There are many indigenous traditions that involve the rabbit as a symbol of rights of passage for young warriors. The Aztecs had their Eagle Warriors walk through underground caves and emerge, ready to defend their tribe. There are jade sculptures depicting rabbits protecting men wearing eagle headdresses to illustrate this ceremony. Black Elk put it best: “For the rabbit represents humility, because he is quiet and soft and not self asserting - a quality which we must all possess when we go to the center of the world.”
The rabbit is also regarded as a trickster in many traditions. From the Anishinaabe’s Nanabozho in the North to Cherokee and Black communities in the South. Many stories of Br'er rabbit are in fact adaptions of West African tales of Anansi the spider. The trickster is sacred in that he forces us to re evaluate where we delineate societal rules and agreements. He does this through perpetually undermining them.
With this image I hope to remind the viewers to be humble warriors who remember their sacred duty to their people. I also hope to highlight that in order to change the rules, you must first break them. - Alicia Smith
