Voices from Wupatki (2024)
By Florencia Ruiz Mendoza
Voices from Wupatki will take visitors into a journey back in time to the Thirteenth Century and westwards to the deserts of Arizona where the Wupatki pueblos have been standing there for 800 hundreds. The Voices from Wupatki are the voices of Hopi, Navajo-Diné and Zuni people reflecting on their connection to this site of knowledge, to their ancestors, and their cosmovision. These are the voices every single soul living on American land must listen and embrace as theirs.My exhibit will tell the story of Wupatki National Monument, a Native American archaeological site in Arizona. As the audience observes images of Wupatki and its five archaeological pueblos, projected on fabric, they will listen to excerpts of oral histories of Native American people, predominantly Hopi, Navajo-Dine and Zuni, who shared the experience of their visit to Wupatki and how the place is tied to their cosmovision and their culture. This exhibit is for the general public - my project’s main goal is to impact people’s lives through the Native American stories and Wupatki.