Graffiti Manifesto

Graffiti has been described as the voice of the voiceless, but the voice that we hear is that of our ancestors, who have been rendered voiceless through thousands of years of colonization and genocide. Our ancestors speak to us through all traditional art forms: drumming, painting, carving, ceremonies, dancing, etc. These expressions of our cultural heritage have been outlawed and the practitioners have been prosecuted because practicing your cultural identity is antithetical to global hegemony. So it is natural that graffiti has been associated with resistance. For the global empire, the freedom of creating your artwork anywhere is subversive, especially when it requires other violations of their 'laws' in order to create it. But one must realize that these so-called 'laws' are enacted to protect the interests of the dominant minority and that the real 'vandalism' has been the erecting of fences, barriers, and borders on illegally and immorally confiscated land. To have one's private property 'vandalized' by graffiti is really to receive a reminder that other people have existed in the area before you imposed yourself and that some still remain despite all efforts to exterminate them.