One reason that history is esteemed is that we presume that studying the past will lead to a better understanding of our present day. However, history is not one thing. For one, it isn’t easy to interpret. Further, the present is the lens we use to understand the past, and the present is constantly changing. Additionally, the reading of the past is the right of its survivors and, most often, the power elite that claims descent from the victors of various struggles.
“(H)istory flows” is a symbolic painting in which a North American chief floats in a canoe from night to day--meaning from the past to the present--but he is without a paddle. The chief must go where the current, history, takes him. A loss of autonomy robs a people not only of a future but also the right to say what took place in the past in terms of events and their significance.
