Monumental Land

The best story in this weekend's NYT is in a special section about Museums. 

This photograph (above) is what initially drew me in. 

It accompanies an article about a collaboration between Maya Lin and the Confluence Project.

The partnership involves a series of art-landscapes along the Columbia River that celebrate the ancient bond between tribal nations and the place, before it was documented by Lewis and Clark.

The Confluence Project is a Washington-Oregon nonprofit that seeks to educate the public about the importance of the Columbia River system through a diversity of voices, starting with indigenous ones. 

The goal of Lin's work above (The Listening Circle) is to connect Native Americans and their fellow citizens about what it means to "become American" and to help them steward the land better together. 

The monuments are minimal, and do not call attention to themselves but rather to the environment and the shared experience of it. 

I would love to see The Listening Circle myself - and to sit and to listen to what it has to say - someday.