04/29/2026
Just sharing a little personal story to my page.
My art has really taken a back seat to a lot of things I have been doing recently, but will never disappear. Art is my therapy.
Last year, I began working with the Mellon Foundation on my family's story, highlighting the search and recovery of my younger brother Dustin Zonnie to collaborating with Nááts'íilid Initiative in the building of a home for my mother, nephew, and niece. We held interviews over the phone, crying with a writer in New York I had only met telephonically, who cried with me. This home means a lot, and have developed an amazing relationship with Nááts'íilid Initiative director Carmirae Holguin. I am so grateful to the team we've built and so appreciative to the Mellon Foundation team, writer, editor, and photographer, for taking special care of my family's story. Everyday, there are Diné families out there working hard trying to find their own missing loved ones and overcoming the challenges of being unhoused. I only pray and hope that sharing our story not only highlights these similar issues we face in Dinétah, but that I can work hard to reciprocate the care and help we had received. I thank the Mellon Foundation, Nááts'íilid Initiative, my community of Chilchinbeto, to K'é who have shown up from far and wide. Especially, I thank my family, it is from them that my strength is reflected. Please, take time to read, to share, and practice kinship, wherever and whenever you can.
https://www.mellon.org/grant-story/the-house-that-grief-built
