MSUM Diversity Mural

By Krista Thom
Contributing Writer

Rinita Dalan, a professor in the Anthropology and Earth Sciences Department at MSUM, teaches a class on reading landscapes. Her students learn how landscapes shape the people who live there, and how cultural filters cause groups to view landscapes in different ways.

Dalan was used to thinking about what the MSUM campus was saying. But three years ago, she began thinking about what wasn’t being said. Dalan is also a member of the Training Our Campuses Against Racism (TOCAR) initiative, and wondered whether the University was doing enough to represent diversity.

Dalan was inspired by a group of students at the University of Washington who designed and built a sculpture to celebrate diversity. The students in the UW design class came from many different backgrounds, and often bickered about how to represent diversity. Their opinions evolved over the course of the project until they finally reached an agreement.  Their sculpture was the first work of its kind on campus, and the process of coming together ended up being just as important as the finished product.

Dalan realized that was just the sort of thing needed at MSUM. She discussed the matter with other TOCAR members, and the group decided to create a mural that reflected the campus’s diversity.

The creation of the mural was about more than putting paint on canvas. The focus was on the process as much as the painting. TOCAR invited students from many different groups to weigh in. They talked to members of the Women’s Center, gay and lesbian groups, and people from different ethnic backgrounds in order to form a complete picture of the student body.

The addition of the artist was one of the final steps. Jered Pigeon, a program coordinator in the Multicultural Affairs office, brought in his friend Faron Blakely, who clicked with TOCAR immediately, and the final pieces fell into place. Blakely started right away and finished the project in less than a month.

Blakely knows a thing or two about diversity, as he comes from an unusual background. He is mostly Ojibwe, although his grandmother was African American. When he was young, he moved with his mother to inner-city Minneapolis. His neighborhood was infested with gangs, and Blakely was recruited into one as a young man. For the next 15 years, Blakely’s life was dominated by gang activities.

In 1991, Blakely had a life-changing experience that convinced him he had a higher purpose. He was walking under the Franklin Avenue Bridge when a pillar collapsed on top of him. The damage was severe. His left leg was crushed and had to be amputated. His right knee was shattered, and his spine was injured. He literally died at the scene and needed to be resuscitated.

Despite the damage, Blakely felt lucky to be alive. His brush with death convinced him that he was alive for a reason, and he felt the need to get back to the world. He got out of the gang, and moved to Fargo to start a new life.

In Fargo, Blakely met his wife, Lauretta, and started a family. He also started to pursue art as a way to give back to the world. In addition to painting, he also writes poetry and practices native drumming and dancing. Blakely’s artwork often addresses his Ojibwe heritage. He finds inspiration in his native culture and many of his paintings have Native American themes.

Blakely says his artwork has helped him to redeem himself. “It’s good to have my name known for good things now. I wanted to make my mother proud, and my people proud.”

Blakely describes this as one of the most intuitive projects he’s worked on. From the beginning he knew which direction he wanted to go and thought about the project constantly.  “When I started this, it was in my head all the time,” Blakely told me. “Even in my sleep – I’d get up in the middle of the night and go paint.”

Blakely, TOCAR, and the students agreed that they shouldn’t attempt to gloss over a troublesome history. While the mural depicts students breaking bread together, and inspirational poems, it also shows a Native American killed at Wounded Knee, and a slave whose bloody back indicates a recent beating. “You can google diversity, and you won’t find anything like this,” said Blakely. “Most pictures show a bunch of hands, or people with different skin colors. That’s not what this is.”

For Blakely, respecting history is as important as celebrating diversity. “I wanted to remind people of what cultures had to go through to get to where we are today,” he said.

The mural, located on the third floor of Livingston Lord Library, consists of three panels. The two end panels were painted by Blakely, and are collages showcasing different eras and cultures. The middle panel, which is a work in progress, celebrates student diversity.

Students can bring in items that represent their culture and add them to the board. Blakely says that this panel is key, because it takes the project out of his hands, and puts it in the hands of the students.

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