For Zitkála Šá Series (For Buffy Sainte-Marie)
Raven Chacon American
While researching the life and work of Zitkaìla-Šaì, Chacon realized how many contemporary Indigenous women were, like her, making groundbreaking new music while also acting as educators and community leaders. He created a graphic score as a tribute to these women, choosing the form as it "can resist the history of Western notation." "In these scores," he added, "one may see a map guiding us to world views that never doubted that women could be leaders." Each score had to fit on a single letter-size sheet of paper, a reference to the material and form Zitkaìla-Šaì used. This work was made for the Piapot Cree Nation singer-songwriter, musician, composer, artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist Buffy Sainte-Marie. Chacon honors her music and advocacy for Native peoples, noting the high cost she paid for her beliefs.
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