“Everything Depends On Everything Else” – the Haida mural on 45th

“Everything Depends On Everything Else” is the huge mural on the east wall of the Graduate hotel in the U District. Here’s some of the story behind it.

The muralist, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya (@alonglastname) created it in 2021 as one in a series of murals in seven different cities with the connecting theme of “women and science”:
https://www.findingsproject.com/murals
and the artist’s page has more pictures and videos of the creation process:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUaTFD4lMSy

The mural depicts three women from the Haida tribe, indigenous to islands that are part of southeast Alaska and British Columbia. The two birds, the eagle and the raven, represent the two matrilineal branches of Haida society:
https://leisurevans.com/blog/its-all-about-the-raven-and-the-eagle/

The inscription in the lower-left corner says “Áajii ‘wáadluuwan uu gúd ahl kíiwaagang” which according to
https://openrivers.lib.umn.edu/article/science-in-indigenous-stories/
is Haida for “Everything is connected or related”. (According to what I could find on Google, this is close to a Haida principle usually transcribed as “Gina ‘waadluxan gud ad kwaagid” or “Everything is connected.”)

The artist’s page at:
https://www.findingsproject.com/murals/everything
also has a picture of Haida community elders leading a blessing of the finished mural.

Happy #MuralMonday!