Cannupa Hanska Luger: Mirror Shield Project

Cannupa Hanska Luger (born 1979) is an interdisciplinary artist whose community-oriented artworks address environmental justice and Indigenous political issues. Luger was born and raised in Fort Yates, North Dakota, on the Standing Rock Reservation, and currently lives in New Mexico. He is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation and is Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikawa, and also has Lakota, Austrian, and Norwegian heritage. Most recently, he became known for co-directing the opera Sweet Land that addresses issues of Manifest Destiny and erasure. It received rave reviews following its recent debut in Los Angeles.

The Mirror Shield Project was initiated for and at Oceti Sakowin camp near Standing Rock, ND in 2016. Cannupa Hanska Luger created a tutorial video shared on social media inviting folks to create mirror shields for water protectors. People from across the Nation created and sent these shields to the water protectors on-site at camps in Standing Rock. The Mirror Shield project has since been formatted and used in various resistance movements across the Nation. Conceptually, it is related to various Western art historical projects including Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and his use of mirrors and other performance based Land Art works.

• CAE1906: Great Basin Native Artists