How Am I Going To Portray My Concept?

The way that the shapes and patterns explode from this Aztec god  recreation links to the sample I have done below. To develop this recreation further and to bring my textiles work together with my fashion work I will use techniques from textiles such as wax Batiq and cutting back on top of this drawing to layer it up and add more visual interest .

My concept is based on the decay of the Native American Culture .In my collection I would like to portray the massacres of the Native Americans by the Europeans . The Native Americans lived simple nomadic lives throughout America .Before the Europeans came over and killed 95% of them .The Native American Indians did not believe that any part of land could belong to any one person . They lived in harmony with the land  ,however in the 1700s the Europeans (Spanish , French , British etc,.etc.) discovered America and began to occupy and colonise America. The Natives only killed what needed to be killed and this differed from the European culture , this difference in culture also added to the tension between the two cultures . each nomadic Native American Tribe had slightly different spiritual beliefs . But their spiritual beliefs always believed that every animal , every rock and every plant had a spirit .

 They followed herds of buffalo and when they did kill a buffalo they would not waste any part of the remains . The skin would be used for fur and the bones and other parts would be used for things such as ; spiritual garments , instruments , pipes ,natural dyes and paints, pots and anything else which they needed was supplied to them by nature.

Whoever when the Europeans came across the seas , they would wipe out full herds of buffalo for sport . They thought of the American Indians as 'Savages' and as 'sub-humans' which needed to be eradicated in order for them to colonise the Americas .

I interviewed my grandmothers and both of their opinions back up mine , they both believe that the American Indians were treated like animals and third class citizens . My grandmother, Jennifer knight's opinion is backed up by the fact that she had visited an American Indian  reserve in Canada and met Modern American Indians . She said ; ''Giving them a reserve was very compassionate of the Canadian government ''. However she also adds, ''They shouldn't need a reserve to start with as they were there first .''

(Quotations sourced from the below red text.)

The conquest and wars were emboldened by racism. The Spanish conquistadores thought of the indigenous population as little more than animals to be exploited, and the English were hardly better. The Jamestown English regarded them as subhuman infidels and savages, some of whom were in direct communication with Satan. In the mid-seventeenth century, Francis Wyatt, Virginia’s English governor, said, “Our first work is the expulsion of the savages to gain the free range of the country for increase of cattle, swine etc. It is infinitely better to have no heathen among us, who at best were as thorns in our sides, than to be at peace and league with them.” George Washington said, “Indian’s and wolves are both beasts of prey, tho’ they differ in shape.”

     ( http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Spring10/war.cfm )