Santa Fe, New Mexico

I've been thinking a lot about how to begin to tell the stories from our Road to Washington Campaign. I've been working on this campaign for the past nine months and as I reflect on the extraordinary people who I've worked with in each different area, I find myself having a hard time trying to translate them all in to words. I'll be spending the next two weeks writing a blog a day about the different events that took place, the people who organized them and the communities they've brought together. 

I'm still waiting to collect all the stories and reflections from our amazing organizers, but I thought I would start with the Road to Washington installation I was able to attend. 

I first met Morgan Podraza and Travis Hanson, the University of New Mexico Chapter Co-Presidents during my first week at One Million Bones. They came in one afternoon for open studio to help brainstorm the Albuquerque 50,000 Bones installation later that fall. Being so close in age to them, I connected with them very easily and we quickly became friends!

Morgan Podraza and Travis Hanson

Morgan, Travis and the whole UNM Chapter were such amazing supporters of the preview installation that fall, it was natural for me to approach them about organizing the Road to Washington Santa Fe installation. We knew that they'd organize a beautiful installation for that day and we were right...

It was a crisp morning, not unusual for Santa Fe and when I arrived at the Capitol Building the only sound that was being made was the volunteers opening boxes and getting the bones ready to be laid down. 

 Soon, Morgan and Travis asked us to begin to lay the bones. About thirty individuals made the continuous journey of gathering the bones from the piles and laying them on the bright green grass, a moving experience as the grass reminded us of what we’ll be doing in a year – installing one million bones on that beautiful green grass on the National Mall. 

 After the bones found their place on the concourse, everyone took part in a moment of silence to reflect on what we had just created. We gathered around the bones to listen to the speakers. The chapter brought in some amazing members of our community, including Shirley Heying, a genocide scholar and educator who incorporated the One Million Bones project into her class “Children and Genocide”. She spoke about channeling this avenue that allows students to connect to these issues in a way that inspires them to take action. 

Shirley Heying

 I think the most inspirational speaker for us all was, Hawo Ali. Hawa shared with us her story of coming to the United States as a Somali refugee and how she works with refugees now to create a community similar to the one she had in Somalia – which is what she misses most about her home country, how much a community can be like a family. She shared her heartbreak with us as someone from the audience asked how her family in Somalia was doing – a question she couldn’t really answer. Hawa reminded us all how important it is for us to connect about these issues because no matter how different we may appear to be – we still belong to one another.  

Hawo Ali

 After some time to reflect on the bones, they were just as carefully placed back in the boxes as they were taken out and prepared for their journey to the National Mall.