A Million Bones Laid to Rest

"Each bone represents a call to action, a story, a voice." -Naomi Natale
​​It is hard to imagine an art installation that is comprised of 1,000,000 bones created by students, artists, and activists laid out on the National Mall.  But the vision of one artist Naomi Natale came to fruition on June 8, 2013 and I was there to be a part of it as well as witness the amazing sight in the nation’s capital.    In the following video Naomi Natale explains how the One Million Bones project came about:

I got involved with the One Million Bones project back in 2012 as part of the Congo Design Challenge. Students made bones to help raise money and participate in the art installation that raises awareness of the ongoing problem of genocide around the world in places such as Burma, the Congo, and Somalia. Over a two-year period the students at West Career and Technical Academy made approximately 5,000 bones. Being only a 5-hour drive from Washington D.C., I knew I had to be there for the actually laying of the bones. My husband and I drove up in a crazy rainstorm where it rained non-stop for 5 hours. But the following day, the sky cleared and made for a beautiful ceremony that involved guest speakers, music, and a sea of people dressed in white to lay the bones. We were placed into sections to lay the bones and walked back and forth with handfuls of bones. The cellist Amy Ziff played solemn music that rang through the air during the laying of the bones which put us in a meditative frame of mind.

​​We worked with teachers and artists from the Artworks studio who run art programs for kids in the D.C. area. It took about 4 hours to lay all of the bones. It was incredible to see all the many unique touches and interpretations that people from all over the world had added to their bones. Bones came from every single state in the U.S. and thirty countries and were made of a variety of materials such as clay, papier mache, styrophone, knitting yarn and glass. I also was able to see Grace Lau from Students Rebuild/Global Nomads Group who played a big role in the video conferences my students did with students from Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo which was an added bonus for me. The amount of energy and coordination to make this event a success was almost unfathomable, but it really went off without a hitch. Naomi Natale founded the Art of Revolution during this project, and it will be interesting to see what her next installation piece will be. You can check out my photo gallery of the event here.