This painting reflects peace, which is defined as freedom from war. During the times of peace our ancestors could concentrate on their duties. One of those duties for the woman was planting and taking care of our huge gardens. This painting depicts our “Three Sisters”, which refers to the three main staple crops of the Haudenosaunee; corn, beans, and squash. We “offered our life sustaining crops” to the world as a gift of peace and friendship. Our ancestors planted the seeds of these crops together in single mounds of earth that symbolized working and helping each other. As the plants grew, the stalk of the corn would provide a base for the beans to wrap around and grow upward. The big leaves of the squash would grow close to mother earth and would help deter weeds from growing around the mounds. My painting portrays three Haudenosaunee women holding a wooden bowl of our harvested “Three Sisters” traditional crops; corn, bean, and squash.