Story Info

Bronstein 2015
David Bronstein
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
2015

Story & Experience

(former trash heap and depository for Japanese-Americans during WWII)

The Santa Fe Mountain Kids, who usually enjoy beautiful mountain vistas and shimmering streams went to the current dog park for our Global Earth Exchange. We shared the story of a land that was once a prison camp for 4,500 Japanese-American men, separate from their families and their businesses, and later the town dump. The kids explored the land and found tires, cans, altars made out of waste in the arroyo and decided to make a “Freedom to the Land” bird out of the trash we collected, so that this land that has been imprisoned by our own wishes could spread its wings and be beautifully free. The kids put a dog leash in the mouth in order to represent the bonds that it breaks and some plastics, grasses, and piñon nuts in its stomach in order to symbolize the natural and unnatural things it must digest. The bird is flying west where she is carrying the message to our friends at the Albany Bulb also healing the land of a former dump. The kids got really into the action, one made an altar for her friend in the hospital, and all enjoyed making beauty in the wounded place.

 

(former trash heap and depository for Japanese-Americans during WWII)

The Santa Fe Mountain Kids, who usually enjoy beautiful mountain vistas and shimmering streams went to the current dog park for our Global Earth Exchange. We shared the story of a land that was once a prison camp for 4,500 Japanese-American men, separate from their families and their businesses, and later the town dump. The kids explored the land and found tires, cans, altars made out of waste in the arroyo and decided to make a “Freedom to the Land” bird out of the trash we collected, so that this land that has been imprisoned by our own wishes could spread its wings and be beautifully free. The kids put a dog leash in the mouth in order to represent the bonds that it breaks and some plastics, grasses, and piñon nuts in its stomach in order to symbolize the natural and unnatural things it must digest. The bird is flying west where she is carrying the message to our friends at the Albany Bulb also healing the land of a former dump. The kids got really into the action, one made an altar for her friend in the hospital, and all enjoyed making beauty in the wounded place.

 

Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

Image Credit:

  • Bronstein 2015: David Bronstein

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