About the Project 

Duane Linklater’s In Perpetuity served as a monument to Lenni Lenape Chief Tamanend. It was also a historical reference point to understand the broad erasure of Indigenous people from the lands that now include the city of Philadelphia. The artwork was installed on the banks of the Delaware River, on ground that has served as a meeting place for Indigenous communities for thousands of years. In 1682, William Penn and Chief Tamanend met to secure a “treaty of friendship.” The scope of the Lenape’s agreement, according to historical accounts, was meant to last “as long as the rivers and creeks flow, and the sun, moon, and stars shine.” Linklater, an Omaskêko Ininiwak from Moose Cree First Nation, asked his nine-year-old daughter, Sassa, to handwrite these words. He then worked with Philadelphia-area neon fabricators to reproduce the phrase in a neon sign on the edge of the river in order to mark the enduring legacy of the Lenape people and the unraveling of a treaty intended to promote long-standing coexistence.