Hënödeyësdahgwa’geh wa’öki’jö’ ögwahsä’s. Onëh I:’ jögwadögwea:je’   

Facing uncomfortable historical truths is a critical responsibility for all communities seeking genuine reconciliation and healing. The emerging narratives from former school lands will expose profound wounds—illuminating the experiences of murdered, missing, lost, assimilated, and tormented young lives, and the immeasurable suffering of their families.

This exhibition is about exercising Indigenous narrative sovereignty in the storytelling of one of the oldest Native American residential boarding schools; the Thomas Indian School which operated on the Seneca-Cattaraugus Territory from the mid 1800's- mid 1900's. 

Organized and curated by Hayden Hayes, Onödowa’ga:’ (Seneca, deer Clan), Kiowa, Mvskoke, features artistic responses by living Indigenous artists that help to inform and promote healing. We need to stand united in our determination to ensure such systematic violence and cultural destruction never occurs again. This exhibition stands as a testament—mapping ancestral pain, challenging colonial narratives, and demanding a radical reimagining of Indigenous presence and power.

The path forward requires courage: the courage to look unflinchingly at our past, to sit with discomfort, to validate pain, and to rebuild with compassion and mutual respect. Our shared humanity demands nothing less.