BY CHRISTINE BALLENGEE-MORRIS, Professor Emeritus
Near central Ohio is the largest complex of geometric mounds and earthworks in the world; earthworks that were creatively imagined, meticulously designed, precisely constructed and purposefully used by brilliant American Indians over 2,000 years ago. Marti Chaatsmith, Associate Director of the Newark Earthworks Center and Christine Ballengee Morris, professor in Ohio State’s Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy, received a Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Themes (GAHDT) grant for their project called Ancient Indigenous Monuments and Modern Indigenous Art, a collaborative five-day residency project at the Ohio Hopewell Ceremonia Earthworks. Due to the pandemic, it was delayed for two years but began in September to bring American Indian artists, writers, scholars, and activists into short residencies at the earthworks. Each five-day residency includes an expansive tour of earthworks, interactions with faculty and students, video interviews and a masterclass or other medium-appropriate master experience. Jessica Gockey, a beading artist, came to the campus in September, and Frank Buffalo Hyde, a painter, in November. While Native traditions tell us that the earthworks are living, meaningful and sacred, full Indigenous understandings about the earthworks have not yet been recovered. The artists experience tours by National Park Rangers and Ohio Historical Center staff. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is slated to designate the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks as a World Heritage site by 2024, and with that recognition comes the opportunity to develop and build cultural significance from contemporary American Indian perspectives. This project aims to begin that process.
