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[Image 1 Text: I’VE COMPOSED A NEW AMERICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM TAKE A KNEE AND SCREAM UNTILL YOU CAN’T BREATHE /end]

[Image 2 Text: If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children. that the rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give to any brother.

The wtite man does not understand. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a wanderer who comes in the night and borrows from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy and when he has won the struggle. he moves on. He leaves his fathers graves behind and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth tam is thiaten And he does not care. The father's graves and the children’s brithright are forgotten by the white man, who treats his mother the earth and his brother the sky as things to be bought plundered, and sold like sheep, bread, or bright beads. In this way, the dogs appetite will devour the rich earth and leave only a desert.

Chiel Seattle, 1971 /end]

[Image 3 Text: Neon American Anthem, 2023

Participatory performance, custom neon, welcome mats

Nicholas Galanin

Tlingit/Unangax, born 1979

Seattle Art Museum Commission

Artist's statement:

Neon American Anthem is a participatory installation designed to activate the American Art galleries at the Seattle Art Museum. The work offers visitors a place to kneel and follow the directive of a neon sign on the wall that reads, "I've composed a new American national anthem: take a knee and scream until you can't breathe." The work creates an intersectional space for catharsis; to mourn the loss of lives, freedoms, and safety for people and lands subjected to American violence, and to protest continuing oppression.