Tiny Gallery Bloomfield

Eugene Tapahe: Art Heals, The Jingle Dress Project
Eugene Tapahe is a Navajo landscape photographer. The Jingle Dress Project came to him when, early into the pandemic, his aunt had passed away from Covid and they could not bury her on the reservation. 

While grieving, Eugene had a dream about seeing four women wearing colorful Ojibwe jingle dresses in a field. Ojibwe jingle dresses are a pan-Indian reference to the strength of women and their power to heal communities. After the dream Eugene told his daughters he wanted to photograph them dancing in Ojibwe jingle dresses to document the spiritual places their ancestors once walked and to unite and give hope to the world.

Eugene spent a year documenting his daughters dancing in Ojibwe Jingle Dresses in spiritual locations across the country. A year later, an art historian friend asked Eugene if he knew the history of Ojibwe jingle dresses. Eugene did not. That’s when Eugene learned that during the Spanish Flu, an Ojibwe medicine man’s granddaughter was dying and he had a recurring dream of four women dancing in Jingle Dresses. In the dream, the women were his spiritual guides, and taught the man how to make the dress, what songs to play, and how to perform the dance. The medicine man asked four Ojibwe to create the dresses and perform the dance. They did and she lived. 

Eugene offers his photos as a form of healing. A limited edition of signed and numbered photographs are available for purchase. Each piece comes with a  packet of sage that was harvested on Navajo Nation Window Rock, AZ. The sage is meant to be burned and the smoke will cleanse your home. For inquiries please contact info@tinygallerymontclair.com.