The racist mural on 41st Street and Piedmont Avenue in Oakland was finally fixed. Neighbors hugged with joy as they celebrated the artistic amendment that included depictions of Indigenous resistance to colonial violence. Titled "The Capture of the Solid, Escape of the Soul,” the mural was originally painted by non-native artist Rocky Rische-Baird in 2006 to the loud and persistent protest of the local Indigenous community.

The mural was altered with paper cutouts and red paint to depict arrows being shot at colonizers, and the resulting bloodshed.

After decades of Indigenous-led protest, the mural recently gained notoriety again in the local news after it was made public that property management SG Real Estate Co. promised to remove it. The central figure of the mural, a nude man, depicts a stereotypical image of an “Indian” and is considered by many to be culturally insensitive and offensive. When the larger community became aware of the news, many decried the potential removal of the work, reducing valid cultural critiques by native people to a controversy about public nudity.

Indigenous artist fixes racist Piedmont Mural

See Also: A Lesson of Anti-oppression Public Art for the Muralist Rocky Baird (2006)