Southeastern Indian Art | NC | Jessica Clark Art

UNCW Honoring Southeast NC Indigenous Peoples

Honoring Southeast NC Indigenous Peoples is a collaboration between UNCW Community Engagement and Impact, the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, and members of several North Carolina tribal communities. This project is about bringing awareness to contemporary Native issues while also celebrating our perseverance and traditions. The compositions of the paintings consist of personal photos as well as photos collected from members of Native communities, including the Lumbee and Waccamaw Siouan. With this work I wanted to merge historical and contemporary issues. There are three paintings with each having a separate theme. Artwork can be viewed on the second floor of the Fisher Student Union on the campus of UNCW.

We Are Advocates

We Are Advocates is an oil painting that portrays our work in advocacy, both past and present. The left image is Alexis Raeana Jones demonstrating on the campus of UNCW in 2016. Cultural appropriation is an ongoing issue especially during Halloween when participants dress up like Native Americans. These costumes sexualize Native women which turns them into targets of violence.
The middle image is the Wide Awake Indian School, established in 1933 as the first Indian school in Bladen county. During segregation Native American communities were concerned about their children’s education so many formed their own schools. Very few of these buildings are still standing.
The bottom middle image is from a Atlantic Coast Pipeline protest in Pembroke in 2017. For centuries Native Americans have fought to be stewards of their ancestral lands and waters. This issue has been brought into light more recently with the publicity surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. We continue to fight environmental genocide which predominately effects Native communities.
The image on the right is Sequoya Jacobs, a Waccamaw-Siouan ambassador, participating in a red dress exhibit photo shoot. Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) is a human-rights crisis across all of Indian country. In 2016 the Department of Justice reported that there were 5,712 “known incidents” of MMIW.
The pattern in the background is reflective of quilts created by Southeastern indigenous peoples. The colors are from the medicine wheel representing the four directions which is used by tribes across the US. This painting measures 36" x 60".

We are the Seeds

We Are The Seeds is an oil painting all about corn. The women in the background are working in the Waccamaw-Siouan garden. To the left are 2 Lumbee women processing corn that was grown in their personal garden. In the middle is Pamela Young-Jacobs, Vice Chief of the Waccamaw-Siouan, holding Sea Island White Flint corn. On March 26, 2021 members from the Lumbee, Waccamaw-Siouan and Coharie gathered for a corn ceremony in Maxton. The goal was to return traditional corn varieties to southeastern NC tribes. Sea Island Flint was historically cultivated by the Waccamaw-Siouan to thrive in coastal regions.
This painting is about the importance of corn in southeastern native communities. Growing up each summer my family would gather to prepare vegetables that we grew and corn was always prominent. Everyone had a role, including the youngest, which is why I included, and love, the image of the little boy crouching between the stalks. Indigenous peoples have a special relationship with corn, which is one of the “Three Sisters.” When grown together the “Three Sisters” provide each other nutrients, shelter and ground cover. When consumed, the three provide all the essential nutrients. Here I have attempted to portray the sense of community around corn: the relationships nurtured among families and communities along with the plant itself. This painting measures 36" x 60".