Have you ever seen culture-based cancer research? If not, here is your chance to see some cancer research through Native American art forms.

Native students senior Kylesse Walker, sophomore Eva Rodriguez and senior Dakota Acosta have all created research projects based on their tribal affiliations and the risk factors based on specific types of cancer.
Their pieces can be viewed at Echoes: Cancer Stories Art Exhibit being shown until October 6th at the Mule Barn Building, Fort Omaha Campus of Metro Community College.

I created an appliqué skirt and matching bag that come from the Ho-Chunk people which are one of my two tribal affiliations. The four colors I chose, and the base fabric, all have a meaning. The constellations stand for us as Native people because we are star people, meaning we believe that we start as a star and end as a star. I then sat had to think about the colors I wanted to incorporate into my skirt, and I decided to research the top four cancers within the Native community: pink for breast cancer, white for lung cancer, light blue for prostate cancer and dark blue for colon cancer. The actual appliqué design is inspired by an old skirt my aunt wore when she was younger.

Rodriguez and Acosta created tapas (balls) made from four leather pieces hand stitched together to create the sphere. Rodriguez said she chose the dyed pink buckskin because “it looked cool, and it represents breast cancer.”

Acosta said, “I chose the red buckskin because red is in my tribe’s flag.” Immensely proud that he comes from the Umonhon (Omaha) tribe, Acosta said he put a radioactive symbol and a DNA symbol on his tapa to stand for how these diseases have had an impact for generations.

This article contains opinions of the author.