Alyen Leeachum Foning’s installation is dedicated to her ancestors — who originated from the snow of Khangchendzonga, the third-highest mountain in the world — and to the story of her people, who are forging their Indigenous identity in contemporary times.

Muun, the female shaman, holds histories and stories of the Indigenous Lepcha people and their landscape, and invokes the spirits of the land and their ancestors. They are the medium between the spirit world, Mother Creator and humans. Drawing upon oral histories, stories from tribal elders and Alyen’s own journey coming from a lineage of Muuns, her work details the role of Muun as healer, spiritual guide, diviner and ritual specialist that regenerates the human body, land, ancestral connection and Lepcha identity.

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