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Dyani White Hawk: LISTEN

THE BRENDA LA GRANGE JOHNSON AND HEATHER JOHNSON SARGENT PAVILION

February 12 – July 05, 2026
Dyani White Hawk, Razelle Benally, LISTEN (still), 2020. MP4 Eight-channel HD video with sound, edition 1/5. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Museum purchase with funds provided by Marjorie (P’16, P’19, P’19) and Michael Levine (B.S.’84, P’16, P’19, P’19) and Benjamin Wiener, 2024.8.1. ©Dyani White Hawk. Image courtesy of the Artist, Bockley Gallery, and Various Small Fires.
Dyani White Hawk, Razelle Benally, LISTEN (still), 2020. MP4 Eight-channel HD video with sound, edition 1/5. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Museum purchase with funds provided by Marjorie (P’16, P’19, P’19) and Michael Levine (B.S.’84, P’16, P’19, P’19) and Benjamin Wiener, 2024.8.1. ©Dyani White Hawk. Image courtesy of the Artist, Bockley Gallery, and Various Small Fires.

LISTEN

How many languages can you identify by sound? French? German? Russian? Spanish? Mandarin? Japanese? Korean? Hindi? Italian? Swedish? Hmong? Somali? Dutch? Portuguese? Turkish? Vietnamese? Arabic? Swahili?…

The average American adult can likely identify, simply by sound, upwards of 10 to 15 languages. The majority of those languages, including English, are not from this continent.

Conversely, the majority of Americans are likely not able to identify by sound more than one or two, if any, of the languages Indigenous to this land base. Due to the forces of colonization, this reality has likely never even crossed the minds of most.

Can you identify by sound Dakota? Ojibwe? Hočak? Menominee? Diné? Tiwa? Quechan? Seneca? Comanche? Kiowa? Choctaw? Cherokee? Yupik? Keres? Cree? Lenape? Apache? Umonhon?…

“According to the Indigenous Language Institute, there were once more than 300 Indigenous lan­guages spoken in the United States, and approximately 175 remain today. They also estimate that without restoration efforts, there will be at most 20 still spoken in 2050.” —S. Koyfman, Babbel Magazine, October 4, 2017

LISTEN, an eight-channel video installation, aims to chip away at one of the biggest challenges facing Native people, the tremendous lack of knowledge among the American public regarding Native people, history, and our contem­porary tribal nations. Because the full history of the colonization of this land is not taught in our public education systems, most Americans are largely unaware of the way this history has and continues to impact contemporary realities of Native people.

In each monitor, footage of land and life is layered with footage of a woman speaking her Indigenous language, filmed on tribal homelands. Some speak about their experiences in boarding school when they were forced to abandon speaking their languages. Others speak of their rela­tionship to the land, share prayers, songs, tribal and personal stories, and practice the language with one another. The aim is not to provide translation but to offer an opportunity for Native people to be honored and represented in their homelands, and for non-Native audiences to be in­troduced to, and familiarized with, the cadence and sounds of a small sampling of the Indigenous languages of this land.

LISTEN provides a window into the immense division between the greater American public and our Native Nations, as well as the tremendous omissions of truth in how our national history is taught.

Dyani White Hawk
November 2023; updated 2025

Dyani White Hawk: LISTEN is organized by Marshall N. Price, Chief Curator and Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Support

Dyani White Hawk: LISTEN is made possible by The Duke Endowment and the Marilyn M. Arthur Fund.

  • Dyani White Hawk, Razelle Benally, LISTEN (still), 2020. MP4 Eight-channel HD video with sound, edition 1/5. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Museum purchase with funds provided by Marjorie (P’16, P’19, P’19) and Michael Levine (B.S.’84, P’16, P’19, P’19) and Benjamin Wiener, 2024.8.1. ©Dyani White Hawk. Image courtesy of the Artist, Bockley Gallery, and Various Small Fires.

  • Dyani White Hawk, Razelle Benally, LISTEN (still), 2020. MP4 Eight-channel HD video with sound, edition 1/5. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Museum purchase with funds provided by Marjorie (P’16, P’19, P’19) and Michael Levine (B.S.’84, P’16, P’19, P’19) and Benjamin Wiener, 2024.8.1. ©Dyani White Hawk. Image courtesy of the Artist, Bockley Gallery, and Various Small Fires.

  • Dyani White Hawk, Razelle Benally, LISTEN (still), 2020. MP4 Eight-channel HD video with sound, edition 1/5. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Museum purchase with funds provided by Marjorie (P’16, P’19, P’19) and Michael Levine (B.S.’84, P’16, P’19, P’19) and Benjamin Wiener, 2024.8.1. ©Dyani White Hawk. Image courtesy of the Artist, Bockley Gallery, and Various Small Fires.

  • Dyani White Hawk, Razelle Benally, LISTEN (still), 2020. MP4 Eight-channel HD video with sound, edition 1/5. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Museum purchase with funds provided by Marjorie (P’16, P’19, P’19) and Michael Levine (B.S.’84, P’16, P’19, P’19) and Benjamin Wiener, 2024.8.1. ©Dyani White Hawk. Image courtesy of the Artist, Bockley Gallery, and Various Small Fires.

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