"We:sic 'em ki: (Everybody’s Home)" is a forward-looking home design for the Tohono O’odham Nation that draws on Indigenous knowledge of building and living in the desert. Following 20 years of collaboration between master basket weaver and activist Terrol Dew Johnson (1971–2024, Sells, Arizona [Tohono O’odham Nation]; active Sells, Arizona) and designers Aranda\Lasch (Established 2003, New York, New York; active Tucson, Arizona, and Brooklyn, New York), "We:sic 'em ki:" is inspired by traditional O’odham homes that pair a wa:ato (whole-tree shade structure) with a ki: (earthen enclosure).
Terrol Dew Johnson and Aranda\Lasch, Installation of “We:sic 'em ki: (Everybody’s Home)” in Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution
Designed with the Johnson family, the home will be situated on ancestral O’odham land adjacent to the family’s Alexander Pancho Memorial Farm in Sells, Arizona, a 40-acre traditional dry land farm and open classroom for native food cultivation. Constructed of traditional local materials including fragrant mesquite trees, saguaro cactus ribs, and clay-rich soil, “We:sic ’em ki:” embraces an essential tenet of the O’odham Himdag—to live and build regeneratively into the future—and will serve as a model for art, activism, and sustainable desert living.
Designed by Terrol Dew Johnson, Benjamin Aranda, and Chris Lasch with Alice Wilsey, Joaquin Bonifaz, Andrew Gonzales, Jesse Bassett, and Leslie-Fairuz Abad-Neagu. Assistance in gathering, interpreting, and assembling exhibition materials by Alexander Pancho Memorial Farm staff, family, and friends including Betty Lou Pancho; Noland Johnson, Farm Manager, Alexander Pancho Memorial Farm; Vivian Donahue; Avery Johnson Jr.; Seth Johnson; Novalee Antone; and Jesse Pablo.
Additional support from The School of Architecture, founded by Frank Lloyd Wright (TSOA), Scottsdale, Arizona: Stephanie Lin, Daniel Ayat, Eliot Bassett-Cann, Alex Martinec, Mariah Hoffman, and Nick Gulick; The Cooper Union–The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture; Cattle Track Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona; and Mike Lopach, Earthen Building Consultant.
This installation is made possible with additional support from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Agriculture Institute of Scottsdale, Arizona.