the world?
J: That is a question that would take several books to answer. There are countless places to start. It is not just what is in the curriculum (which varies in severity of how problematic it is). It is in something as seemingly small as the "State" law in "Oregon," which requires "all K-12 students to have the opportunity once per week to say the Pledge of Allegiance." My Kindergartener recently started reciting it at the dinner table. I checked with her teacher, and indeed it is a state law that the children do this, though she "could stay quiet." She is 5—she wants to be like all her classmates. But one nation? There are hundreds—hundreds of Native Nations on these stolen, occupied lands. "Under God?" (yes, that specific phrase is required in Oregon). That is quite like the forcing of Christianity and indoctrination that my father survived in residential "school." Colonization is rampant in our schools, in every part of it. Honestly, I dream of a local tribal school because de-colonizing and un-indoctrinating our school systems would probably require a total tearing down of what they are and a rebuilding with Indigenization at the core.
Beguiled: Small-scale installation currently on exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art to address eating disorders. Materials include faux fruits, handmade wax, acrylic paint, vintage measuring tape, and a hidden poem.
U: How has creating art and writing made a bridge for self-discovery?
J: I have no idea because this is all I've ever known. However, I can say that one psychiatrist told me that if I weren't a writer, they would prescribe writing. But, as they said, "Obviously, you've been self-medicating [with writing] your whole life. Otherwise, you'd be insane because trauma breeds psychosis." But I am still discovering. It is a life-long process. Perhaps, if I am lucky enough to become very old, I will know a fraction of a percent of who I am.
For more information about Jessica’s writings and art please visit her site, and find her on Facebook.
