More than 60 works of art by 26 contemporary Native American artists and designers are being exhibited in a new show at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. This Land Calls Us Home: Indigenous Relationships with Southeastern Homelands opened November 6 and will be in the gallery space of the T North Concourse for a year. It’s part of the airport’s art program.

The works express the visions of Cherokee, Mvskoke and other Native Americans living in, near and beyond the Southeastern homelands and reflect the relationships that Native Americans today have with their regional roots.

Most of the artists are descendants of the ancient mound builders and Cherokee peoples who are indigenous to the region. Five relationship categories are included in the show: community and autonomy; communication and expression; heritage and legacies; identity and diversity; nature and nurture.

Among the many artists included in the exhibit are Luzene Hill, Johnnie Lee Diacon and Tony A. Tiger.

Hill, an Atlanta native, is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and now lives and works in the Qualla Boundary in Cherokee, North Carolina. A multidisciplinary artist, she is best known for immersive installations and performance collaborations. She has exhibited throughout the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan and the United Kingdom. Some of her work was included in the Atlanta Contemporary group show Returns: Cherokee Diaspora and Art in 2022.

Native American
Diacon’s “WWI Choctaw Code Talkers” honors the Choctaw men who pioneered the use of Native American languages as military code during World War I.

Diacon is Mvskoke, Thlopthlocco Tribal Town (Raprakko Etvlwa), and Deer Clan (Ecovlke) and has nearly 40 years of experience in fine art. He lives on the Mvskoke Reservation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and works in many different mediums, including acrylic, oil and watercolors. He has done 3D assemblages, beadwork and sequential art for graphic novels such as Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers Volume One and Chilocco Indian School: A Generational Story.

Tiger is an enrolled member of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, with Mvskoke Creek and Seminole lineage. He is an artist, independent indigenous art curator and art educator. His exhibitions projects include Speak: Speak While You Can (focused on the revitalization of indigenous languages in Oklahoma) on view at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma, in August 2024, and Return From Exile: Contemporary Southeastern Indian Art, with colleague Bobby C. Martin. His art is included in the Ford Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma; the Museum of Contemporary Native Art Santa Fe, New Mexico; and the First American Museum of Art, Oklahoma City.

The This Land Calls Us Home project was led by the Rev. Chebon Kernell, a Seminole/Mvskoke scholar and educator who serves as executive director of the Native American Comprehensive Plan of The United Methodist Church. He developed the exhibit with a team of museum professionals and scholars. The organization will launch an accompanying website later this year. The Global Ministries of the church is presenting the exhibit in collaboration with the church’s Native American Comprehensive Plan, which is designed to amplify the voices of indigenous peoples.