Teionontatátie, “a river flowing through a mountain,” was once the dominant means of travel and fishing by the Haudenosaunee people. Named after the Mohawk tribe in English, the river is now one of the most modified rivers in the United States, and has been polluted by industrial waste, abundant raw sewage overspills, nitrogen, and road salt.
The Mohawk River Project exhibit features the works of Anna Davidson, senior research associate and lecturer in Natural Resources, and her graduate student, Anna Mehlhorn, that stem from leading a capstone course that intertwined art, science and culture in the study of the Mohawk River. Davidson and her students traveled to various communities along the watershed soliciting their concerns, hopes, data, and other messages about their river. Several of the pieces in the exhibit, including a 15-foot canoe, are covered in the messages from these participants, including Mohawk River Watershed Youth Climate Summit members, Indigenous people of the Mohawk River Valley, scientists working on the river, Cornell students, and seventh graders from the Middle School in New York Mills, a town increasingly prone to flooding and deeply affected by hurricane Irene.
As a performative act for environmental justice, on September 15-16th 2024, Davidson canoed these messages down the Mohawk, then the Hudson, finally arriving at the NY State Capitol where the canoe was exhibited for lawmakers.
The canoe and other pieces are now viewable in Mann Gallery, second floor of Mann Library, during all open hours of the Library now through January 26, 2025.