TODD BORDEAUX

Indigenous Artist

White River, South Dakota

“WAKÉYA TOWTOW”

(‘BLUE THUNDER’)

The Lakota (Sioux) elders blessed and bestowed ‘my’ pony’s name. I have a hard time saying I create anything, for Grandmother Earth creates all that is necessary for life. I rearrange natural, synthetic, and found objects to mold beautiful, historical, and sometimes controversial ideas into what is called Fine Art.

There is no word for art in the Lakota language, so I view it as a gift, a privilege, and a responsibility to the Ancient Ones to carry on our original philosophy and our Indigenous ideas of spirituality, and to correct historical inaccuracies. An elder once told me men or male artists attempt to create objects – whether sculpture, visual art, performance art, beadwork – to compensate for the lack of ability to actually create life. Women give birth to the next generation, while we do our best to make up for lack of this gift. I see validity in his statement.