Wówapi: The Record is Soft, is a collective of handmade paper (repurposed) sculptures that are stitched with piercing porcupine quills, glass beads carefully placed, and embossed with Lakota visual language. Through these works, I've considered the ways in which I approach this kind of holding of memory or archiving if you will. I often think about how institutional archives and museums are traditionally cold spaces shaped by colonial hands. The way our objects are stored, fails to contain the emotional narratives that make them alive as they do not belong in these spaces.

The agency these materials embody, and their connective relationships formed through adorning and reshaping paper, resists that institutional coldness. Each embedded quill, carefully threaded bead, and intentional embossment brings warmth and intimacy back into the record-keeping process. I think about softness not as weakness but as an act of care. The materials themselves bear witness; they become active participants in a kind of remembering that doesn't rely solely on written documentation, but rather on touch, intention, and presence. Softness here is a powerful counter narrative, quietly asserting that our records can carry vulnerability, beauty, and resilience.