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CSMOFA: The Land Remembers. An Exhibition by yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives CollectiveThe Coast Salish Museum of Fine Arts returns October 3rd, 2025 and runs through November! The Land Remembers will be presented in collaboration with the yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective and curated by Mikaela Shafer. Check back here and at https://www.tcmofa.org/upcoming for more details as they come!
Exhibition Statement:
"The Land Remembers"
This exhibition explores the profound and sacred relationship between Indigenous communities and the land, emphasizing the ongoing work of rematriation and the Land Back movement. It celebrates how the land holds memory—both of our ancestors and of ourselves—and how these stories are alive within the landscape.
The artists featured in this exhibit will be using a diverse array of materials and mediums, including bones, cedar, beadwork, paintings, ceramics, and poetry, to share their personal and collective stories. These stories from the past and present serve as a powerful reminder of our enduring connection to the land. Through their work, the artists aim to evoke a sense of remembrance and reverence, encouraging visitors to reflect on their own relationship to the land and their place within this ongoing work of caring for the land.
We hope that everyone who experiences this exhibition leaves with a deeper awareness of indigenous peoples' connection to the land and the importance of honoring and restoring our relationship with it.
Featured Artists:
Sophia Anderson (Shoalwater Bay Tribe)
Alison Bremner (Tlingit)
Aganaq (Curyung Tribe)
Hexe Fey (Oglala Lakota)
Malia Peoples (Kanaka Maoli)
Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos)
Taylor White (Skokomish/Squaxin)
Amber Stephens (Puyallup )
Rachel Kopel (Tlingit)
Andrew Roibal (Acoma Pueblo)
Griffin Quinn (Tsimshian)
Arlin Yazzie (Diné)
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MATRILINEAL MEMORY
During this exhibition, you can also preview a condensed version of Olympia Arts Walk Featured Artist Mikaela Shafers' exhibition, Matrilineal Memory, in the small gallery room. Matrilineal Memory is a touring solo exhibition, currently on display at All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Matrilineal Memory is an exploration of memory, emotion, and cultural preservation. A solo exhibition of artist Mikaela Shafer (Hopi), it features paintings, poetry, and installation. Through the use of collagraph, dyeing, sewing, and layering on paintings, she intertwines her practice with her culture, drawing inspiration from her Hopi heritage. Shafer's unique approach incorporates unconventional tools, including dried corn, creating intricate patterns and textures, including works printed on chiffon. Shafer’s work becomes a practice of facing head on memories and processing, grieving, and ultimately healing. Each painting unearths a new memory; each poem serves as a conduit for emotional release.
“Memories are powerful. A smell, a sound, or a flavor can send you spiraling down a rabbit hole of a moment you've long forgotten”
—Mikaela Shafer
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About the curator: Mikaela Shafer
Mikaela Shafer (Hopi) is a mother, artist, and community builder in Olympia, Washington. Her work explores memory, healing, and cultural reconnecting through unconventional techniques like sewing, painting, and natural pigments. Focused on matrilineal storytelling, her mixed media paintings evoke home and meaningful places, emphasizing generational bonds. Recognized with awards from Santa Fe Indian Market and Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, she also leads initiatives supporting artists and indigenous storytelling.
About the organization yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective
yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective is a community of intertribal Indigenous artists rematriating 1.5 acres of land in South Seattle, on Coast Salish territories. Our mission is to help improve Indigenous well-being through art-making, community building, and equitable creative opportunities for personal and professional growth.
We achieve this mission by offering radically inclusive, trust-based arts opportunities for creatives at every stage of their careers, always paying well above industry standards. These opportunities include exhibitions, installations, performances, residencies, markets, publications, grants, and other community-led projects. In all our work, we center the voices of women, Two Spirit, and young people. Our practices are accompanied by relationship-building and mentorship opportunities to support continued creative development in our communities, with the intent that all participants will gain experience, exposure, and grow sustaining connections.
CSMoFA is made possible thanks to funding from the Inspire Olympia Grant and by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
120 Olympia Ave NE, Olympia, WA 98501-1127, United States
