Artwork copyright Roin Morigeau. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Roin Morigeau. Photo courtesy of the artist (detail).

Artwork copyright Roin Morigeau. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, by Dennis Dehart, 2021.

chinook smłi (salmon) eggs, 2018

Roin Morigeau
(American, born 1984)

Location: Kamiak Elementary, Pullman

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Artist Roin Morigeau (Flathead Salish) created chinook smłi (salmon) eggs as a response to watching “United by Water.” The movie shows the first tribal canoe journey and gathering at Kettle Falls since the Ceremony of Tears in 1943. Morigeau began to think about creating “a body of work that could hold the complexity of grief + pride the film left me with… these pieces are as much a prayer as they are a protest; a temporary memorial to beckon our deity the chinook smłi salmon back home to our river.” Smłi is the Salish word for salmon.

This artwork is part of a curated collection by RYAN! Feddersen (Okanogan and Arrow Lakes) at Kamiak Elementary, Pullman School District, in Eastern Washington. RYAN! drew inspiration from the school's namesake, Chief Kamiakin, and his five wives. Her curated collection honors the essential and often under-recognized role that matriarchs play in history by highlighting Indigenous artists whose work connects with activism, collaboration, resistance, and community building.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Pullman School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Roin Morigeau (Flathead Salish) uses drawing, painting, sculpture, and poetry to explore the contrasts between matriarchal and patriarchal space. They produce minimal yet powerful abstract artworks. Their art practice explores the feeling of “in-betweenness” that they experience as a queer, disabled, gender non-binary person raised in a bi-cultural home.

Morigeau lives and was raised in occupied Spokane territories in Eastern Washington. They are a descendant of the Flathead Salish Tribe of Montana. Morigeau is the owner and curator of YES IS A FEELING, an artist-run studio space and gallery in downtown Spokane, Eastern Washington.