Then this one also is from the series,
and one of Gareth's images.
Again, children and again, it was a favorite image
that I really sort of responded to.
And I saw the village, the home that she was playing in front of
and that is the lifestyle that I knew,
the way that the village is set up.
And the piece is called "The Little Girl in the Pink High-Top
Sneakers."
And she was wearing sneakers.
"The little girl in a flowery party dress.
She appears out of place in the poverty of an O'odham village.
Her party dress says she is happy
and enjoying her time here.
Never mind the outdoor kitchen made of worn bricks,
never mind the dirt roads that cut one way and then another,
oblivious to the rules of roads.
Follow them not knowing which is the main road
and to what destination they lead.
Like the roads, the lives of these children in the village
meander.
Their origins are vague, their destinations even more so.
Do these children know that they are descendants of holy people?
Holy people who knew how to sing for rain and clouds, people
who always were in tune with the moisture of the ocean.
Do they know their ancestors could
call the wind and lightning and knew how to cleanse the Earth?
Do they know?
They ride their bikes over a desert
that for years was cared for by their holy ancestors.
They must know, otherwise the little girl would not be out
playing in a flowery party dress and glittery high-top sneakers."
So-- but anyway, so those are some of the pieces from--
like I said, that I responded to from Gareth's photograph.
And many of them are set up as part of the photographic exhibit
both here and also at the Center for Creative Photography.