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By Neely Bardwell

June 08, 2023

This week and next in Indian Country, there is an abundance of festivals, art markets and powwows.

The Indigenous Futurisms Festival invites you to explore the past, present and future through Indigenous perspectives. As well, the Redhawk Native American Arts Council is hosting its powwow in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Finally, the 41st annual Homecoming of the Three Fires Powwow will be held in Grand Rapids for a weekend of good music, and even better food. 

Here is Native News Online’s weekly round-up of arts, culture and entertainment offerings around Indian Country.

41st Annual Homecoming of the Three Fires Powwow
Saturday – Sunday, June 10-11
Grand Rapids, MI

This free event is taking place at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids, MI. This is the 41st annual powwow hosted by the Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians. The first grand entry on Saturday is at 1 pm, with the second grand entry at 6 pm. 

Indigenous Futurisms Festival Northwest
Saturday, June 9 – June 10
Tacoma, WA

Indigenous Futurism is a movement of art, literature, comics, games, and other forms of media that express Indigenous perspectives of Indigeneity’s past, present, and future. 

This festival seeks to explore, expand, and celebrate the regionality of Indigenous Futurisms. Specifically, how each tribe, nation, and community can foster and promote dynamic understandings and representations.

Over the weekend, there will be many performances, artists, activists, elders, and youth, all seeking to engage in conversations and explorations of Indigenous Futurisms. This event is free and open to the public. Day one starts at 10 am. 

New West Craft Indigenous Market
Saturday, June 10,  2 pm
New Westminster, BC

Partnering with Shop First Nations, New West Craft is hosting an Indigenous Market to celebrate Indigenous makers, artists, and small-business owners. Featuring over 35 vendors, attendees will get the opportunity to shop for local artists. There will also be an Indigenous Food and the Expressions of Reclamation Series featuring Indigenous performances like storytelling, dance, music, and art. 

New West Craft is a handmade market hosted by the Arts Council of New Westminster. They are also partnering with Buffalo Heart Medicine Healing Society, a local educational consultant group. 

Raritan Native American Powwow
Saturday – Sunday, June 17-18, 11am -8pm
East Brunswick, NJ

Hosted by the Redhawk Native American Arts Council in partnership with Taiyin Snowflower, this powwow will feature dancers and singers. As a spectator, you will have the opportunity to experience Native dancing and singing all while enjoying Native cuisine. Shop through local vendors will listening to the music. 

Indigenous People Festival
Saturday, June 10,  10 am – 4 pm
Seattle, WA

Hosted by the Seattle Indian Health Board and the Seattle Center, this is a free event that happens annually to celebrate Indigenous arts, culture, and cuisine. 

Featured will be Native vendors, various cultural performances and expressions, and dance, all in celebration of Native pride.

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About The Author

Author: Neely BardwellEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neely Bardwell (descendant of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indian) is a staff reporter for Native News Online. Bardwell is also a student at Michigan State University where she is majoring in policy and minoring in Native American studies.

What does it mean to be native Mexican after centuries of colonization? And how do those cultures present themselves today, despite efforts at their erasure?

Those are the questions at the heart of “Los Huecos del Agua” at the National Museum of Mexican Art. The exhibition features works by artists with roots in the native Mexican cultures and has traveled to Chicago after presentations in Mexico City and Puebla.

Artist Ana Hernández hails from Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, a city on Mexico’s isthmus famous for its matriarchal culture. She says she uses traditional techniques and materials that reflect the region.

“’luvia Dorada’” is a piece I did in a large format in which I used elements of the dress of a Tehuana woman. This is a piece that you wear in your hair. It’s an element that’s small, about 10 cm,” Hernandez said in Spanish. “Gold has always been very present in the isthmus because more than being an economic resource, it also transfers its value from generation to generation.”

“It’s a project that visualizes how the state of Mexico taught us how to view indigenous people and has erased the individuality, and particularities of each small town.  That’s what they taught us,” curator Itzel Vargas Plata said in Spanish. “We forget that they were like individual nations, where each one spoke in their own language, specific way of thinking. This is an opportunity to get into different geographies and touch on these themes that are very relevant to this day.”

Juchitán native José Ángel Santiago adapted the ancient fresco technique, usually used for murals, to create his work “Tremor en el Istmo.” The piece is part of a series Santiago created in the wake of the 2017 Juchitán earthquake. Santiago says the beliefs the people of Juchitán had about the earthquake’s origin are reflected in his work.

“After the earthquake, for various reasons, I stayed in Juchitán for about eight to nine months,” Santiago said. “There were many conversations with the community and people asked themselves why the earth had shook that way.”

That approach of respecting the perspectives of native communities is why Vargas Plata said the National Museum of Mexican Art is the right place for this exhibition.

“I think that should be a museum’s role: to not just say ‘this is the reality’ but instead with your community, create that dialogue and arrive at other perspectives with ‘common’ realities,” Vargas Plata said.

The National Museum of Mexican Art is located in Pilsen at 1852 W. 19^th St. For more information visit nationalmexicanmuseumofart.org.