Media Arts

The digital age is here! Today’s Haudenosaunee don’t just use natural materials and traditional methods to create their artwork. Many, especially young people, study photography, video, and computers in high school and college.

Sometimes they interview elders and make videos about their communities, filming in their own backyards. Others use animation, special effects, photographs, and music to make their art. Still others have friends and family members serve as their actors in order to tell the story the artist wants to tell.

Jeffrey Thomas is an Onondaga photographer. He uses his art to show the difference between real Native people and stereotypes. Shelley Niro is a Mohawk filmmaker. Her movie “Honey Moccasin” starred Tantoo Cardinal and has been shown at film festivals across North America.

"Prayer of Thanksgiving" by Melanie Printup Hope, Tuscarora

Some Haudenosaunee artists like Katsitsionni Fox and Peter Jemison make art that is called an installation. Installation artists sometimes combine video projections with paintings, sound, and things like mirrors, furniture, toys and other objects. People who come to see the artwork explore with their eyes or sometimes by actually entering into the special environment created by the artist.

Like artists from other parts of the world, Haudenosaunee find that technology can help them to reach many people, to preserve their culture, and to communicate their ideas in powerful ways.

"Tonto's Revenge" by Tom Huff, Seneca/Cayuga

"Life" by Katsitsionni Fox, Mohawk

"My Mother's Corner" by Peter B. Jones, Onondaga