Mesa Community College American Indian Institute Mural

MCC student and local artist, Alyssa Masaquaptewa (pronounced Mass-uh-kwop-two-ah), who goes by Aly, recently completed a mural in the hallway of MCC’s American Indian Institute (A.I.I). Her idea for the piece, titled The Future Is Indigenous, came together as a result of several previous projects she has worked on with IllumiNative  (Links to an external site.)and the Young Native Women’s Leadership Academy (Links to an external site.) hosted by Native Action Network.

This mural combines many elements of the AZ landscape, as well as an homage to the diversity among Native people, all coming together under MCC Thunderbird logos. The logos are separated by an image of the traditional I’itoi (pronounced EE-toy), also known as the Man In The Maze, a prominent motif within the culture of the O’odham people of AZ, which symbolizes one's journey through life, experiences along the way, and an eventual ending.

Aly currently is pursuing a degree in American Indian Studies and her work is focused on bringing together both traditional and urban Native American lifestyles. She is a self-taught digital artist whose talent with the paintbrush was heavily influenced by her family of Hopi artists, none more important to her than her grandfather, the renowned Anthony Honahnie from Tuba City, AZ.

After sharing her backstory during a virtual student support session last Fall, MCC’s A.I.I advisors approached her about their shared goal of ‘indigenizing’ their student space, as well as the greater MCC campus. They all agreed that having Aly start by sharing her talents through this project would not only promote that goal, but also give her a chance to leave a lasting legacy, as her grandfather has done over the last 50+ years with his artwork.

Despite several logistical setbacks, including seeing Aly move to Hawaii during the summer, she returned to AZ, starting and completing the project this past week (August 1 – 5, 2021). Come on by and see how this student-created piece has started to change the feel of this once very institutional-like hallway. This beautiful mural will now reflect the connections of our Indigenous students to their past, present, and futures – all created by your very talented classmate, Aly Masaquaptewa. You can also find more of her work on her website: AlyAdrinne.com (Links to an external site.)

You can go to our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/mesaccaii (Links to an external site.)) or our Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/mesaccaii/ (Links to an external site.)) to check out videos of capturing her work.