Defining My Purpose

December 11th 2020 was significant. I turned sixty, which was a miracle in itself. As usual, I set out just before dawn to catch sunrise with Rupert. It was freezing cold, so I put a couple of extra camera batteries in my backpack and headed towards Upper Red Rock Loop Road - one of the most scenic drives in the world.

During the short drive, a heavy fog fell over the highway. I pulled off the road, grabbed my camera and tripod and scrambled to put everything together. Another photographer, was on the scene and seemed to be panicking. I asked if there was anything I could do to help, and she asked if she might be able to borrow a camera battery. Luckily we were both Canon shooters, and I handed her one of my spares and a business card.

The following day, she returned the battery and told me she had been photographing around Sedona in an effort to raise money for the Hopi Tribe. She told me of the tribe’s history, belief system and significance to North American indigenous culture.

She went on about the health and economic crisis that they faced, and how the tribe was beginning to lose its elders to Covid. I spent the rest of the day and several months thereafter researching the tribe, becoming increasingly upset and angry as the weeks passed.

I also discovered that the Hopi have no written language. Their life instruction, history and Uto-Aztecan language had been passed down by word of mouth over the millennia, and is depicted in their beautiful petroglyphs and pictographs which you will find dotted all around the country.

The decision to present the potential of Web 3 and the NFT Space to Indigenous Peoples globally was the easiest one I have made. It became my Purpose for this last chapter of my life, providing me with a legacy I can feel proud of.