Young signmakers: Whatever you choose to call it, keep it home!
Navajo Times | Ravonelle Yazzie
Some may find this sign offensive, but the makers say strong words are necessary to get the point across.
GALLUP
On U.S. Highway 64 in Shiprock there are a handful of homemade signs encouraging people to stay home. They were created by Mattheu Duncan, his friend and siblings.
“These past few days, I’ve been seeing a lot of cars driving by on the road,” Duncan, 19, said. “It’s pretty scary seeing people driving on the road during this time of a pandemic. So my brother and I and my sister, we all made a sign to put on the side of the road. Like ‘Stay at home,’ ‘Wash your hands,’ ‘There’s no need to be driving.’”
These signs have created a stir across social media. One sign that Duncan’s friend, Sincere Antonio, created originally read “Keep your a$$ home.” “I guess that caught a lot of people’s attention,” Duncan said. “Why we wrote that was because, from our point of view, it takes that type of a word to catch people’s attention to actually stay home.”
It did catch people’s attention and eventually it was removed by someone. So they replaced the sign with a new one that reads “Keep your tl’aa’ home.” This sign was also recently taken down again. So they replaced it again and it’s up now.
“Even though people have been taking them down, it doesn’t stop us from making more signs,” he said. Encouraging the community to stay home is important to Duncan because his father is an essential worker for Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. The family even made a sign that says “Thank you essential workers.”
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“They’re the frontline people of this invisible virus,” Duncan said, “this invisible enemy.” So it really bothers him to see so many people driving on Highway 64 that goes between Shiprock and Farmington. “It’s pretty scary knowing how many people are getting affected here on the Navajo Reservation, but yet the police officers, the first responders, restaurant workers and essential workers still working, providing for the people,” Duncan said.
He wants to do more for the community while also respecting the stay-at-home order. “We’re still coming up with ideas on how to help out the community,” he said. Besides making signs, the Duncan family has been passing their time in quarantine by golfing.
With all non-essential businesses closed, how are they able to continue playing the sport they love? Well, the family made a seven-hole golf course in their cornfield. “Here we are walking with all of our clubs in our field,” he said, “practicing our driving, our pitching wedge.”
This can been seen in his most recent upload on YouTube. Creating content for his channel is another way that Duncan is passing his time in quarantine. “I actually just started about a month ago,” he said. “I’m still learning it but I actually enjoy it.”
The content on his channel are vlogs about his life. His channel is under “Mattheu Duncan.” “I have friends out in Phoenix in college, out in Michigan, and that’s how they keep in touch with me,” he said. “They watch my videos.”
Duncan graduated from Shiprock High School last year and he’s on a semester break from Northern Arizona University. He was going to college to become a dental hygienist.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow