The newest additions to Lawrence Transit’s fleet of electric buses feature designs by local Indigenous artist, Tokeya Waci U. These unique low-floor buses allow passengers with a mobility device to board from the curb with a ramp, like a larger fixed route vehicle. This will improve the rider experience and shorten boarding times.

Tokeya Waci U worked with the bus system previously, when he created artwork for two bus shelters as part of a collaboration between Lawrence Transit and the Indigenous Community Center. Those bus shelters are:

• Stop 189 at 6th & Kasold
• Stop 213 at Iowa & Harvard

In total, Tokeya designed three distinct pieces of artwork for new electric buses. The design featured on these smaller electric buses is called “It’s Geometric (boogie woogie woogie).” The two other designs will be forthcoming on 40-foot buses that are still in production. They are expected to be delivered in 2026.

Tokeya said he thinks projects that make Indigenous artwork and ideas more visible in the community can have a positive and healing effect.

“Each bus has its own design and is associated with its own meaning about my people’s culture and outlook on the world,” Tokeya said. “It also depicts the pride we have within ourselves and who we are. As our culture gets the recognition we were forced to disassociate with in the past, my hopes are that it will heal those traumas and uplift the children within our communities as well as the traumas within ourselves.”

Artist’s Statement:

“It’s Geometric (boogie woogie woogie)”

The designs on this bus pay homage to how the Plains tribes adorned themselves with beadwork and its designs.  A lot of these designs look very simple but have deep meaning within them and hold a lot of meaning to the people who wear them.

• To the tribes who lived on the plains, the triangular designs represented hills as well as the power within them. Often, when we wanted to pray for something great, we would go to the tops of the hills because it was close to Creator.
• The designs next to the triangles are called stems. These represent power/ prayer/ or blessings that shoot out from within or reach out.
• The arching designs above the triangles and stems are just for the aesthetic and do not have real meaning within our culture, unless they are associated with an even bigger picture.
• The designs in the green stripe are called Buffalo hoof prints and a group of different geometric designs made into one, Life / Power.

View the artist’s website at: https://www.coupcountdesignz.com

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