Survivance: “wisdom of memory and adaptability, and the strategies of resistance, accommodation, and transformation” Gerald Vizenor

After centuries of colonialism, where the survival of any cultural traditions is a victory, the concept of survivance underlies most indigenous art today. For your final essay, choose one contemporary indigenous artist of the Americas and discuss their work in terms of how they reflect their own cultural traditions as well as the critical themes essential to understanding indigeneity today.

This is in place of a final exam. In your 700-1000 word essay, you should use at least 3 academic sources, and be sure to include the following elements:

-thesis which sets out your overall argument

-an introduction to the culture of origin for the artist

-a discussion of the artist’s body of work, including

-a detailed description of at least one work

-an analysis of how that artist represents your interpretation of survivance

-a discussion of at least one critical theme (indigeneity, colonialism and post-colonialism, immigration, cultural stereotypes, commodification, etc.) in terms of how it is reflected in your artists’s work.