About this project in Sosakete Perkins’ words:

“My Stolen Land brick project is not about hate. It is about truth. Art has always challenged power, comfort, and the stories societies tell themselves. For generations, Indigenous people have been expected to stay silent about colonization, land theft, forced removal, and the systems that still benefit from those histories today. These bricks simply refuse that silence.

“When I stamp the words ‘Stolen Land’ into clay taken from the earth, I am creating a physical reminder that the foundation of this country was built on Indigenous land. That statement may make some people uncomfortable, but discomfort is not oppression. It is reflection. The mentality of Manifest Destiny taught generations that expansion, conquest, and displacement were justified and even righteous. My work challenges that mentality directly. It asks people to confront the reality beneath the pavement, buildings, and property lines we often take for granted.

“These bricks are not weapons. They are conversations fired in clay. They are symbols of survival, memory, resistance, and truth. If the phrase ‘Stolen Land’ creates emotion, then the project is doing exactly what meaningful art has always done: forcing society to examine what it would rather ignore.”

The Stolen Land Brick Project transforms clay from Indigenous land into handmade bricks stamped with the words ‘Stolen Land’. Each one is a physical reminder that the land we build on carries a deeper history—one that has too often been ignored or erased.

The kiln will be built and fired in the Cherry Street Pier garden on Sunday, September 20, at 2:00pm.