As an Indigenous kid born smack dab right in the middle of Generation X, Star Wars was a huge influence on my childhood maybe even on my psyche. I collected the toys and watched the original trilogy movies when they came out. I acted the the scenes from my memory in my backyard or at my grandmother’s sheepcamp. As I matured and grew more aware of my Indigenous identity and history, I started to make parallels with the Empire from Star Wars and the U.S. Government / military. I recognized the correlations between the two; appetite to rule, to colonize, take resources and rid of whatever interferes with it’s agenda. This painting represents a forgotten battle scene that is now left as pollution or waste across the Monument Valley, Utah on the Navajo Nation. I remember as a child on the Navajo reservation seeing abandoned vehicles, rusting away and creating eyesores on the beautiful landscape. I remember playing inside these abandoned vehicles, totally unsafe but I would pretend that they were crashed spaceships from Star Wars.
