Boundless K-12 Curriculum: PLACE

JUSTIN BEATTY

A digital print of Albert Zamora, Mashantucket Pequot tribal member, in traditional Indigenous clothing, standing with his back to UMASS library tower.

Justin Beatty (Ojibwe, Garden River First Nations, born 1972)

We Are Still Here, 2020
Digital print on canvas 
Courtesy of the artist

ABOUT THE MAKER

Justin Beatty is a multi-disciplinary visual artist. He is of Ojibwe, Saponi, and African-American descent. He hopes to address cultural, spiritual, social, and political issues in Indigenous communities through his artwork. Justin is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he was also commissioned through the Josephine White Eagle Cultural Center to create two murals for the Native American student’s floor in the Chadbourne Dormitory. Beatty is a cultural educator and a well-known intertribal pow-wow singer and emcee in New England.

“Having the opportunity to share my way of seeing the world is an honor and blessing for me.”

—Justin Beatty

Additional Resources

VISIT Justin Beatty’s WEBSITE
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT on Arts Hub Western Mass
Valley Creates Video with Justin Beatty

Learn about other objects in PLACE:

necklace made from cord and seashells

What connects people to a place?

A digital print by Justin Beatty of a larger than life indigenous person on the Umass Amherst campus.

How do cultural groups establish presence in a specific place?

A painting by Courtney M. Leonard of the remains of a humpback whale and a red poppy flower.

What does it mean for a culture when access to homelands change?

A photograph by Jeremy Dennis of trees in an eastern forest.

Why is preserving knowledge of a place valuable?

overlapping concentric circles made by ripples in water.

Boundless K-12 Curriculum

* YouTube links to audiovisual materials shared by other creators are included in the curriculum. For more information, including for captioning and transcripts of the suggested audiovisual materials, please contact the audio/video content creators.