Demian DinéYazhi'

Demian DinéYazhi' (born 1983) is a Native American artist and activist. Their work and advocacy focuses on indigenous and LGBTQ+ people and "consists of photography, sculpture, text, sound, video, land art performance, installation, street art and fabrics art."

They founded and directed the artist-activist organization called R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment, and are the co-director of the LGBTQ+ and Indigenous Two-Spirit zine titled Locusts: A Post-Queer Nation Zine. They have published poetry books promoting Indigenous and queer advocacy, including Ancestral Memory and An Infected Sunset.

In 2017, DinéYazhi' received the Brink Award from the Henry Art Gallery. They are currently based in Portland, Oregon.

Early life and upbringing DinéYazhi' was born in 1983 in Gallup, New Mexico into the Naasht'ézhí Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water's Edge) and Tódích'íí'nii (Bitter Water) clans of the Diné (Navajo). Growing up, they were exposed to the traditions of the Diné clans and the culture of Southwestern Native Americans. Their upbringing in traditional Native American culture brought them to understand "the sacredness of land" and "the importance of intergenerational knowledge", two ideas in which they have claimed as major influences for their advocacy and artwork.

Since a young age, DinéYazhi' was interested in literature and visual arts. Their interest in art and literature became the foundation for their career and artist-advocacy. "I started off as a creative person mostly through writing. I've loved writing since I was in fourth grade, and once I got to middle school, high school, it started to have this more poetic tone to it... Poetry was my gateway to creating visual work: at some point what I wanted the work to convey grew outside of just text. I became more interested in photography and how there's this beautiful relationship between the body and the land." - Demian DinéYazhi in an interview with Anastasia Tuazon, a writer and arts organizer for Temporary Art Review From these perspectives, DinéYazhi' began to explore the political ideologies and identities of 'Radical Indigenous Queer Feminism' that challenged the ideas of white supremacy and heteronormative patriarchy, especially in the field of contemporary art. This ideology inspired the radical direction they took in their political advocacy.

R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment In 2010, branching off of their radical ideologies, DinéYazhi' founded R.I.S.E. (Radical Indigenous Survivance and Empowerment), an organization and initiative of Native American artist-activists. It was established in response to the growing awareness of the devastation among the Indigenous community caused the effects of white supremacy and colonization. The organization strives to promote the education, recognition, and appreciation of traditional Native North American art and culture. Ultimately, R.I.S.E. is intended to be used as the political platform for Indigenous artists and highlights the usages of multiple medias (including "photographs, paint, wheat paste, clay, bead-work, dancing, words, voices, sounds, and rituals") to promote Indigenous survivance and human rights.

On January 3, 2019, in coordination with the Recess Art Gallery and Studio in Brooklyn, New York, DinéYazhi' and R.I.S.E. opened an exhibition session entitled R.I.S.E.: COLLECTIVE FURY. It was organized by DinéYazhi' and the members of R.I.S.E. to symbolize how the frustration within the Indigenous and LGBTQ+ community could be mobilized and transformed into motivations for empowerment, unity, and resilience. The exhibition session consisted of a display of artworks, informational panel discussions, and interactive workshops that emphasized the narratives and histories of various Indigenous communities. Additionally, it also sought to put a focus on the themes of environment justice, feminism, decolonization, anti-fascism, and queer politics. R.I.S.E.: COLLECTIVE FURY closed on February 9, 2019, as it was a limited-time pop-up event at the Recess Art Gallery and Studio.

Locusts: A Post-Queer Nation Zine Along with fellow queer Diné artist Kevin Holden, DinéYazhi' is a co-editor for Locusts: A Post-Queer Nation Zine. The zine was created to put attention upon the narratives of queer and trans people of color, as well as individuals of the Indigenous Two Spirit communities, through the medias of visual art, literature, personal essays, and interviews. Through the zine, both Holden and DinéYazhi' advocate for the visibility and awareness of people of color within the LGBTQ+ community by putting the attention on the issues they face, especially the issues of conforming to white Western societal ideals and standards.

The zine was rewarded with the Precipice Fund from the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art in 2017.

Artworks Make Native America Great Again, 2016 Created in collaboration with Cumbersome Multiples and artists John Henry and Tracy Shclapp, DinéYazhi' created their piece Make Native America Great Again in 2016. The piece consists of letterpress printing on top of a repurposed map of a Native American reservation as created by the American federal government.

Make Native America Great Again was created by DinéYazhi' in response to Donald Trump's presidential slogan: "Make America Great Again." DinéYazhi' intended the artwork to directly criticize conservative Americans and the patriotic perceptions of American history. The usage of the Native American reservation map was to represent and remind the audience of the colonial exploitation of Indigenous homelands inflicted by white settlers.

KA-HA-TENI KAY-YAH and KAY-YAH CAH-DA-KHI TA-GAID AH-CHANH, 2016 Created in collaboration with photographer Kali Spitzer, DinéYazhi' created two works in 2016: KA-HA-TENI KAY-YAH, [Native (Native) Land (Land)] and KAY-YAH CAH-DA-KHI TA-GAID AH-CHANH and [Land (Land) Wound (Wound) Without (Without) Self Defense (Protect)]. The piece on the left side is entitled KA-HA-TENI KAY-YAH and consists of dirt that originates from Diné Bikéyah, the land in which DinéYazhi s maternal grandparents are from. Additionally, the title was derived from the Navajo Code Talker Dictionary, an allusion to their maternal grandfather who served as a Navajo Code Talker in the U.S. Marine Corps. On the contrary, the piece of the right is entitled KAY-YAH CAH-DA-KHI TA-GAID AH-CHANH and consists of mined coal that also originates from Diné Bikéyah, the land of DinéYazhi s ancestry. An estimated amount of 7.8 million tons of coal is extracted every year in the Diné land, and the coal mining has resulted in negative effects of the Indigenous community that impacted the health quality of the environment as well as the forced relocation of the Native people in the land.

DinéYazhi' created POZ since 1492 to promote the idea that the origins of HIV/AIDS in the North Americas are linked and associated with colonialism and the interference of white settlers. DinéYazhi' claims that the focus of HIV/AIDS should not be on impoverished and isolated Indigenous groups; rather, the emphasis should be on identifying white colonialism as the source and distributor of the disease internationally.

A Nation is a Massacre, 2019 In 2019, DinéYazhi s A Nation is a Massacre was first exhibited in on the third floor of the Pioneer Works gallery in Red Hook, New York. On the windows of the gallery, he inputted with all-capitalized, bold, red text: "A NATION IS A MASSACRE" and "THE DETAILS ARE GRUESOME & AMERICAN & AS PATRIOTIC AS GUN VIOLENCE & RAPE & MASS MURDER."

my ancestors will not let me forget this, 2019 In 2019, DinéYazhi' exhibited a sculpture at the Honolulu Biennial titled, my ancestors will not let me forget this. The sculpture is a neon sign depicting the phrase "EVERY/ AMERICAN FLAG/ IS A WARNING SIGN" which is a line from their poem, An Infected Sunset. A photo of the sculpture was featured as the cover art for Transgender Studies Quarterly (TSQ) s poetry debut. It is a collection of their poems from the years ranging from 2009 to 2016, and it addresses the issues and complications that marginalized Indigenous and queer communities face in a modern, post-colonial society. It was written to enlighten the Indigenous and queer communities by celebrating their culture and tradition while critiquing the violence and oppression they face in a post-colonial society.

An Infected Sunset Though the book was published in 2018, DinéYazhi' first began to write An Infected Sunset in 2016 in response to the Pulse Nightclub shooting, police brutality against black men, the Standing Rock and Dakota Pipeline protests, the inauguration of President Donald Trump, and the abrupt resurgence of white supremacy. Essentially, An Infected Sunset was written to serve as a motivational call to the Indigenous communities that strive for survivance and unity in the midst of the heightened corruption in the United States. According to DinéYazhi', it "is a reflection on queer sex, survival/death politics, indigenous identity, settler and heteronormative romanticism, environmental injustice, and the importance of honoring community."