A team of draft oxen are assisting with a land-based art and restoration project at Illinois State University’s Horticulture Center as part of a new interdisciplinary large-scale “earthwork” called Domestic Rewilding: A Living Land Acknowledgement.
Artist, first-generation farmer and ox drover Ruth Burke, an assistant professor in ISU’s Wonsook Kim School of Art, broke ground last weekend on the project, tilling an undeveloped acre of the Horticulture Center’s western edge, to be sculpted into a public art installation incorporating native plants and natural elements inspiring introspection and awe—much like Burke’s giant “collaborators,” a pair of oxen named Clark and Sparky.
Burke said she’s always dreamed of working closely with farm animals in ways that explore interspecies kinship.
“When I think about what it means to be human, I have to consider those species with which we spent the last 10,000 years co-evolving with,” Burke said.
Burke said six years spent apprenticing on a micro-dairy farm hand-milking cows changed her relationship with animals.
“They weren’t just animals, they were coworkers,” she said. “The cattle are very much part of this operation. They are not these static objects.”
That experience led Burke toward socially engaged art, where she said the process is the artwork—not just the outcome.
She described her “dream project” as one that integrates draft animal labor, public art, native prairie restoration and historical land acknowledgment. Draft animals—once used by white settlers to plow the native prairie under—are now being repurposed to help restore it.
‘Domestic Rewilding’ Earthwork Project
With the support of a $50,000 USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education [SARE] grant, the site will include walking paths, native prairie plantings, solstice markers, interpretive signage and a central gathering space featuring a sculpture by an Indigenous artist.
Burke’s goal is to restore prairie land with native plants using animals such as oxen and horses, employing techniques and methods on the verge of extinction.
Northern Illinois ox drover Don Ward joined Saturday’s field day with two calves, Brownie and Fudge, who spent most of the day eating hay and socializing. Rain and muddy conditions slowed Burke’s progress plowing weeds and other non-native plants under to provide a fresh start—an intentional choice meant to ensure a more manageable landscape for Horticulture Center workers to maintain.
“The process of making always supersedes the outcome,” Burke said. “So, the process is the work in a very, very dominant way.”
Public activities including plowing, disking and community field days, like Saturday’s open house, are considered part of the educational and performative aspects of the work.
“This work ends up not only being this aesthetic experience for people, but it also is going to be a habitat and food source for pollinators,” Burke said. “Without them, we’re toast.”
The earthwork itself is a long-term commitment. Native species can take three to five years to establish, and future upkeep will depend not only on humans but also local pollinators.
“We won't actually know what it looks like for several years,” Burke said.
‘Sunset on the Longest Day’: Recognizing Native Voices
Burke’s collaboration with theater practitioner Shannon Epplett began after the two met at a symposium in 2021. Epplett has taught Native Studies at ISU and is enrolled in the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
Epplett held Sunset on the Longest Day, a summer solstice performance in 2023 on the future site of Domestic Rewilding. The event centered Native voices through a ritual of shared reflection.
“I wanted it to be Native people talking about answering questions nobody asks of them,” Epplett said.
Participants stood in a circle around a fire, holding signs that peeled away to reveal messages such as “You took our land,” “You took our children,” and “Do you remember the Trail of Tears?”
These messages were followed by personal spoken responses to questions including: “Who are your people?” “What happened to them?” “Do you speak your language?” and “Do you know your stories?”
The answers varied—sharing stories of what had been lost to colonization, forced assimilation or family trauma.
“This isn’t a ceremony,” Epplett said. “It’s kind of a ritual.”
This summer’s reboot of Sunset on the Longest Day invites attendees to scatter native prairie seeds—symbolically participating in restoration and remembrance as a reaction to verbal land acknowledgments, often delivered by non-native people. It falls on the evening of the summer solstice, June 20, and is free and open to the public.
Burke expects Domestic Rewilding to be largely completed for the Horticulture Center’s Fall Festival in mid-September.
