The Return of the Force: A Celebration of Native Star Wars Art Part 1

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Tempe Center for the Arts (TCA) in Tempe, Arizona to see an exhibition of Star Wars art created by contemporary Native artists entitled The Return of the Force. This exhibition ran from January through mid-May, and was the second showing of The Return of the Force, which debuted in 2023 in Durango, Colorado. This exhibition was a follow-up to The Force Is With Our People, held in 2019 at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, and curated by the museum’s ethnographer, Tony Thibodeau.

I’d like to recognize the artists who participated in this exhibition. Thank you for sharing your creativity and your stories. I would also like to acknowledge the Gallery team at TCA for hosting this exhibit, and I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Duane Koyawena (Hopi/Tewa) and Samantha Honanie (Hopi/Diné). I am grateful for your insights and your collaboration in helping me share these stories.

When I learned about the exhibit, I reached out to artist and curator Duane Koyawena (Hopi/Tewa), and asked him if he’d tell me about a few of the artists and their work to share with the Rancho Obi-Wan community. At TCA, I met Duane and Samantha Honanie (Hopi/Diné), volunteer consultant and librarian at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. 

As soon as we started exploring the exhibit, I realized that these works, and the rich stories they convey, need to be shared far and wide. So, with their permission, I am thrilled to present this blog series, The Return of the Force: A Celebration of Native Star Wars Art, to provide a virtual tour of the exhibit as led by Duane and Sam. The series will consist of six parts:

The Return of the Force, Part 1: Meet Hopi R2

The Return of the Force, Part 2: From Apache to Zuni 

The Return of the Force, Part 3: Wearable Art, Comic Art & More

The Return of the Force, Part 4: Canvases Take Many Forms

The Return of the Force, Part 5: Endings Are Always Beginnings

The Return of the Force, Part 6: For the Guy Who Has Everything 

Part 1: Meet Hopi R2

Duane Koyawena, Hopi/Tewa, and Joe Mastroianni, Anglo

Rich: Duane, this exhibit is phenomenal. To kick off this virtual tour, can you share the origin story of Hopi R2?

Duane: Yeah, I’ll tell you the story of Hopi R2. In the beginning, the first exhibit was called The Force Is With Our People. They wanted to get a droid for the exhibit, but it was going to be pretty pricey to get a real, functioning one. So, the marketing director of the museum asked her husband who is an engineer from New Jersey, Joe Mastroianni, if he could build one. He did some research and decided, “Yeah, I can build it.”

That’s when he discovered a whole new world—the R2 Builders Club where people build different pieces from all over. So when he decided to build it, he started collecting the parts and asked me if I would paint it. At first, I didn’t really believe that he was actually going to build an R2.

But then I saw the dome when we went over to his house. He said, “Check this out! I got the dome.” And I was like, “Wow, he’s really going to do it.” That’s when I had to buckle down and start coming up with ideas.

The concept I landed on came when he was holding the dome upside down, kind of like a bowl. It reminded me of a Hopi pottery bowl, the way he was carrying it. I asked Joe if he could make the head spin fully without the wires getting tangled. He said, “Yeah, I can do that.” So once I knew it could spin, I added a band around the head.

Then he started giving me all the different panels, and I decided to paint it all like Hopi pottery. A lot of people say he looks like wood, but I was really going for the look of clay pottery. We started putting symbols together, and when he was finished, we brought him to the show. We call him “the first Indigenous droid in the galaxy”.

Rich: Where has Hopi R2 traveled?

Duane: We’ve taken him to the last two shows we’ve had: The Return of the Force in Durango, and the original The Force Is With Our People in Flagstaff.

We’ve also taken him to a lot of schools and a few museums. He’s kind of built a name for himself. Since he’s decorated in Hopi pottery designs, that’s why we call him Hopi R2.

The cool thing is, when we take him around, Joe is able to talk in-depth about the engineering and robotics behind it, which helps inspire kids—whether they’re already interested in that stuff or not. He’s controlled by a PS4 remote and loaded with Arduinos and servos, so Joe definitely worked his magic on the droid.

Rich:
He’s awesome, and he represents exactly what drew me here. At Rancho Obi-Wan, our mission is to inspire through the Force of imagination. Hopi R2 is the perfect example of that. But he’s just one of many.

Stay tuned for more fascinating artwork and stories in Part 2: From Apache to Zuni.