Everything I, I thought it would be.
It’s amazing, Henry.
It’s just absolutely beautiful work.
Would you mind maybe telling us a little bit about
what is in, what you decided to include in here and why?
Well, the bow represents, in Greek mythology, Artemis.
And she’s going to launch her arrow.
And the astronauts are going to be riding on that arrow, going to the Moon.
And then we have the Dipper.
And the star represents you and your family.
This blue represents all spirits of mankind.
The silver represents the capsule that you’ll be in.
And the spirits will be with us inside the capsule.
And we have the seven teachings, and these symbols represent the flowing spirits.
The reasoning behind the animals and the representation
is to keep us connected – to keep us connected to our natural environment.
When I listen to our Elders and talk about… as Indigenous people,
we’ve never been given an equal opportunity to, to contribute
or seen as equals within our own homelands.
By saying that though, our Elders will say we have yet
to give our greatest contribution to the world.
And part of that to me is what we, we’re referring to as the Seven Sacred Laws.
When you look at the buffalo, that teaching represents respect.
That buffalo gave its entire being in order for the people to live.
When you respect, you give of yourself, you give of your life to, to, to help people around you
to create, again, a better place for everybody.
The eagle represents love,
and you always hear our grandmothers,
they will say one of the most powerful medicines that we have is love.
The third one is the bear representing courage.
When you look at a mother bear and her cubs,
she will do everything she can
to make sure her little ones are safe.
These Seven Sacred Laws
or values offer us an opportunity
to be able to create a foundation of, of unity.
In the space program, this is one of the things that guides us
is this idea of cooperation and humanity across the entire globe,
being reminded that we must work together.
I love when you speak about the humility
and just the understanding that, you know, we are all the same,
we all have the same value.
Grandmother Moon has always been like,
just so connected with the Earth, with life.
And seasons.
It’s just to say that she’s sacred.
So sacred.
Everything that’s living on the Earth,
all connected with her.
This is a big journey going around the Moon, and I just feel
ill prepared as a human to do it and am looking for advice.
And so this is – this is represented here in these Indigenous teachings.
This is a reminder for me on how to – how to walk as I get ready to go on this journey.
I am reminded by your artwork on how I need to walk
to represent humanity and as I go on this journey around the Moon.
You’re such a talented and gifted artist to be able to communicate all these things in a – in an image for us to see.
And I just can’t thank you enough.
Yeah, it’s beautiful.
Henry, I have such immense gratitude for you.
Thank you. Thank very much.
Thank you so much for this amazing work.