The Collection

When the stars move, time shifts, & we are called Home / Grandmother Star, 2025 is one of seven works from Kelly Tapia-Chuning's series, Speaking Ancestors / [Re]Awakening Spirit. This collection contains seven dismantled serapes—or offerings—referencing the Indigenous principle of the Seven Generations. This concept is credited to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois Confederacy), though it appears in Indigenous cultures across the Americas. The principle highlights the transgenerational impact of our choices, reminding us that our conduct and decisions directly affect the next seven generations, as we have been shaped by those who came before us. Our actions, in turn, impact those ancestral energies. Each dismantled serape represents an era—a generation of ancestors.

When the stars move, time shifts, & we are called Home / Grandmother Star, 2025 represents a generation of ancestors, more specifically the artist's maternal grandmother's generation. The work was created in response to her passing when she joined the ancestors in the stars. Within Mexican Traditional Knowledge Systems, stars bring guidance—on this journey and the next.