Decorated Journal: Stereotypes, Racism, Prejudice, Fear by Christina Rencontre

Rencontre Decorated Journal Thumbnail Image

COURSE: American Indian Studies 450

MEDIUM: Graphic Essay

This Decorated Journal was originally an assignment for Dr. Roberta Hill’s course titled: AIS 450 Creative Native Process.

The object was to address an issue of race from two different perspectives. I chose to focus on an event in my life that spoke to racism, stereotypes, prejudice and fear. The journal contains family photographs of my parents, grandparents and daughter. I took the background photographs, which reflect aspects of my culture and my connection to the world. I used Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Acrobat for this project. The events described in this journal have been life changing for me. As a result, I now question all assumptions I have about socio-economic status, sexual orientation, skin color, ethnicity, age, religious belief, gender and ability. And, instead of employing stereotypes to understand the world around me, I consider the Lakota saying, Mitakuye Oyasin, which means, we are all related…all relatives.

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