Prairie Stories: Art and Ecological Restoration

Historically, land meant everything to Louisianans. Diverse groups of people have existed in Louisiana for much longer than the three centuries of the colony’s existence. Indigenous peoples such as the Natchitoches Tribe of Louisiana and the Chitimacha were here thousands of years before colonization. Sponsored by Jones Walker LLP, the exhibition Prairie Stories: Art and Ecological Restoration on Louisiana’s Prairies focuses on the ecological and historical importance, cultural significance, and current state of Louisiana’s prairie regions.

The exhibition, located at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Downtown Lafayette, Louisiana, shares the power of ecological restoration of prairies in Louisiana Prairie Stories is surrounded by the works of 17 featured artists, including Maaliyah Symoné, Ashlee Wilson, Atakapa-Ishak Nation tribal member Dr. Jeffery U. Darensbourg, Nant’a (Chief) Cougar Goodbear, Caroline Delahoussaye, and others.

Prairie Stories shares the powerful connections between art, activism, nature, and storytelling. Nature is an interconnected continuum. Indigenous peoples throughout the world understood how to work with the Earth and not against it. The Prairie Stories exhibit ignites powerful sacred energy from natural artifacts, storytelling, paintings, and more in ACA’s spacious main gallery.

Burnaway Magazine briefly interviewed Louisiana Creole and Atakapa-Ishak Nation tribal member, Maaliyah Symoné, who said, “It’s important for humans to collaborate with Mother Nature because we can never be separated from nature, no matter what the systems tell to us.”