The proposed Avi Kwa Ame (Ah-VEE kwa-meh) National Monument sits in the southern region of the State of Nevada. This region is home to some of the most culturally significant and biologically diverse wilderness in the Mojave desert. Avi Kwa Ame as named by the Pipa Aha Macav Mojave Tribe is tied to their creation, cosmology, and well being. It’s sacred to 10 Yuman speaking tribes as well.
We collaborated with Conservation Lands Foundation to create a series of photos and short video clips to build a Story Map website to promote the protection of these sacred lands. Interviews from Fort Mojave tribal members as well as local organizers and politicians were documented to help contextualize the importance of Avi Kwa Ame and the surrounding ancestral lands.
From an attempted 1990s program to use the area as a nuclear dump site, to a more recent proposal of energy companies proposing a 30,000 acre wind farm in the middle of a Joshua Tree Forest, the wellbeing of the area’s ecology, bio diversity and cultural sites run the risk of being traumatically disrupted and degraded.
