The Speed Art Museum has re-engaged with its Native American art collection and reinstalled the Native American art galleries. Some of the work has never been on view before.

Dr. fari nzinga, curator of the Native American and the African Art collections, and Sirene Martin, curatorial intern, have worked together to ensure compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990, which was revised in 2024. Expanding their scope beyond legal compliance, nzinga and Martin have been cultivating relationships with Native American culture-bearers (Tribal members who carry forward arts and traditions) as well as Tribal leaders and liaisons.

The recently reinstalled galleries of Native American art present not only a recalibrated perspective of the Speed’s existent collection, but also new acquisitions and loans from the unequivocal Tia Collection.

The Legality And Ethics Of Displaying Art And Artifacts

NAGPRA provides for the ownership or the control of Native American cultural artifacts and ancestral remains, whether they are excavated or discovered on Tribal or Federal land. NAGPRA grants ownership of human remains and funerary objects to the lineal descendants of Native Americans, and if descendants cannot be confirmed, the Congressional act grants ownership to the Tribal or Native Hawaiian organization on whose land the objects are found. If cultural artifacts or ancestral remains are found on Federal land, NAGPRA grants ownership to the tribe recognized as aborginally dwelling the area (unless a different Tribe makes a stronger claim to ownership and provides stronger evidence). This legislation was enacted into law on November 16, 1990.

NAGPRA was revised on January 12, 2024. The revision replaces definitions and procedures for lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, museums, and Federal agencies. These revisions were made in an effort to both clarify and improve the processes involved in the disposition or repatriation of Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony.

Even before these changes became effective, the Speed Art Museum had already decided not to have items on view that could be interpreted as sensitive, especially in regards to categories of objects that are protected by NAGPRA. In a prior installation, there had been a case displaying pipe bowls and stems. “Because there was information about where these items came from and who they had been collected from,” nzinga says, “and I’m air quoting ‘collected’ because when you’re a prisoner of the military, do you really have full consent to be able to say ‘sure, you can have this item that’s used in sacred ceremonies?’ We wanted to get started taking those things off display and explaining to our stakeholders here at the museum why [they] might not see some of [their] favorite items any longer.”

Long before before nzinga joined the Speed, there was a member of the curatorial staff who had attempted to begin the process, “but because there was no follow through over those many years … we brought Sirene to help us manage everything that it was going to take to be able to prioritize the repair of those relationships.”

Arthur Amiotte,Oglála Lakȟóta Oyáte (Oglala Lakota Nation), Buffalo Image, 1973, oil on canvas, 18 by 24 inches. Courtesy of Tia Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico.  
James Hart Photography” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”> click to enlarge

James Hart Photography

Arthur Amiotte,Oglála Lakȟóta Oyáte (Oglala Lakota Nation), Buffalo Image, 1973, oil on canvas, 18 by 24 inches. Courtesy of Tia Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Curating The Native American Art Collection

The story of how the Native American art collection has changed — especially since the recent revisions to NAGPRA — began in earnest when nzinga joined the museum in June 2022, and was then made curator in December of 2022. There was an expectation among museum leadership that there would be a reinstallation of the collection, followed soon after by the opportunity to change the collection’s location within the museum. “So that was really exciting and that gave us the kind of impetus.”

In her first year as curator, nzinga initiated the Curatorial Advisory Council, comprised of Native American artists and curators and people who can connect the museum to artists, curators, and tribal representatives. “It’s really helping push us forward,” she says, “In terms of our interpretation and in terms of our relationship-building practices as well.”

Martin was hired in June 2023. The preponderance of her work has been to facilitate correspondence between the Speed and Tribal preservation historical officers. “I was initially brought on to help [nzinga] start correspondence … to Tribes all across the nation, letting them know that we do indeed have a Native American collection and that we are starting the process to be in compliance with NAGPRA,” she says. That invitation was sent soon after Martin’s arrival, in early July 2023, and has been well received. “We focused our response to Tribes that we have identified to have connections with the belongings in our collection.”

“We’ve been working with the Southern Cheyenne Tribe for six to eight months,” Martin says. “We’re really excited for the work to be in compliance with the law and to be in the right relationship with the people and cultures that are that have birthed our wonderful collections.”

The Speed is proud that nothing in the Native American art gallery is entangled in any questionable politics. At the same time, the Speed wants to modernize and update the work presented in the Native American galleries because there has been such strong emphasis on historical material like beadwork, clothing, and hide paintings from The Reservation Era (1850–1887). Items with their provenance from that time of divestment and removal of Native Americans from their homelands is questionable because of issues of consent. “We want to have an ethical stance and we want to be proactive in helping the tribes that want any of these items returned to them,” nzinga says, “We want to use this as an opportunity for us to learn further about the art and the culture of the people, because that’s what’s in our collection.”

Frank Big Bear, Gaa-waabaabiganikaag Anishinaabeg (The White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa-Ojibwe Tribe), Ghost Dance of the Great Mystery, 2022, color pencil on black illustration board, 80 by 96 inches. Courtesy of Tia Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico.  
Courtesy of the artist and Bockley Gallery” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”> click to enlarge

Courtesy of the artist and Bockley Gallery

Frank Big Bear, Gaa-waabaabiganikaag Anishinaabeg (The White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa-Ojibwe Tribe), Ghost Dance of the Great Mystery, 2022, color pencil on black illustration board, 80 by 96 inches. Courtesy of Tia Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Connecting With The Tia Collection

Some of the work in the Native American galleries at the Speed is on loan for one year from the Tia Collection, a lending collection based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “We borrowed some really cool things,” nzinga says. “We’re so excited to present some of those artists to our visitors because we wanted to give people a sense of the dynamism of Native American art.”

One of these works is a painting by Arthur Amiotte, a scholar, art historian, and artist from the Oglala Lakota Nation. “We reached out to him because he is in his 80s and lives in Pine Ridge, South Dakota,” nzinga says. “We just wanted to let him know that we’re here at the museum and we’re borrowing [your work] and we’re so honored to share that with our museum audiences. And he wrote us back a letter, and it was just so sweet.” The painting is “Buffalo Image,” an oil painting on canvas, completed in 1973.

A more contemporaneous piece on loan from the Tia Collection is “Ghost Dance of the Great Mystery” (2022) by Frank Big Bear of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa-Ojibwe Tribe, which nzinga describes as “masterful.” It is a six-panel work rendered in color pencil on black illustration board. “The level of detail is freaking amazing, and the maximalism of the composition is frenetic,” she says. “You feel the energetic vibration of the ethereality emanating off these panels. We really encourage people to come in and experience it.”

Other works on loan include “Maiden with Basket, From Pottery Mound” (1983), an acrylic painting on canvas by Linda Lomahaftewa of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Hopi people; and “Diné Vegetal Dye Chart” (c. 1970) by the Navajo artist Vera Myers, which is crafted with vegetal dyes, vegetal matter, and handwoven yarns.

Some gallery spaces only present their collections from behind glass, suggesting to viewers that the objects are suspended in time, but nzinga wants visitors to the Speed to know that Native American people are still making art. She wants to situate the work within a cultural context that suggests the present moment, which is a rupture from — yet also in continuity with — the past. She also wants to amplify the voices of Native people whenever possible, including quotations from artists on the placards in the gallery, so viewers can read the artists’ own words to help understand the work.

“I think we’ve tried our best to prioritize Native voices in our gallery, as two Non-native people,” Martin says.

Linda Lomahaftewa, Chahta Okla (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), Hopituh Shi-nu-mu (Hopi), Maiden with Basket, From Pottery Mound, 1983, acrylic on canvas, 18 by 18 inches. Courtesy of Tia Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico.  
James Hart Photography” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”> click to enlarge

James Hart Photography

Linda Lomahaftewa, Chahta Okla (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), Hopituh Shi-nu-mu (Hopi), Maiden with Basket, From Pottery Mound, 1983, acrylic on canvas, 18 by 18 inches. Courtesy of Tia Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Collective Excitement Around The Collection

In addition to Martin’s work in relationship building, nzinga also invited her to support her in the curation process of the gallery, specifically in collections research and helping refine the acquisition strategy. During their shared efforts, they found some hidden gems in the museum’s collection that have never been on display before now.

Rather than hermetically sealed specimens detached from the contemporary world, the Native American collection at the Speed Art Museum is a living process. “We’re not just acquiring new things and borrowing things from the outside,” nzinga says. Her passion for her work is palpable. “We’re going down and coming back up from storage like, ‘yo, did you know this was here? Let’s put it on view!'”

A radiant example of this curatorial experience can be seen in the section of the gallery dedicated to southwestern artists. In it is the work of Maria Martinez, a historical Puebloan figure who innovated black-on-black pottery with geometric designs. “So what’s crazy is we have had Maria Martinez in our collection for decades, and it never had been shown,” nzinga says.

The Speed wants to build their Native American collection and fortify it. “Our acquisition strategy is anchoring our contemporary materials within our historical strengths,” Martin says. “We’re really trying to create a sense of continuity with our collection, especially as we work with our Learning, Engagement, and Belonging Department and with the artist talks” scheduled for autumn 2024.

“We’re thinking about contemporary in the longer term, not just the hyper ‘right now,’ but we’re taking the opportunity in this presentation of Native American art to introduce people to some of the important names,” nzinga says. Her hope is that if visitors know more about an artist, they will come back and see something new in another piece, or be able to contextualize Native American art in a different way. “That’s what we love.”

Considering the amount of Native American art in the Speed’s permanent collection that has never been on view before and the acquisition of contemporary Native American art, an ongoing dialogue with the people who created — and continue to create — the work is essential. “We can at least begin to build relationships that are beautiful and fruitful … just acknowledging artists and their impact on the culture,” nzinga says.

The Speed Art Museum is collectively excited to see what the Native American art collection will become. As nzgina and Martin share their feelings of being honored to do the work of displaying this art and being able to talk about it with visitors.

The reinstalled Native American galleries opened on April 5 (then briefly closed on April 10 in response to an HVAC issue in the building), and will remain open. Items on loan from the Tia Collection will be on view through March 2025.

When I visited Wendy Red Star at her studio in south-east Portland, she described her work as that of a “visionary” rather than an artist. “I don’t think I’m an artist, at least not in the western sense,” she said. “I’ve never tailored my stuff to fit in the art world.”

The products of her vision were scattered all around us, illuminated by the late-morning sun: sculpture, mixed-media installations and many, many photographs of Native Americans. Some of these were archival images of long-dead ancestors that she had annotated and embellished with red pen, others surrealist self-portraits that seem to cast the artist as the star of Technicolor melodramas satirising white views of Native American life in the 19th and 20th centuries. In “Fall”, for example, from her 2006 self-portrait series Four Seasons, Red Star sits alongside an inflatable deer in front of a painted backdrop, dressed in the ornate regalia of the Crow people, a Native tribe indigenous to America’s northern plains. All around her are plastic flowers and leaves that evoke the artificiality of indigenous life as dramatised by natural history museum dioramas.

Red Star, who is 43, told me that early works like Four Seasons were partly about grappling with the misconceptions surrounding Native identity. She grew up on the Crow reservation in rural Montana, where her father worked as a rancher and her mother as a nurse. Having both Apsáalooke (Crow) and Irish blood, she told me, made her a bit of an outsider and an introvert on the reservation. But she took inspiration from a creative family, which included her uncle, the painter Kevin Red Star. She went to art school at Montana State University, then earned a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture at UCLA, where she remained an outsider because of her indigenous identity and her aversion to an art education that, she felt, focused “on the kinds of exhibitions and residencies necessary for building a career in the art world”.

After getting her MFA in 2006, Red Star moved to Portland and eschewed this kind of careerism and networking to immerse herself deeper in study, first by sitting in on Native Studies courses at a local university, then by exploring the collection of Native American art at the Portland Art Museum. It was there, she told me, that one curator’s description of indigenous regalia, pottery and beadwork as “art objects”, rather than tools and clothing, made her reconsider the relationship between what she had studied in university and the sewing and beadwork that her grandmother had learnt to do as an ordinary member of Crow society.

“The community would never think of her as an artist in the art world context in which the museum was trying to place these objects,” Red Star said. “But I was like: Oh, I guess my grandma’s an artist.”

Despite her resistance to chasing mainstream success, Red Star’s work has found its way to some of the art world’s most prestigious institutions. These include New York’s Museum of Modern Art, where she has exhibited work, and which, along with the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and London’s British Museum, has her works in its permanent collection. And Red Star’s work is currently on view at the South London Gallery as part of Acts of Resistance: Photography, Feminisms and the Art of Protest, which explores the role of photography as a means of fighting injustice around the world. 

Dressed in black jeans, black boots and a black cardigan, with her long, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, Red Star led me to a large worktable in the centre of her sprawling steel and cement studio. On the table were several paintings which are part of an ongoing series, now numbering in the hundreds, showing faithful renderings of parfleche, a kind of satchel made from animal hide and decorative pigments. These were produced by the indigenous tribes of the American plains region to store and transport clothing, dried food and other sundries. “They’re basically rawhide suitcases that plains women, for the most part, made,” Red Star said, walking over to a large row of cabinets to retrieve a parfleche that she had bought from an auction house: an envelope-like slab of cream-coloured rawhide roughly the same length and width as her own torso, and about half as thick as a bible, decorated with a repeating diamond pattern of blue, red, green and yellow.

Red Star calls her parfleche paintings “studies”. “I’m actually trying to learn from them,” she told me. When visiting museums she obsessively photographs parfleche, which she also tracks down by spending hours searching auction house catalogues and eBay. “I’ve taken it upon myself to try and find as many parfleche as I can find,” she said, and she has so far gathered 336 examples into a series of large binders. Occasionally, her research yields insights previously lost on the curators and collectors in possession of these artefacts. “When these were originally made, they were made in pairs,” and hung from saddles, though it’s rare to find them presented that way in collections and museums. “They’ve been separated a lot of the time, so there’s been instances where I found one, like in the Chicago Field Museum, and then the other one is in the Denver Art Museum. And that’s always super exciting, to find the pairs.” In her paintings, she depicts them side by side, united in their sets.

This enthusiasm for research is characteristic of Red Star’s work, which is often as much about discovery and documentation as the realisation of a particular idea. Beyond her interest in the geometric designs on Crow tobacco bags, or the elaborate beadwork seen on utilitarian accessories, Red Star seems most interested in the people who created, used and left behind such artefacts. “In the process of collecting these, nobody really recorded the makers, so it’s really rare to find the maker,” she said. To memorialise this dehumanisation, Red Star sought out census records from 1885 to 1940 so she could give each of her parfleche studies a name, not one based on its actual maker, but on a real plains Indian woman likely to have used or made one herself.

Census records from Red Star’s own community in Montana have informed other works, including “Her Dreams Are True (Julia Bad Boy)”, which shows a black-and-white photograph of her great-great grandmother reproduced on each edge of the print against a colourful backdrop inspired by Crow quilt patterns. Its title refers to the corruption of indigenous naming conventions by census takers: Crow people had just one name, and the notion of given names and surnames was imposed on them when the US government gave them Christian names.

Crow society, like that of my own ancestors from Alaska, the Tlingit, is matrilineal. But the state also imposed the patriarchal custom of identifying women by the Christian surname given to the male heads of their households on Crow families. Red Star’s great-great grandmother, whose Crow name translates as Her Dreams Are True, was given the name Julia and a surname the government had assigned to her father. “So her Christian name is Julia Bad Boy.”

Transforming genealogy into art requires a degree of obsession. Red Star spread copies of handwritten census ledgers across the table and started pointing out Christian names that crudely mimic the descriptive quality of the Crow names they replaced and serve as reminders of forced assimilation, but which nevertheless delight her. Julia Bad Boy was there as well, prompting Red Star to show me another piece which features her great-great grandmother, one which is now on view at South London Gallery. For the installation, called “Amnía (Echo)”, she recreated the photo of Julia Bad Boy twice, once as a self-portrait, and once as a black-and-white portrait of her daughter Beatrice. All three subjects appear side by side, each made up of 10 layered prints that get progressively larger, making it appear that Red Star, her daughter and Julia Bad Boy are radiating outward as echoes of themselves and each other. On the wall behind the photographs is a long list of translated Crow names sourced from the Indian census rolls.

Almost as soon as we sat down on the comfortable furniture at the back of the studio, our conversation turned towards the art market’s attitude towards Native identity, as if this were a subject too irritating to discuss standing up.

“Native artists are hot right now,” Red Star said. “But if I get into that dynamic of what the art world elevates, if I get wrapped up in that stuff, it’s very torturous for me.” There is a push and pull familiar to any Native artist, she said, between the need to prove oneself and the suspicion that one is being asked to play a role. Many indigenous artists of her generation came up through galleries specialising in Native American art, “and most of those curators are anthropologists,” she told me. “They don’t have an art history background.”

She finds that indigenous concepts are often lost in translation, so that white audiences tend to conflate land stewardship for utopianism, and matrilineal traditions with western feminism. “They’re like: Crows are feminist,” Red Star said. “And it’s like: no. Actually, we did have a chief system, and it can be very patriarchal on the reservation.” For this reason, she felt it was important to take a subtle approach when South London Gallery invited her to appear in the Acts of Resistance exhibition. “Conjuring the names of the women and girls that have been lost” and “finding this photo of my great grandmother and then making artwork with my daughter” made it feel as if her female ancestors were “reverberating through time”.

What fascinated me most, I told her, was how these reverberations were made possible by the bureaucracy of settler colonialism. “In one way it’s horrible, and in another way I really like the census record for the mere fact that I can find all my family and I can have a better understanding of why we’re in the situation that we’re in,” Red Star said. “What’s so weird to me is that they tried to eradicate us, but they also thought we were interesting enough to collect all our cultural items and preserve them.” Ultimately, using “the tools” of colonialism to create indigenous art is not much of a choice, she told me, because “it’s all we have left”.

“Acts of Resistance: Photography, Feminisms and the Art of Protest” is at South London Gallery until June 9. A collaborative group exhibition organised with the South London Gallery and the V&A’s Parasol Foundation Women in Photography Project

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From Savannah LeCornu’s intimate portraits to Jason LaClair’s large-scale murals, Native art is vital to Whatcom County’s cultural identity. Deanna Lane, founder of Whatcom County art collective Native Arts 360, has devoted her career to helping historically underrepresented artists find new platforms.

“Art is my entire life. It’s in my DNA,” she said. “The goal is to provide as many opportunities for artists to get their work out there and share it as broadly as possible.”

Lane is a creator herself, but when “no surface felt big enough to make art on,” she realized her primary interest lay in community-building. This led her to found Native Arts 360, formerly Native Arts Collective, in 2013 to help connect Indigenous and other underrepresented artists to broader opportunities.

With Native Arts 360, Lane promotes Indigenous artists through channels ranging from in-person exhibitions and events to e-commerce, marketing and networking.

Lane’s background

Lane is of Black, Creek, Cherokee (Eastern Band) and Lenape heritage and got her start in the arts with New York-based nonprofit American Indian Community House. She describes the nonprofit as a “very intertribal community that raised me lovingly,” and views her current work as a way to honor this early mentorship.

Lane has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, and a master’s in cultural anthropology and museum studies at New Mexico State University, noting the latter experience “opened her world in another way.” From there, Lane worked with the Smithsonian Institute at the National Museum of the American Indian in advance of the museum’s Washington, D.C. branch opening.

“That was my extended professional and personal family,” Lane said of the National Museum of the American Indian staff. “[The experience] really showed me just how to get work out there in the most professional and respectful manner, working with the elders, working with emerging artists, and so I’ve just kind of continued that.”

Lane’s family ties eventually spurred a move to Bellingham, where she has helped organize exhibitions and connect Native artists to institutes, including Whatcom Museum and the Museum of Northwest Art. Lane served as the interim director of Sculpture Northwest and DEI coordinator of Allied Arts of Whatcom County, with whom she established the Whatcom Cultural Arts Festival in 2018.

Exhibitions and offerings

Lane organized her first show with Native Arts 360, “Of This Land,” with Sculpture Northwest in February 2017. The exhibition included traditional Lummi carver Felix Solomon and Lummi glass artist Dan Friday, both of whom Lane said are “huge inspirations for me.” From there, she executed three Native Arts 360 exhibitions with Allied Arts in 2018, 2019 and 2022.

Most recently, Native Arts 360 presented an exhibition at COF&, entitled “Thriving,” in October–November 2023 for Native American Heritage Month. In addition to 2D works by artists such as LeCornu, Káa Sháyee and LaClair, the exhibition included an Oct. 28 pop-up market with makers such as Copper Canoe Woman and Maddy Flowers.

During “Thriving,” Lane also collaborated with Western’s Native American Student Union and Northwest Indian College to present an IndigiQueer fashion show on Nov. 15, 2023. The show featured Lummi designer Mariah Dodd and music from DJ Big Rez, also from Lummi.

Lane has also begun promoting artwork created by people of color through Native Arts 360’s e-commerce site, offering artists another way to sell work between shows. The site offers everything from original art to prints and even apparel. This way, Lane said, “the art moves away from being seen and perceived as this elitist thing, to being able to give broader access.”

Current artists affiliated with Native Arts 360’s e-commerce site include LeCornu, Ivan Colin, Taj Williams and LaClair, all of whose art is available for purchase. LaClair designed Native Arts 360’s logo and described Lane as “helpful in so many ways,” whether that be through bringing lunch and refreshments while LaClair works on murals, or helping to promote his work in the community.

In the near future, Lane is promoting Lummi children’s book author Sharayah Lane’s “ABC’s of Grateful,” and will bring works from 10 Buffalos Art into Native Arts 360’s “extended family” via e-commerce.

Bridging gaps through art

Lane’s livelihood stems from a belief that art “has the potential to be a phenomenal healer and equalizer.” She said art gives viewers access to stories that can potentially bridge gaps in understanding and build empathy.

“I told my daughter, ‘The more access to stories you have, the more wealth you have,’” Lane said. “There’s a protection in that, because … you can function in different communities when you have access to those stories. You’re not living in ignorance, where it’s very fear-based.”

Lane also sees art as a way to bridge gaps between generations. She noted the crowd at the IndigiQueer fashion show was ultimately “as intergenerational as it’s supposed to be,” including youth to elders and everyone in between. 

“We have to make sure that [young people] are empowered and that they see themselves in these events,” Lane said. “We say, ‘If you can see it, you can be it.’”

As she plans for 2024 events, including an exhibition on Camano Island, Lane aims to “pass the torch” and share the mentorship she herself received. In her view, the goal of Native Arts 360 isn’t just to promote Native art — it’s to provide future generations with the tools necessary to tell their own story.

Info: arts360.nativearts360.org, facebook.com/NativeArts360 

Cocoa Laney is CDN’s lifestyle editor; reach her at cocoalaney@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 128.

An upcoming artist-in-residency by Lakota artist Danielle SeeWalker in Vail, Colo., was abruptly canceled by the town yesterday.

According to SeeWalker, in January, Vail’s Art in Public Places program extended an invitation to her to participate in a three-week residency program. It was an opportunity with promise, a chance to showcase cultural richness and diversity while engaging with the local community through art that ended with a disheartening narrative of discrimination and suppression.

In January, SeeWalker eagerly accepted the residency offer, viewing it as an opportunity to positively represent the Indigenous community and break new ground as the first Native American to undertake the residency.

SeeWalker signed a contract, expecting the residency would include multiple community art events including working with youth, painting a mural in Vail Village, an art exhibition and giving a talk at their Symposium. In an email to Native News Online, SeeWalker said she turned down other job opportunities to fulfill her contractual obligation to the residency. 

Yesterday morning, she received a phone call from Art in Public Places, telling her the residency was canceled. The reason given was that a recent piece from SeeWalker titled “G is for Genocide” — which she unveiled on Instagram in March— was “too political.”

The piece features a Native woman adorned with symbols of solidarity with Palestine. SeaWalker stated she was shocked the town canceled the residency without giving her the opportunity for dialogue or explanation.

“I can’t help but take this personally as silencing not only an artist, but a person of color. This piece of artwork has nothing to do with the Town of Vail. It had never been brought to the Town of Vail’s attention,” SeeWalker said in an Instagram post. 

SeeWalker’s intention behind the artwork was to draw parallels between contemporary global conflicts, such as the plight of those in Gaza, and the historical genocide of Native American populations. 

The Town of Vail has not responded to Native News Online’s request for comment at press time. 

“If you feel compelled or have any type of reaction to this, I wanted to humbly request from the community that you take a moment to write to the Town of Vail and let them know that the continued silencing of our people is not okay,” SeeWalker wrote in an email to Native News Online.  “People of color continue to be silenced, oppressed, and have opportunities taken from them and it’s not right. I’ll always stand up for that, for myself, and for all others.”

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About The Author

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

Staff Reporter

Kaili Berg (Aleut) is a member of the Alutiiq/Sugpiaq Nation, and a shareholder of Koniag, Inc. She is a staff reporter for Native News Online and Tribal Business News. Berg, who is based in Wisconsin, previously reported for the Ho-Chunk Nation newspaper, Hocak Worak. She went to school originally for nursing, but changed her major after finding her passion in communications at Western Technical College in Lacrosse, Wisconsin.

Santa Fe was aglow with Indigenous joy and creativity. Here are some of our favorite trends from this weekend’s SWAIA Native Fashion Week.

The debut of Native Fashion Week happened on a denim carpet — there’s enough red in Indian Country — and offered a full slate of runway shows, pop-up shops, and exhibits.

An overdue offshoot of the Native Fashion Show during the annual Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) Indian Market in August which has sold out for years, this event ultimately expanded the universe of Native fashion and style.

All-star models and entertainers taking part throughout the events included Tantoo Cardinal of Killers of the Flower Moon, Kiowa Gordon and Jessica Matten of Dark Winds, and Dakota Beavers of Prey, all of whom have respresented Native fashion and designers frequently on Hollywood red carpets in the past.

Tantoo Cardinal in Patricia Michaels (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

Kiowa Gordon and Jessica Matten in Lesley Hampton (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

Dakota Beavers in Maria Hupfield (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

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Fashion Week director Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Blackfoot/Siksika), who started the Indian Market fashion show in 2014 working out of a truck in Santa Fe’s Plaza, hosted a swanky fashion week kickoff party at the Governor’s Mansion to kick off the events. “Why a Native Fashion Week? Indigenous designers are barely a footprint in the mainstream fashion world and fashion academia, yet Native artists are the original couturiers of North America,” Bear Robe said. “We don’t get more couture than hunting an animal, gutting, then cleaning the intestines to make an exquisitely beautiful, lifesaving, one-of-a-kind couture garment.

“We gather not just to witness history, but to honor the legacy of storytelling, Indigenous pride, and artistic innovation. Native Fashion Week is not just about clothing. It’s a powerful expression of Indigenous knowledge, language, identity, and contemporary expression. Each garment, each design carries layers of meaning, fashioned by innovative designers who, with their unique expression and techniques, push boundaries to create new narratives, and sometimes re-interpret time-honored narratives.”

Jamie Schulze and Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

Sifting through the four-day swirl of activity, we found several trends that stood out.

Natives Supporting Natives

We observed a lot of community spirit, in Native American attendees actively showing support for other Native products and businesses. In every show, designers relied on each other’s input and pieces to complete their visions with accessories, shoes, makeup, hair, and skincare folded into many looks. Award-winning designer Patricia Michaels, who closed the show with a gorgeous flow of hand painted silk dresses, used handcrafted moccasins made by Robert Mirabal of Mirabal Mocs, both of whom are from Taos Pueblo. Multicolored with fringe, laces, and appliqués, the high-end, down-to-earth designs complemented Michaels couture.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard

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Vibrant Makeup

Successful makeup entrepreneur Cece Meadows of Prados Beauty, whose line is carried in more than 600 JC Penny stores, said “People all around are using Indigenous business products, not just the fashions, One of the trending things that is going on now is a lot of makeup, very pigmented neon color makeup, a lot of ’60s- and ’70s-type makeup and eyeliners. In the Indigenous community, it’s always about vibrancy with strong eyes and strong red lips.”

Vividus by Tierra Alysia (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

Lesley Hampton (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

House of Sutai by Peshawn Bread (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

Peshawn Bread (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

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Inclusion

Native people come in all shapes, sizes, and genders, so the recognition of that on the runway shows felt like a reflection of the real world — with professional beauty help. Kicking off the event was House of Sutai by Peshawn Bread, which brought out brightly colored graphic outfits with intricate beaded neckpieces featuring pearls and dentalium shells worn by a diverse collection of models. A roller-skating beauty expertly danced the U-shaped length of the platform to a roar of applause, a long-haired male model strutted the runway playing air guitar to the music of “Electric Pow Wow Drum” by Halluci Nation. It was a powerful statement of the new and now.

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PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Studio Seven

Jewelry

No Native look is complete without jewelry, and major pieces were on the models, in the crowd, and in the popups. Star jeweler Kenneth Johnson showed his Seminole roots with intricate pieces in silver, featuring turtle designs that graced earrings and pendants. Cody Sanderson is known for his stars in silver. His flashy knuckle-to-knuckle rings were everywhere. Indi City is pushing the length of their acrylic earrings to more than a foot in geometric designs that glitter from earlobes to the waist. Prize for the most daring accessory goes to Helen Oro and her beaded gas mask in orange and silver.

Helen Oro Designs (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

Towering Stone by Loren Aragon (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

Heather Bouchier x Indi City (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

House of Sutai by Peshawn Bread (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

TOC Legends by Himikalas (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

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Horsehair

There must be some bald ponies running the range as horsehair showed up in wildly unusual places during fashion week. Jason Baerg had extensions dyed in blue and pink tied into his models’ hair, braids, and of course, ponytails. He showed the colored horsehair on bags and earrings. Amber-Dawn Bear Robe wore a large Baerg gold chain necklace with red horsehair dangling from the links.

Ayimach Horizons by Jason Baerg (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

Canadian and Arctic Designers

With its distinctive look born from geographical necessity, the great white and furry Northern designers showed Arctic looks with sustainable seal fur and fox trim. Warmth and function are the priority as designers take cues from parkas, huge tundra boots and mittens as seen in Victoria’s Arctic Fashion. Clara McConnell of Qaulluq uses arctic fox and seal skin in glossy grey and white on ballgowns, vests, and dresses.

Victoria’s Arctic Fashion (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Tira Howard)

Designers in Museums

Beyond the runway, designers’ work is being exhibited in major museums. The Wheelwright in Santa Fe and the Metropolitan in New York have both exhibited Jamie Okuma, who is known for her beaded boots and graphic patterned separates. A special exhibit of her outfits was on display from the collection of film producer Jhane Myers (Prey). Patricia Michaels has an exhibit now at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture.

Jamie Okuma display (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Sandra Hale Schulman)

See more of C&I at SWAIA Native Fashion Week on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok.

The Lesher Center for the Arts, the premier arts destination of Contra Costa County located in the heart of downtown Walnut Creek, is proud to present “Contemporary Voices: A Native Artist Panel Discussion” Saturday, June 1 at 2:00 p.m.

Featuring three leading Indigenous artists who reflect the diversity of the contemporary Native community, the discussion will focus on the panelists’ artistic processes and what drives their art-making.

The ticketed event will see Pulitzer Prize finalist and American Book Award winner Tommy Orange (“There There”), mixed-media artist Danielle SeeWalker (co-founder of The Red Road Project) and Tazbah Chavez, executive producer and writer of FX’s “Reservations Dogs,” join moderator and celebrated comedian Jackie Keliiaa for an afternoon of spirited discussion.

The event is part of the Lesher Center’s Uplifting Native Voices series, which launched with Bedford Gallery’s “Re-Discovering Native America: The Red Road Project” exhibition, on view now through June 23, and will continue with “Good Medicine,” a one-night-stand of all-Native comedy hosted by Keliiaa the evening of June 22.

“You can find the work of our talented panelists in print, on TV and in galleries throughout the country, but to see them together, all in one place, is something truly special,” Keliiaa said. “Our panelists are not only leading artists in their respective crafts, they’re also extraordinarily insightful about the behind-the-scenes processes that go into their work. If you’re at all interested in what makes an artist’s mind tick and how the act of art-making interacts with forces such as identity and culture, you won’t want to miss this discussion.”

Tickets to the event are available now at LesherArtsCenter.org.

Event Details:

About the panelists —

•  A performance poet turned director and television writer, Tazbah Chavez is noted for her work on FX’s “Reservation Dogs” and Peacock’s “Rutherford Falls,” as well as writing and directing the 2018 TV movie “Your Name Isn’t English.” She is a citizen of the Bishop Paiute tribe, from the Nüümü, Diné and San Carlos Apache tribes.
• Tommy Orange is an author and filmmaker born and raised in Oakland, California. His debut novel, “There There,” was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His newest release, “Wandering Stars,” is a prequel and sequel to “There There,” and follows the lives of the beloved characters introduced in his debut novel. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Institute of American Indian Arts, where he now serves as faculty. Orange is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma.
• Danielle SeeWalker is an artist, writer, curator and activist based in Denver, Colorado. Storytelling is an integral part of her artwork, which incorporates mixed media and experimentation along with traditional Native American materials and scenes. In 2020, SeeWalker published her first book, “Still Here: A Past to Present Insight of Native American People and Culture.” Her exhibition “Re-Discovering Native America: Stories in Motion with The Red Road Project” runs through June 23 at Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts. SeeWalker is a Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation in North Dakota.
• Jackie Keliiaa (Moderator) is an Oakland-based comedian, writer and actor. She has been featured on Comedy Central and Team Coco, as well as in Amazon Prime’s “First Nations Comedy Experience.” She voices the character Bubble in Netflix’s “Spirit Rangers.” A regular at Bay Area venues such as Punch Line San Francisco and Cobb’s Comedy Club, Keliiaa produces and hosts “Good Medicine,” a night of all-Native comedy that debuts at the Lesher Center this June. Keliiaa is Yerington Paiute and Washoe

For other upcoming events around Contra Costa County, visit our events calendar

Updated at 2:15 p.m. on May 10, 2024

A Colorado artist says the Town of Vail canceled her residency after someone complained about a piece of art she created commenting on the war in Gaza.

Danielle SeeWalker said the piece in question, “G is for Genocide,” was not created for the residency and had nothing to do with the program. She said a town official informed her they were canceling the residency in a three-minute phone call.

“I even turned down other job opportunities because of this contact,” SeeWalker said in a statement. “The residency would have been three weeks this coming June and would include multiple community art events including working with youth, painting a mural in Vail Village, an art exhibition and giving a talk at their Symposium.”

Town Manager Russell Forrest did not immediately comment when contacted by CPR News Thursday or Friday, but a statement on the town’s website questions the appropriateness of SeeWalker’s work on Gaza.

“While the town initially embraced SeeWalker’s work surrounding Native American issues, her recent focus on the Israel-Gaza conflict raised concerns about the use of public funds to support a polarizing geopolitical issue,” the statement reads. The Art in Public Places (AIPP) board, which oversees the town’s public art program, said it had not received a proposal for SeeWalker’s planned mural for the residency, “therefore no contract was issued.”

The SeeWalker artwork in question is a painting that drew parallels between the war in Gaza and the historical genocide of Native Americans. In a May 9 email with the subject line “Silencing of a Native American artist,” SeeWalker, a Lakota artist, expressed disappointment with the lack of opportunity to explain the context or defend her artwork.

In an interview Friday, SeeWalker said it is important for her to speak her truth.

“As a person of color relating to other people of color that are going through genocide …. I take it very personal that this was something that they just didn’t want to have me be part of this residency because it affected somebody else,” SeeWalker said. “On a personal level, my artwork is very much … provocative. It tells stories, it’s centered around my identity as a Native American woman. It’s past experiences, current experiences, stories I’ve been told.” 

On Friday morning, a future SeeWalker event in Vail titled “Still Here: Redirecting the Native American Narrative with Danielle SeeWalker in conversation with Clay Jenkinson” was still live on the Vail Symposium website. It is scheduled to be held at Vail Interfaith Chapel on June 19 at 6 p.m.

A spokesperson for the Vail Symposium said in an email Friday that the group was still planning on hosting the event. SeeWalker said she’s open to it. She also has a message for the people offended by the Gaza artwork.

“I would love to say to them that it was never a piece about any conflict against them or their community or anything like that,” SeeWalker said, adding that there are parallels between the genocide of Jewish people and Native Americans. “It was simply me expressing my culture, my histories as it relates to my ancestors, what they had gone through, and what’s currently happening today to another group of population of people.”

VAIL, Colo. — Nearly a month before Danielle SeeWalker was slated to paint a mural in Vail depicting parallels between the war in Gaza and the mass murders of Native Americans, Vail town staff told her that her social media post featuring the art was “too polarizing.”

SeeWalker — a Denver-based artist and writer, and member of the Lakota tribe — was approached by town staff in January and asked to participate in their “Art in Public Places” residency program.

SeeWalker was also asked to give a talk in a town symposium about Native American art and history.

But on Thursday morning, Seawalker was told her social media posts highlighting the violence in Gaza were “too political,” and upsetting to the town’s Jewish community.

SeeWalker said the posts never mentioned Judaism, but instead highlighted Israeli violence against Gazans.

“I have Jewish friends, I know the history of what Jewish people went through and I would think, of all populations, what I’m trying to convey as a Native American would also resonate with the Jewish community,” SeeWalker said.

“This has nothing to do with Jewish people. It’s really just about genocide and how people can’t just live as who they are and be OK and safe being who they are,” she said.

In an interview with Rocky Mountain PBS, Vail town manager Russell Forrest said the town “welcomes (SeeWalker’s) messaging around Native Americans,” but that “this specific messaging around this geopolitical crisis was just too polarizing.”

“This specific issue is an incredibly polarizing issue and investing public dollars in art where this could be part of the messaging is not appropriate,” Forrest said. “We’re not trying to, in any way, suppress her communication, but we have a responsibility with public art that does not engage or jump into such a polarizing issue.”

In a written statement, deputy town manager Kathleen Halloran wrote that SeeWalker never submitted a contract for her plan, so the town did not get the chance to discuss the mural before a town resident saw it on SeeWalker’s social media and raised the issue.

“We’re an inclusive community and everything about us is about being inclusive,” Forrest said. “Doing something that polarizes a component of the country, the world or our community just wasn’t deemed appropriate.”

SeeWalker’s artwork is currently featured in a History Colorado exhibit titled “But We Have Something to Say.” According to the museum, SeeWalker’s art “comments on the intersections of historical Native American society and modern culture.”

“SeeWalker spins her work into a contemporary vision that elevates her community and their often dismissed or silenced histories,” History Colorado noted.

When Vail town staff first approached SeeWalker, she said she was hesitant to participate because of the town’s wealthy, white reputation.

After considering it further, SeeWalker felt her participation could spark valuable discussion about violence against Native Americans in Colorado. 

SeeWalker also felt the mural would bring conversations around Palestinians in Gaza facing famine and bombs from the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. 

“It was drawing parallels between my ancestors who faced genocide and those in Gaza, how their land is being taken and they’re being killed,” SeeWalker said. “It was an expression piece I did for the purpose of drawing those connections.”

SeeWalker said she saw the opportunity as “educational,” for a community who she believed rarely hears from Indigenous people.

“Now, I’m looking at this as an opportunity for me to continue to be vocal against white supremacy and how ridiculous this is,” SeeWalker said.

About 31,000 people have died in Gaza since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel and killed approximately 1,200 people and took hundreds hostage. About 4 million people died in what historians called “the Indigenous Holocaust” of the Americas.

Alison Berg is a reporter at Rocky Mountain PBS. Alisonberg@rmpbs.org

Note: Rocky Mountain PBS contracted Danielle SeeWalker for artwork for our documentary “Colorado Voices: A New Chapter.” She was also featured in “Colorado Experience: Return of the Buffalo,” but that was not a paid appearance.

A drone light show at Rotorua Lakefront is set to light up the sky this Matariki.

Part of the Aronui Indigenous Arts Festival, the event on June 27 and June 28 will feature 160 drones programmed to form images in the sky, sharing the story of how Matariki is connected to the taiao (our environment), the festival said in a statement today.

Rotorua artists will record a story that will broadcast live on speakers accompanying the drone formation as well as taonga pūoro (traditional musical instruments) recordings by artist James Webster.

Aronui trustee and arts veteran June Grant said since time immemorial, the stars in the sky had given us direction.

“Matariki is a modern manifestation of flying stars that illustrate aspirational themes and exciting imagery for everyone who will witness this magic light show”.

Rotorua mayor Tania Tapsell said Aronui’s show was a welcome addition to Rotorua’s Matariki long weekend.

“We congratulate Aronui for bringing this truly unique experience to Rotorua locals and visitors.

“This innovative show supports Rotorua’s reputation as a world-class destination, and importantly a strong home of Māori culture.”

Drone shows have grown in popularity internationally, although the trend is still to take hold in New Zealand, the statement said.

Aronui is an indigenous all-arts festival that traditionally runs across the September period, however this year, the board decided to bring arts to the community outside of the September period.

Founding Festival Director Cian Elyse White said the drone show was an example of how traditional concepts could be accessed through leveraging new, digital mediums.

“Our show has been guided by local tohunga reo, Mataia Keepa, who has made Dr Ahorangi Rangi Mātāmua aware of this show’s existence.

“It is a collaboration of story, light, sound and Matariki themes that will be accessible to all ages”.

First Lights Artistic Associate, Ilona McGuire (Noongar Bibbulmun & Kungarakan language tribes Western and Northern Australia), said the collaboration and connection were at the heart of this activation.

“Learning the story of Matariki and collaborating as artists, the oldest and youngest indigenous peoples of the world, has been the beating heart of this project – a beautiful opportunity for cross-cultural connectivity”.

The shows will be free and will start at 8pm on June 27 and 28 alongside the Rotorua Night Market which will be at the Rotorua Lakefront during Matariki from 5.30pm.

The show is titled, ‘Matariki’ and has been created by Aronui, supported by First Lights | Perth WA.

– NZ Herald

PRESCOTT, Ariz. – The ‘Tis Art Center & Gallery is proud to present “Journeys in Spirit 2024: Traditional and Contemporary Native Art” in partnership with the Museum of Indigenous People. Journeys in Spirit, which will open on Thursday, May 16 and run through Tuesday, June 25, is a captivating exhibition of Native American art that celebrates the rich cultural heritage and artistic traditions of indigenous communities. Featuring a diverse collection of artworks, including paintings, basketry, jewelry, photography, beadworks, ceramics and other traditional and contemporary mediums, the exhibition is free and open to the public.

Journeys in Spirit showcases the extraordinary talent of Native American artists. These artists come from varied backgrounds and cultures, with some still living within their tribal communities. The exhibition highlights the beauty and diversity of Native American art, while also providing a platform for artists to share their stories and perspectives. Many traditions continue to be passed down through the generations; from an early age, children are taught that color and imagery carry symbolic meaning and through the arts, their stories can be told. To meet some of the Journeys in Spirit artists and gain deeper insight into their cultures, the public is encouraged to attend a reception during Prescott’s 4th Friday Art Walk on Friday, May 24 from 5-7 p.m.

‘Tis Art Center & Gallery would like to extend a special thanks to the City of Prescott and the Prescott Area Arts and Humanities Council for their continued support of this event. For more information, please visit https://www.tisartgallery.com/category/gallery-events/.

‘Tis Art Center & Gallery | 105 S. Cortez St. Prescott, AZ 86305 | (928) 775-0223