# Project Description

TOKÁTA

Leola Owen

Summary

Final work

College School of Pre-Degree Studies

Course UAL Foundation Diploma in Art and Design

Graduation year 2025

Everything we do in the present has an impact on the next seven generations in the future. How are you living up to the dreams of your ancestors? How will future generations know that you cared for them? These are the ideas of the seven generations principle which is the main ideology of Dakota society.

My final project is titled TOKÁTA. In Dakodiapi, the Dakota language, Tokáta translates to ‘Future’. I wanted to use my final major project to set the tone of my creative work by researching a wide array of futurism literature and media, most notably, from Indigenous and Black futurists. Rather than adopting a futurism rooted in colonialism, capitalism, or space exploration, Tokáta uses traditional silhouettes and materials of the past to reflect how the future will shape Native people and how Native people will shape the future. This work is symbolism for continuity, harsh reality, and cultural resilience. It reclaims the future as a space informed by ancestral knowledge and Indigenous values, honoring those who came before and questioning the reality for those still to come.

Final work

TOKÁTA video

Research and process

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Everything we do in the present has an impact on the next seven generations in the future. How are you living up to the dreams of your ancestors? How will future generations know that you cared for them? These are the ideas of the seven generations principle which is the main ...

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