In early 2023, three private yachts were sunk by a pack of orca whales off the coast of southern Spain. In 2020, a bison in South Dakota’s Custer State Park rammed a woman attempting to take a photo of its calf, tearing the pants off the tourist. Images and video circulated on social media and gained the attention of Indigenous land defenders who saw these acts as a form of resistance.In Stomping Grounds, the orca and bison are depicted as clever and powerful figures fighting back against the yachts and tourists overstepping on their territory in contemporary Woodland figural motifs. A hand painted gold spirit line serves as a reminder that all of creation is connected, and that the fight against colonization includes these more-than-human relations.
