Today all we are left with are sepia pictures marking the passage of time on these peoples of illustrious history.

Faces carved by the sun, colored like the ground where they were born, totems---witnesses of ancestral beliefs---remains the faded memory of a people in communion with nature---respectful of values of the living.

Songs used as incantations, peoples turned into warriors by necessity. Lost memories gaining strength from the spirit of the living to be measured by elements composing its extension.

Incantations for lost ones tell us that the values of the elders are passed on through a heritage of life’s rituals.

A long journey giving Man a place in the creation of the universe. Survival and struggles to preserve his land were a long agony…

That of a Nation composed of over 500 tribes but destined to disappear. In less than a century, North American natives had lost their land and had been confined to reservations.

The painting of Natives of America was the recognition of a people often unknown, represented by artefacts in museums akin to cemeteries.

I wanted to pay them tribute in my own manner---with the colors of life.

 

D.K.

 

(Series displayed at the 175th anniversary of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro in Cuba in February 2013, then at the Embarcadère de Montceau from March to June 2013).