When we talk about cultural equity in the arts, it's natural to think of the word "inclusiveness." Of course we want to pursue increased diversity, and we want to provide marginalized populations with better access to the tools and opportunities they need to fully live their best creative lives.

Inclusiveness is great. But we also need to remember that, for meaningful cultural equity, we're talking about far more than art. We're talking about the reclamation of culture itself.

I'm a Lakota woman, born and raised on South Dakota's remote 2.8-million-acre Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. I'm part of a community that struggles with more than 75 percent unemployment, extreme poverty and the plethora of social ills that accompany those things. I see our families and children face daunting social, economic and historically traumatic obstacles on a daily basis.

I also see how strengthening our community's connection to its Lakota culture can provide the healing and reconciliation we need to move forward.

The Lakota have endured government policies that were intended to exterminate us or, at the very least, force us to assimilate. Imagine being told how to pray, speak, eat, and dress. This was our reality. Today, it's still a struggle to survive, preserve our culture and lift ourselves out of poverty, but we're still here. And we continue to find ways to express ourselves in a manner that honors our indigenous spirits.

Traditionally, the Lakota people did not have a word for Art. Art did not exist as a stand-alone discipline; rather it was integrated into the fabric of everyday life. Lakota used Art to tell a family's story, to capture a Tribe's history, to leave a legacy that would endure through the ages.

Art has always been integral to the Lakota way of life. Traditionally, to preserve our history, we relied upon paintings and drawings placed on walls, buffalo robes, or tipis. Our art also could be seen in our ceremonial regalia. Although we still paint on tipis and create beautiful ceremonial regalia, we also continue to celebrate our culture through art on canvas, in jewelry, and clothing, and on the sides of buildings.

For indigenous peoples, art and culture are inseparable and art is not an individual pursuit; rather, it taps into something more meaningful within our indigenous communities.

At the Cheyenne River Youth Project, we changed the hearts and minds of the Lakota Nation when we opened our Waniyetu Wowapi (Winter Count) Art Park and launched our revolutionary RedCan graffiti jam, a first in Indian country. The enthusiasm we saw in our community convinced us we were onto something. It was the inspiration we needed to create teen art internships, ongoing arts programming and our 2nd annual RedCan event.

We're creating spaces, literally and figuratively, so others may have a voice. We're giving our young people a safe place to explore their identities and share their stories, just as Lakota people have done for generations. It's in our DNA.

What does it mean to create a more just, inclusive, equitable nation through the arts? It means that a marginalized people can re-establish and strengthen their connection to their traditions, stories, values, and authentic cultural identity.

It's about so much more than art, because life is art. We must give our young people as many opportunities as possible to explore their identities and share their truths, from their own deeply personal struggles to their nation's experiences with conflict. That's the only way, in my experience, to give them the vibrant, more secure future they so richly deserve.