Lobo Reincarnated
" Until the Lion learns how to write, Every story will Glorify the Hunter"
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Animals have always been regarded in Buddhist thought as sentient beings. Furthermore, animals possess Buddha nature, and therefore potential for enlightenment.
The doctrine of Reincarnation held that any human could be reborn as a animal, and any Animal could be reborn as a human. An animal might be a reborn dead relative, and anybody who looked far enough back through their series of lives might come to believe every animal to be a distant relative. Ultimately, humans and animals were part of a single family, our souls are all interconnected.
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January 19th 2017
Today was momentous as I visited the remains of the Black Wolf of the Currumpaw, Lobo. Born a Buddhist, I've been drawn wolves before I could form conscious thought, and my dogs and I firmly hold that we were wolves in a past life, of the same pack.
In late December 2012 - January 2013, due to my racial profiling case and being monitored by University officials, (who all happened to be ranchers and farmers), I changed my name and my Artist name to Lobo, King of the Currumpaw, to evade capture whilst having freedom of expression and because this wolf right here is an inspiration. My entire full time professional life as an artist began at that moment, condensed to Lobo Reincarnated to get the point across.
To be able to return 'home' during my stay in the states, as fate would have it the only place Angel could get her training to become certified was New Mexico. I was called here, for my pack, in an interesting turn of events, to the home of the Wolf I'm named after.
Today visiting his remains, which was bittersweet, and deeply moving. Lobo was tortured, his pack mate ripped in half via horses to lure him in. His Murderer was a wannabe artist, it was sweet revenge to know that his work pales in comparison to mine.
For Lobo was me in a Past Life.
Sincerely
Lobo Reincarnated.
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Nayana has been drawing since the age of 4, entirely self taught, art was initially something he was good at and passionately created as an essence of his being, he hadnʼt thought of it as an career goal. Ever since he was little, Nayana was fascinated by wolves and the large carnivores in the animal kingdom, which he explored through his art extensively. Driven by an innate urge to make a positive impact and difference in the lives of the subjects of his art, his goal was to become a wildlife veterinarian, ultimately to be in a position to inact a real social change, in a world where the decimation of nature and the animals with whom we share this planet with was spiralling out of control.
After high school and initially entering medicine, he was able to gain the grades to transfer into Veterinary in the same university. Acutely aware of the issues surrounding animal welfare and social justice from a childhood of being a outspoken activist, Nayana applied his passion into the course, starting a student animal rescue groups and being vocal against welfare malpractices in the intensive farming industry. He was the first coloured student to enter the course at the rural campus, something that had slipped his mind but not gone unnoticed by the farming community attached to the school.
After a series of targeted feedback forms from the farmers which inacted as his ʻsupervisorsʼ on various rural placements, and bouts of straight in your face racism by placement supervisors, the racial targeting of him became drastically aware to even his senior lecturers.
Whilst pushing through, the cultural racism that was rampant within the campus displayed itself glaringly when a halloween costume photograph of Nayana and his German Shepherd Angel dressed as Will Smith in I am Legend was pulled from his private Facebook profile from students in his campus and reported as being threatening to the dean of the university due to the presence of a toy gun. A lawyer called his mother whilst Nayana was studying for final exams and stated he was to be removed from the university and have a restraining order placed on him for the presence of a gun in his Facebook photo. After pleas from his mother that he be allowed to sit the exam, and her stating the fact that it was a TOY gun and costume for which she had taken the photo, the case was kept quiet until his exams had finished. After which he was promptly called by the principal of the residential college who said he had complaint from students about a photo of him with a gun, to which when informed that it was a toy and a halloween costume, he stated that Nayana had shared Tupac songs on his Facebook which had violent lyrics. Nayana was served a legal document stating his photo was against university policy and a restraining order for being seen as a threat.
The absurdity of this was even more so when given the fact, it being a rural campus, over half of the vet students and agricultural students (all white) had photos of them hunting animals with real guns, and even profile picture shooting real submachine guns. And the university page had an exact same costume photo of a white female student holding a toy gun, only difference being she was actually pointing it at another students head and captioned BANG. Even when this disrepancy was brought to attention, the principal stated “Nayana if your seen as a hip hop guy you have to understand it comes with itʼs consequences”
The university continued with their legal action against Nayana, blatantly racially profiling him and settling with him having a restraining order against him from attending the residential college and him ʻallowedʼ to finish the course and graduate.
The build up of institutional racism and the extremity of an actual courtcase based of blatant racial profiling and the inability to be able to fight back (due to lack of resources in Australia to tackle or bring light to racism) re-sparked a creative torch within him. Changing his name to Lobo, (inspired by Lobo, king of the currumpaw, the famous outlaw wolf) initially for legal reasons to protect against further court orders and since he was being trailed by university officials whilst still in the course, he started drawing a picture a day for the entirety of 2013, which quickly garnered attention globally, especially here in the USA. Since the work was fresh and chronicled the continuing legal troubles he was facing before graduation, he kept the story behind the works as analogies told in pictures.
He continued to create the ongoing series of biographical artworks, under the title 21st Century Survival guide for Wolves. Seeing the extant of suppression he would face in the Australian Veterinary Industry and how his voice and message was reaching a global audience unhindered and unstifled by racist supervisors and peers within the university, he realised the power of art in being a voice for social change, and having the ability to truly reach a global audience transcending race, class and social status.
The situation not only resparked his creative torch but cemented in him the power of art and the importance of art.
In a sense, he truly realised the potential of the gift he had been given.
As the lawyer Lord Simon said -
"It is probably enough that common experience tells us that Artists have vocationally an aim and impact which differ from those of the ordinary run of humankind"
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