The drummer whose genre-crossing work has brought acclaim here and abroad returns with “Animals,” an LP of jazz, rap and soul inspired by the struggle to be OK.

[Back row: Dana Ledoux Miller, Andrew Ahn, Alex Lazarowich, Eva Grant; middle row: Quinne Larsen, Cian Elyse White, Anpa’o Locke; front row: Jana Schmieding, Jennifer Reeder, Taylor Hensel]

“As BIPOC and Indigenous people, you are always bringing something new to the table because our stories are so left on the side and aren’t told. Each person who’s a part of this lab is bringing a unique vision that has never been shared with the world before.”

– Alex Lazarowich, 2023 Sundance Institute Native Lab creative advisor 

Four creative advisors and five fellows spent the last week in Santa Fe, New Mexico, partaking in the dynamic collaborative experience that is the Sundance Institute 2023 Native Lab. Following the lab’s online component, which took place May 1–5, filmmakers journeyed to Santa Fe for six days to meet and learn from each other in person. Designed to help filmmakers from Native and Indigenous backgrounds improve original projects, the lab gives fellows the opportunity to create under the guidance of experienced creative advisors. This year, those advisors are Alex Lazarowich, Andrew Ahn, Jennifer Reeder, and Dana Ledoux Miller.

Just before the in-person portion of the lab kicked off on May 8, we met virtually with Lazarowich, Ahn, Reeder, and Ledoux to talk about participating in the program as mentors and advisors.  Looking back at their own experiences early on in their careers, they each explain why programs like the Native Lab are so vital to emerging Indigenous filmmakers and what this kind of mentorship would have meant to them when they were starting out. And while each advisor offers unique guidance to fellows in the program, they all share the same understanding that the lab is a safe space to be creative, and filmmakers shouldn’t be afraid to go beyond what the film industry has typically expected from Indigenous storytellers. 

Here’s what the creative advisors have to say about the experience and the advice they offered 2023 fellows and emerging artists:  

Alex Lazarowich | Fast Horse, 2019 Sundance Film Festival (Special Jury Award for Directing); Sweet Home Reservation, 2021 Native Filmmakers Lab)

“I don’t profess to know everything. I can only bring the experiences that I’ve had. I’m trying to give very tangible advice that people can walk away with and feel confident moving forward in their career.” 

Lazarowich is no stranger to the programs at Sundance Institute — as a filmmaker, an advisor, and a fellow herself. Her short Fast Horse screened at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and in 2021, Lazarowich received support through the Institute’s Native Lab for her feature-length romantic comedy Sweet Home Reservation. 

“I learned so much from the other fellows, and I think that’s what’s really nice about any of the Indigenous programs at Sundance,” explains Lazarowich. “One of the most powerful things about Sundance is that it’s truly and authentically about building a network and building your career.”

“It continues to shape who you are as a filmmaker, and it allows you to connect with other people who are also pursuing the same things as you. That’s where great collaboration happens,” continues Lazarowich.

It’s also about having the opportunity to tell your story as authentically as possible, Lazarowich stresses. And the only way to do that is to let experienced Indigenous artists take the reins as educators, advisors, and decision-makers. 

“It allows other Indigenous folks to help give feedback for those projects without coming at it in a colonized white voice,” she says of the lab. “What’s great about [Native Lab] and why it’s important is that it allows other Indigenous people to provide solidarity and also to provide an actual contextual basis for the industry that allows other [artists] to flourish.”     

Through her own projects and as a creative advisor, Lazarowich is striving to show a new perspective on what comprises Indigenous cinema. 

“I think there is sort of a false idea that Indigenous cinema has to be about traditions, or trauma, or sadness,” she says. “But my goal is to always offer an alternate reality to people who are watching the films that I make. And joy is a huge part of it. I also think laughter is a huge part of it. And I think complexity is a huge part of it. Sometimes the Indigenous community gets painted as a pan-Indigenous community, and that’s not true.” 

“What we’re doing is reaching across to people who may have not known what Indigenous people look like, sound like, the things they’ve experienced — they are now seeing it and understanding our way of life.”   

Advice for fellows: “Lean on the kindness of the people who are part of the group, and lean into the kindness [of] the advisors and the people who surround the Sundance organization. We all have your best interest at heart. Sometimes you need an outside perspective.”

Andrew Ahn | Dol (First Birthday), 2012 Sundance Film Festival; Spa Night, 2016 Sundance Film Festival; Native Speaker, 2017 FilmTwo Fellowship Grant; This Close, 2018 Sundance Film Festival 

“I was really compelled to be an advisor for Sundance [Native Lab] because it’s a program that I interacted with before, and I see how [it] supports young Native filmmakers in a way I think is really special and allows people to tell really meaningful stories,” Ahn says. “I’m really looking forward to working with the Sundance team. I’ve known Adam Piron, [Director of Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program] for years, and I think that the work he does is super meaningful.”   

For Ahn, it’s also about giving back to a community that’s supported him since the beginning of his film career. In addition to having his projects premiere at past Sundance Fests, Ahn received a Film Fund Grant in 2014 and 2015 for Spa Night, and he was a fellow for the 2013 June Screenwriters Lab and 2013 Creative Producing Summit.   

“I really think it’s important, as someone who’s made my way through the first phase of my career, that I give back. I think that there’s a lot of cutthroat competitive people, and I don’t think that leads to better filmmaking and a more sustainable work environment, so I want to be a part of that change in this industry and cultivate generosity by working with younger filmmakers,” says Ahn. 

As a former Institute fellow, Ahn can offer valuable insight about the importance of this kind of mentorship. For young filmmakers, finding educators and advisors to help them hone their vision can have a great impact on their creative process, Ahn explains.  

“Finding a mentor, a creative advisor, […] is a great way to not feel so alone. Filmmaking is a collaborative process. I think it’s a really smart idea to just stay motivated and inspired.” 

“I had really wonderful mentors in this industry,” continues Ahn. “Some of them I met through Sundance — wonderful filmmakers who have uncompromising visions and are a constant source of motivation for me to keep making films.”

Advice for fellows: “The best advice I can give to a young filmmaker is a piece of advice that I got from someone I met through Sundance — filmmaker Ira Sachs: ‘Whatever you get wrong on this one, you’ll fix on the next one.’ We put so much pressure on one project. We feel like it has to be perfect, and that doesn’t create a mindset that allows us to take chances, to experiment, to play. So I really want to unburden young filmmakers and just say, think of the career, think of the long term. Have fun on this one. Try some interesting things. If you get something wrong, it’s okay. Figure it out on the next one.”     

Jennifer Reeder | A Million Miles Away, 2015 Sundance Film Festival

This is not Reeder’s first go-around as a Native Lab creative advisor. After her short film A Million Miles Away premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, she stepped into the advisor role in 2019 and again in 2021.  

“It’s always a no-brainer,” says Reeder. “I love talking to young filmmakers in all capacities, but when it’s a more formal kind of advising relationship that’s really concentrated and focused like this lab is, that feels much more productive for me and for the filmmaker.” 

“I didn’t have any kind of mentoring like this,” she explains. “It was at a time where very few people were making movies who looked like me. So now that I have an opportunity to give back, I’m totally committed to mentoring young filmmakers, but in particular, Indigenous filmmakers.” 

Plus, the experience fellows get by simply being around other filmmakers is extremely beneficial, adds Reeder.  

“That’s probably the most valuable takeaway for those filmmakers — their exposure to other filmmakers or even to someone like Adam [Piron]. The whole Native Lab team does such a good job at not just curating the projects themselves, but figuring out, ‘What is the whole cohort year by year? And what does this whole cohort look like together? How will all of these conversations be beneficial to each of these filmmakers?’”  

Advice for fellows: “Be open to radical suggestions. Know that the advisors, the other filmmakers, and the lab team all come with a lot of experience. So it’s really important to be open to revisions and be open to abandoning parts […] that really need to be rewritten. This lab is truly a sacred space, a very closed environment. [It’s] a very safe environment in the sense that there’s respect given to all the projects and the filmmakers, knowing that they put their hearts and souls into this project. 

Dana Ledoux Miller | Thai Cave Rescue, Designated Survivor, The Newsroom

Miller has been writing mostly for TV for the past decade, but helping other writers who are at different stages in their careers is something she’s developed a passion for over the last couple of years. 

“To be in a room with people who love storytelling and the idea of getting to do that in a really focused amount of time with an amazing group of Indigenous storytellers is really a dream come true and not something that I even really imagined possible for myself when I started this career. I feel really honored to be in these spaces. This type of mentorship would have meant everything to me. There was a lot I didn’t know when I first started,” says Miller.  

She’s been especially passionate about helping Pacific Islanders sell and produce their projects. So when Ianeta Le’i, senior manager for Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program, reached out asking her to be a creative advisor, Miller couldn’t turn down the offer.  

“Sundance is so special, and I know that the talent they foster goes on to do really amazing things on really big stages. So the idea of maybe being able to help just a little bit in that and to hear new voices and to see what people are excited about — every aspect about it was just something I couldn’t say no to.”

Miller particularly looks forward to encouraging young Native filmmakers to tell stories that aren’t solely focused on their identity as Indigenous people. 

“We can tell much broader stories that aren’t defined solely by our cultural experiences,” explains Miller. “And yet, […] because of who we are and where we come from, we influence these stories in really specific ways that bring a new point of view and a new voice to horror or drama, to all of these different things. We’ve reached a critical mass in that there’s more and more of us all the time, and we no longer have to be defined by one piece of our identity. I think it makes for more interesting storytelling.”

And Indigenous joy is at the center of it all. 

“There’s a tendency, because many Indigenous people have gone through a lot of different types of oppression, that those are the most dramatic versions of us and those are the stories that we should tell. I think when people on the outside of that experience are buying our projects or funding them, that’s how they see us, and they kind of pigeonhole us into our pain. But we’re so much more than that. So to see stories where we can be joyful and celebrate our successes — we want to tell stories about our fullness.” 

Advice for fellows: “Don’t be afraid to speak up for what you want. This is a business where everyone kind of assumes you know what you’re doing. If this is a place where you want to have the opportunity to tell stories, you can’t be afraid to say what you want. If I hadn’t spoken up for myself, my whole life would have been different. You deserve to be here as much as anyone else. So, take up space.” 

It is a natural process: composting turned into art and renewable energy.

“So these are banana peels for my smoothie this morning that I broke up so that the worms would have an easier time digesting,” said Alison Coplan, senior curator at the Swiss Institute.

The “Compost Oracle” is the star attraction of a new exhibition at the Swiss Institute in the East Village.

It will power an earth battery connected to a speaker sounding prophecies. Conceived by Finnish artist Jenna Sutela, it was inspired by a popular muppet.

“Marjorie was a trash pile who was also something of a kind of fortune teller. Marjorie knew everything because she had everyone’s trash inside of her, and so she was able to make prophecies about the future,” Coplan said.

Climate change and sustainability have been major themes at the small museum since Stefanie Hessler took the helm a year ago.

“My vision for the institution was really to center one of the most urgent topics of our time within the institution, and an arts organization of our scale can be more experimental in our approach,” Hessler said.

And it is not only by showing artwork but also by doing that with the Swiss Institute is pushing a sustainability agenda, carefully measuring carbon emissions of the whole operation.  

“I just analyzed all of our credit card reports and our banking statements to identify every cab ride, every every flight, every train,” said Christine Egaña Navin, the institute’s director of sustainability.

The museum is also a space for other contemporary artists.

“I think the biggest thing here is discovery,” notes Christian Kjaerulf-Praksti, director of advancement at the museum.

Like Jac Leirner, showing her “Blue Phase” sculpture, a metaphor of a high-inflation period in her native Brazil.

“When the value of the paper of the money was even higher than the value of the money itself,” Leirner said.

The Swiss Institute is an independent nonprofit organization.

Entrance to the museum is free.

We first introduced Kate Clark a when she became Seattle City Light’s Artist-in-Residence in 2021. Prior to this, Kate spent 10 years working on collaborative and community-based projects. While that work was on a more granular level, project by project, now Kate Clark has been charged with envisioning a master plan for how City Light administers its 1% for Art Fund dollars.

Kate’s plan will propose potential public art projects for future City Light projects, sites and initiatives to be implemented over 10 years. It will be released later this year, and with the upcoming 50th anniversary for the City’s 1% for the Arts Fund, we wanted to get to know our Artist-in-Residence better.

THE BASICS  

• Name: Kate Clark 
• Role: Seattle City Light Artist-in-Residence 
• Years of service: 2 

BACKGROUND  

• Hometown: Anacortes , WA 
• Alma mater: The Evergreen State College, UC San Diego 
• Discipline/Trade of study: Public Art 
• Tell us about your family/pets: I live with two lovely cats — Ged (named after an Ursula K. Le Guin character) and Sumi (after the ink). My mother, brother, and cousins live scattered throughout Seattle, Olympia and Anacortes.

WORK IN GENERAL 

What do you like most about your role?

I get to learn a lot, visit fascinating locations and use my imagination. 

What is the most rewarding part of your work at the utility?

As an artist who works at the intersections of community-engaged practice and public art, it’s incredibly rewarding to put forth proposals and suggestions that can help strengthen opportunities for artists to create public art projects that are meaningfully connected to the neighborhoods their artwork is designed for and with. 

What are some trends you see happening in the art industry?

I’m most moved by a powerful trend in critiquing the historical role monuments have served in upholding white supremacist notions and creating projects that dismantle these notions and uplift lesser told stories. I admire the work of projects like Monument Lab, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and individual works from artists like Simone Leigh and Hank Willis Thomas. 

JUST FOR FUN  

What energizes you and brings you excitement?

Being with a group who are all participating in a creative process that they love — and creating a community from it. The most recent experience of this was for a book release event hosted by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community — celebrating the incredible book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by artist Matika Wilbur. This book, ten years in the making, involved Matika Wilbur photographing and interviewing members of all 562 federally recognized tribes.

What’s the best piece of advice you have received?

A quote from science-fiction author Octavia Butler: “All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change.” I find this quote equally comforting and terrifying. 

How do you prefer to start/end your day? 

I’m required to start the day with a cup of Yorkshire Gold (a habit from the influence of an English friend), and I love to end the day with a book. 

What is the one item you can’t live without that needs electricity to operate?

Basic, but true: my cell phone. 

What fashion trend would you bring back?

I had to look up the official name of this accessory: it’s called a ferronnière. It’s a headband that encircles the forehead and has a small jewel suspended from the center. These were popular as formal wear for women in the 15^th and 19^th centuries, but I’m advocating for the return of these for all genders. For context, refer to the elves in the Lord of the Rings. Seriously, everyone looks good in these things. Please imagine anyone you know with a head necklace — and tell me if I’m wrong.  

What would we most likely find you doing on the weekend?

Weekends are my times to cook or bake something elaborate and to take a sauna. 

Alaska Airlines has unveiled its newest aircraft paint theme, designed by an Alaska Native artist, that it says honors salmon, culture, artistic expression, and language.

Artist Crystal Kaakeeyáa Rose Demientieff Worl designed “Xáat Kwáani.” It means “Salmon People” in the Alaskan Tlingit language.

“Every time I looked at an Alaska plane, I couldn’t help but visualize the salmon being in formline, or having some sort of design that represents identity. I can’t help but look at things and see how to Indigenize them,” Worl said in a statement. “I have high hopes this project will encourage people to learn and embrace Indigenous culture and values.”

>>> Have you checked out Central Oregon Daily News on YouTube? Click here to subscribe and share our videos.

RELATED: USPS honors civil rights leader, Ponca tribe Chief Standing Bear, with stamp

RELATED: Warm Springs art camp connects kids with local traditional artists

The 737-800 makes its first flight on Friday. It will travel from Anchorage to Seattle with stops in Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan.

Alaska Airlines says it’s the first aircraft of any U.S. airline fleet to have the name of the plane in an Alaska Native language.

More facts from Alaska Airlines:

• It took 117 gallons of paint to complete the paint job.
• Four main colors were used were Midnight Blue, Atlas Blue, White and Pink.
• It took just 12 days to paint.
• The design will fly for a number of years through a paint system that applies a protective clear coat over the base coats. This protective coating will keep it looking fresh for many years.

A Ponca tribe chief whose landmark lawsuit in 1879 established that a Native American is a person under the law was honored Friday with the unveiling of a U.S. Postal Service stamp that features his portrait.

The release of the stamp of Chief Standing Bear comes 146 years after the Army forced him and about 700 other members of the Ponca tribe to leave their homeland in northeast Nebraska and walk 600 miles (965 kilometers) to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Chief Standing Bear was arrested and imprisoned in Fort Omaha when he and others tried to return. This prompted him to file a lawsuit that led to an 1879 ruling ordering his release and finding that a Native American is a person with a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

“For so long people didn’t know his story or the Ponca story — our own trail of tears,” Candace Schmidt, chairwoman of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska said. “We are finally able to tell his story of perseverance and how we as a tribe are resilient.”

>>> Have you checked out Central Oregon Daily News on YouTube? Click here to subscribe and share our videos.

RELATED: Madras High School creates Native American tribal room

RELATED: Warm Springs art camp connects kids with local traditional artists

Judi M. gaiashkibos, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, called the issuing of a Chief Standing Bear stamp a milestone that she hopes “provokes necessary conversations about race, sovereignty and equality in the United States.”

“It’s remarkable, that the story of Nebraska Native American civil rights leader Chief Standing Bear has progressed from a native man being considered a non-person by the U.S. Government in 1879, to today, being recognized by the Postal Service with a stamp honoring him as an American icon,” gaiashkibos said.

The Postal Service, which released the stamp at a ceremony Friday in Lincoln, Nebraska, has printed 18 million stamps. The stamp features a portrait of Chief Standing Bear by illustrator Thomas Blackshear II, based on a black and white photograph of Chief Standing Bear taken in 1877, the Postal Service said.

More than 100 members of the Ponca tribe died during or soon after the forced journey to Oklahoma, including Chief Standing Bear’s only son. It was a desire to have his son buried in their homeland in Nebraska’s Niobrara River Valley that resulted in the return of Chief Standing Bear and 29 others and their subsequent arrest.

According to the National Park Service, two Omaha attorneys represented Chief Standing Bear at a two-day trial before Judge Elmer S. Dundy in U.S. District Court in Omaha. The government appealed Dundy’s ruling that Chief Standing Bear and other arrested member of his tribe were “persons” but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

The Ponca members were freed and returned to their old reservation along the Niobrara River, where Chief Standing Bear died in 1908.

A congressional investigation later determined the government wrongly gave away the Ponca homeland and removed the tribe, leading to congressional legislation in 1881 that gave some compensation to members of the tribe. In 1924, an issue that arose in the 1879 trial was resolved when Congress approved a law that conferred citizenship on all Native Americans born in the United States.

The federal government terminated the Ponca tribe of Nebraska in 1966 but the tribe regained federal recognition in 1990. Schmidt said the Ponca now has about 5,500 members, operates three health clinic and offers numerous services to members.

“We’re doing really well,” she said.

There is a separate Ponca tribe in Oklahoma.

Anton G. Hajjar, vice chairman of the Postal Service Board of Governors, said the post office has been issuing stamps that honor the legacy of great Americans since the 1800s. In issuing the stamp of Chief Standing Bear, Hajjar noted, “It took our country far too long to recognize the humanity in many of its people – including the American Indians who lived in these lands for thousands of years.”

The Postal Service previously has issued stamps honoring Native Americans including Pocahontas, Chief Joseph, Sequoyah, Red Cloud, Sitting Bull and Jim Thorpe.

DENVER – The Cherokee Nation Film Office recently returned to SeriesFest, which celebrates emerging and underserved voices in television, to help highlight Indigenous creators and Native-driven stories during Season 9 of the annual festival.

Jennifer Loren, senior director for the Cherokee Nation Film Office, moderated the “Bones of Crows” panel following the show’s U.S. premiere at SeriesFest on May 6, in Denver, Colorado. The panel included Loren; the series’ Director, Writer and Executive Producer Marie Clements; and Executive Producers Trish Dolman and Christine Haebler, as well as stars Grace Dove and Carla-Rae.

“Bones of Crows” revolves around Cree matriarch Aline Spears as she and her siblings struggle to survive being forced into Canada’s residential school system. The mini-series continues during 100 years following the Spears family’s generational fight against systemic starvation, racism and sexual abuse. 

“This series is an extraordinary example of why it is crucial that as an industry we continue to make space for Native-driven content and that we highlight Indigenous creators who are working diligently to tell significant and impactful Native stories,” Loren said. 

She added through the removal of Native children to boarding or residential schools, Cherokee and many other Indigenous families share the intergenerational trauma such as depicted in “Bones of Crows.”

“It is important that the rest of the world see and hopefully begin to understand the violence and loss of our languages, cultures and community connections, as well as so much other suffering that continues to harm Indigenous families through perpetual intergenerational traumas,” Loren said.

In its ongoing effort to address the need for more Natives on and off screen, CNFO also helped present last year’s SeriesFest Storytellers Initiative screenwriting competition, aimed specifically at finding an unproduced, 30-minute sitcom featuring a Native American character or writer, with accurate Native American portrayals void of stereotypes.

Co-writers Todd Fuller and Randi LeClaire won SeriesFest’s Storytellers Initiative Season 8 for “Cross X Stitches.” The winning script follows two ragtag teams of Native baseball players as they travel across Oklahoma and the Southwest, playing weekend tournaments and causing chaos from town to town, allowing the present and past to merge as a pitching phenom grandson and his pitching phenom great-grandfather seek to provide for their families.

SeriesFest, a nonprofit organization, champions and empowers artists at the forefront of episodic storytelling by providing year-round opportunities for creators and industry experts to connect, collaborate and share stories, which inspire and impact global audiences.

The Cherokee Nation Film Office launched in 2019 and became the first certified Native American film commission to open in the United States. CNFO also created and maintains unique, all-inclusive talent, crew and consulting online directories featuring Native American actors, extras, voice actors, crew, cultural experts and other industry resources.  

For more information about the Cherokee Nation Film Office, please visit cherokee.film.