The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the fellows for the 2023 Directors, Screenwriters and Native Labs. For the past 40 years, Sundance Institute labs have brought global independent filmmakers together to express their unique vision through an in-depth creative process that emphasizes compelling storytelling and risk-taking within a vibrant community. As part of the Institute’s year-round work, the program has supported notable filmmakers who continue to influence the arts worldwide and uplifts accomplished and emerging artists extending from development through distribution.

This year’s Directors and Screenwriters Labs will support 12 fellows, with five fellows selected for the Native Lab. Artists will develop original works under the guidance of accomplished creative advisors, fostering a robust community throughout key stages of the filmmaking process.

The Native Lab has been a significant part of supporting Indigenous filmmakers for nearly two decades. The 2023 Native Lab will be held online May 1–5 and continues from May 8–13 in person in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Five fellows will be participating: three from the U.S.A., one from Canada selected with the Indigenous Screen Office, and one from New Zealand selected with the New Zealand Film Commission. Artist in residence Taylor Hensel (Cherokee Nation) will also be in attendance, auditing the lab while in script development. The lab concentrates on the distinct development of feature film and episodic work by storytellers from Native and Indigenous backgrounds. Through roundtable discussions and one-on-one feedback sessions with advisors, artists will enhance their storytelling and technical skills and explore indigenizing their creative practices

“One of the core tenets for us in the Indigenous Program is that we support a broad spectrum of Indigenous storytelling — our cohort of five Native Lab fellows and the projects they’re bringing to Santa Fe demonstrate that commitment to supporting diverse narratives and approaches,” said Adam Piron, director of the Indigenous Program. “We’re looking forward to seeing where those different global and tribal perspectives the fellows bring to the table will help them as they enrich each other and themselves, and I’m so pleased to have our creative advisors on hand to participate in this process of collaborative discovery.”

The 2023 Directors Lab will take place May 30–June 13 in person at the Sundance Resort, where filmmakers will rehearse, shoot, and edit selected scenes from their work-in-progress screenplays in a workshop environment while being supported by experienced creative advisors. Directors focus on core elements of filmmaking, including directing actors, workshopping dialogue, and further defining their visual language. The 2023 Screenwriters Lab will be held June 20–23 online, where fellows will refine their scripts through individual story sessions with screenwriter advisors and group sessions on the art and craft of screenwriting.

“The Sundance Institute labs have consistently offered an opportunity for artists to develop their bold, original independent projects in a creative environment, with a year-round focus on building a sustainable career and forging a supportive community,” said Michelle Satter, founding senior director of Artist Programs. “We are thrilled to welcome this group of emerging talent with unique voices to advance their projects as they embark on their visionary journey. As a nonprofit, we are especially grateful to the creative advisors, actors, crew, and staff involved who are critical to the process and continuum of support and contribute to our longstanding mission of uplifting independent storytelling.”

The participation of experienced advisors has always been an instrumental part of the labs, contributing their invaluable knowledge and abilities from various areas of the industry. Many have been a part of the labs over the years and continue to give back by providing guidance to a new generation of artists. The Directors Lab advisor cohort, led by Artistic Director Gyula Gazdag, includes Miguel Arteta, Joan Darling, Rick Famuyiwa, Stephen Goldblatt, Keith Gordon, Randa Haines, Ed Harris, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Polly Morgan, Ira Sachs, Michelle Tesoro, and Joan Tewkesbury. The Screenwriters Lab advisor cohort, led by Artistic Director Howard Rodman, includes Justin Chon, Sebastian Cordero, Cherien Dabis, D.V. Devincentis, Scott Frank, John Gatins, Nicole Kassell, Kasi Lemmons, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Elena Soarez, and Robin Swicord. The Native Lab creative advisors include Andrew Ahn, Alex Lazarowich (Cree), Dana Ladoux Miller (Sāmoan), and Jennifer Reeder. 

The Directors and Screenwriters Labs are overseen by Satter, and Ilyse McKimmie, deputy director of the Feature Film Program. The Native Lab is overseen by Piron, director of the Institute’s Indigenous Program, and Ianeta Le’i, the program’s senior manager.

Previous Sundance Institute lab fellows include award-winning filmmakers Andrew Ahn, Paul Thomas Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Ryan Coogler, Nia DaCosta, the Daniels, Rick Famuyiwa, Sydney Freeland, David Gordon Green, Sterlin Harjo, Marielle Heller, Sky Hopinka, Miranda July, Nikyatu Jusu, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Boots Riley, A.V. Rockwell, Ira Sachs, Quentin Tarantino, Shaandiin Tome, Erica Tremblay, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, Charlotte Wells and Chloe Zhao. 

In addition, Sundance Collab, Sundance Institute’s digital space for artists to learn from experts and build a global filmmaking community, features “Insider Sessions” with Institute staff on hand to answer questions about our artist programs and provide details around discovering and applying to the many programs and funds the Institute offers.

PROJECTS & FELLOWS FOR THE 2023 SUNDANCE INSTITUTE NATIVE LAB

• Eva Grant (writer-director) with “Degrees of Separation” (Canada): In this smart and stylish ensemble comedy, Indigenous PhD student Delphine plans a daring heist to return Ancestral remains to her tribe. But first she and her team must outsmart the White Saviours and Collectors who have arrived in the community like vultures, ready to pick the bones clean.

Grant is a bilingual filmmaker of mixed St’at’imc Indigenous, Asian and European heritage. She is currently a Vancouver Queer Film Festival Disruptor Fellow, and an Artist in Residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario. A former E20 screenwriter, she studied literature and philosophy at Stanford University.

• Quinne Larsen (writer) with “Trouble” (U.S.A.): Five people living in an abandoned desert motel try to put their world (and their giant robot) together from scraps. 

Larsen is a Chinook writer and cartoonist in Los Angeles (Tongva territory). They’ve worked on shows at Sony Pictures, Cartoon Network, Disney TVA, and Netflix. They’re currently working on an original graphic novel for First Second.

• Anpa’o Locke (writer) with “Growing Pains” (U.S.A.): Kawá, an urban Native teen, and her mother, Elizabeth, a relocated rezzer, return to their hometown in South Dakota after Elizabeth is hired as the new Lakota teacher at the reservation high school; Kawá navigates friendship, queerness, and belonging on the reservation.

Locke is a Hunkpapha Lakota and Ahtna Dené writer, filmmaker, and curator from the Standing Rock Nation. She was a 2022 Sundance Indigenous Fellow focused on Native diaspora experience and self-determination in filmmaking. She holds a BA in Film Studies from Mount Holyoke College and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

• Jana Schmieding (writer-producer-actor) with “Auntie Chuck” (U.S.A.): A rezzy spinster must find her inner auntie when she’s tasked with taking care of her siblings for two weeks. 

Schmieding wrote on and co-starred in Rutherford Falls and is known for her comedic roles on “Reservation Dogs,” “The Great North” and “Spirit Rangers.” A Lakota woman, Schmieding is making her mark on the entertainment industry as an actor, writer, and producer bringing Native stories to mainstream audiences.

• Cian Elyse White (writer-director) with “Te Puhi’” (New Zealand, United Kingdom): Aotearoa, 1962. 19-year-old Te Puhi claims international fame overnight when she is crowned Miss New Zealand — the first Māori to win the title. Torn between duty and her dreams, Te Puhi navigates the disconnect from home when she moves to London against her family’s wishes.

Elyse White (she/her) is a Te Arawa, Ngāti Pikiao/ Ngāti Te Tākinga, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Porou (Te Whānau a Ruataupare, Te Whānau a Hinetāpora), Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa, Tainui writer, director and actress born in Rotorua, New Zealand. She has written scripts for stage and screen including: Kōtiro (Daddy’s Girl), PIIKSI/HUIA, and Te Puhi (in development). In 2022, Elyse White won the award for Outstanding Newcomer at the Women in Film & Television awards, NZ. 

PROJECTS & FELLOWS FOR THE 2023 SUNDANCE INSTITUTE DIRECTORS AND SCREENWRITERS LABS

• Hadas Ayalon (writer-director) with “In a Minute You’ll Be Gone” (Israel): A middle-aged lesbian couple are struggling with the death of their son when an unexpected letter from a sperm bank puts their relationship to the test, forcing them to confront their loss and their identity as mothers.

Ayalon is a director, screenwriter, and film editor living in Tel Aviv. Her short film “Paris on the Water” (2014) won the Student Academy Award and the Israeli Academy Award for Best Narrative Short. “In a Minute You’ll Be Gone” is her first feature film. 

• Dania Bdeir (writer-director) and Bane Fakih (co-writer) with “Pigeon Wars” (Lebanon, Canada, France): In the gritty world of Beirut’s pigeon wars, a relentless young woman and a dutiful young man form an unlikely alliance, challenging societal norms and political tensions while seeking redemption and self-discovery.

Bdeir is a Lebanese-Canadian filmmaker who gained acclaim for her NYU thesis film “In White” and award-winning short Warsha, shortlisted for the 2023 Academy Awards. A Screen Daily Arab Star of Tomorrow, Bdeir is developing her first feature, “Pigeon Wars.”

• Bane Fakih is a Lebanese filmmaker whose shorts “Assil and Jad” and “Vibes” screened at Palm Springs ShortsFest and Outfest. After her MFA from Columbia University, Fakih received the Ezra Litwak Award for Screenwriting Distinction. Her feature screenplay Keep It Together was shortlisted for the 2019 Tribeca All Access.

• Rashad Frett (co-writer-director) and Lin Que Ayoung (co-writer) with “Ricky” (U.S.A.): Newly released after being locked up in his teens, 30-year-old Ricky navigates the challenging realities of life post-incarceration, and the complexity of gaining independence for the first time as an adult.

Frett is an award-winning Caribbean American filmmaker who pursued an MFA from NYU Grad Film after experiencing 9/11 as a U.S. Army combat medic. He’s a recipient of a DGA Student Film Award, a Spike Lee Production Grant, the Cary Fukunaga Production Grant, and Ryan Murphy’s HALF Initiative.

Que Ayoung is an award-winning writer/director/producer and graduate of NYU Grad Film. Her film Cracked won The Spike Lee Production Grant and a King Wasserman Award for Best Graduate Film at NYU’s First Run Film Festival. Cracked world premiered at Tribeca and is currently streaming on HBO Max.

• Masami Kawai (director-writer-producer) with “Valley of the Tall Grass” (U.S.A.): A TV/VCR combo set is thrown out, but it survives and circulates through the lives of various working class Indigenous characters of color in an Oregon town. They find forgotten memories, love, and connection through this seemingly obsolete object.

Kawai is a Los Angeles–born filmmaker of Ryukyuan descent. She is an assistant professor of Filmmaking at the University of Oregon. She participated in the Gotham Project Market and Film Independent’s FastTrack. Her films have screened at various venues, including the Rotterdam Film Festival, LACMA, and Palm Springs ShortFest.

• Gabriela Ortega (writer-director) with “Huella” (U.S.A., Dominican Republic): Following the death of her family’s matriarch in the Dominican Republic, a disenchanted flamenco dancer living in New York City must rid herself from her ancestor’s curses to pave her own future. (Screenwriters Lab only)

Ortega is a multidisciplinary artist from the Dominican Republic. She is a Sundance Institute and Academy of Motion Pictures Fellow, and is one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” Her short film, “Huella,” was an official selection for the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Her work draws cultural bridges that lead to the Caribbean through intersectionality, duality, and ancestral memory. 

• Audrey Rosenberg (writer-director) with “Wild Animals” (U.S.A.): After a fatal mistake makes her a pariah of her insular and devout 19th century farming community, Frances becomes consumed with hunting down a mythic beast, at the cost of her family’s reputation and safety.

Rosenberg is an award-winning genre writer and director. Their short film “Skin” won the Jury Special Mention at Outfest, and their feature “Wild Animals” has received fellowships from Black List, WIF, and the Sundance Institute. They have a degree in film from USC. Recipient of generous support from the Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation, which dedicates funding to a filmmaker who identifies as Queer or a project dealing with themes of Queer identity at Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Labs.

• Abinash Bikram Shah (writer-director) with “Elephants in the Fog” (Nepal, France): In a small Nepalese village nestled in the heart of a forest populated by wild elephants, Pirati is the matriarch of a community of transgender women. She aspires to a “normal” life with the man she loves, but when one of her “daughters” disappears, she must choose between love and responsibility to her community. (Screenwriters Lab only)

Bikram Shah is a national award-winning writer-director and an alumnus of Locarno Filmmakers Academy, Berlinale Talents, Sundance Institute lab and Asian Film Academy. He has written and directed films that have won at many international film festivals, including short film “Lori,” which was awarded Special Jury Mention at Cannes Film Festival 2022.

• Walter Thompson-Hernández (writer-director) with “If I Go Will They Miss Me” (U.S.A.): Twelve-year-old Lil Ant begins to see mysterious figures — eerie men with their arms spread like wings — around his home. When his father, Big Ant, realizes his son sees these “airplane people” too, their family history emerges and reveals deeper meaning and connection between them.

Thompson-Hernández is a writer-director from southeast Los Angeles. He was named as one of Variety’s “10 Storytellers to Watch” in 2021 and Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2022. His short film “If I Go Will They Miss Me” was awarded the 2022 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction.

• Sean Wang (writer-director) with “DìDi” (“弟弟”) (U.S.A.): Fremont, CA. 2008. In the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.

Wang is a filmmaker from Fremont, California. He is a Google Creative Lab 5 alum, 2020 Sundance Ignite fellow, and current Sundance Institute | TAAF fellow. His latest film, “Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó” (“Grandma & Grandma”), premiered at SXSW 2023 where it won the Documentary Short Jury Award and Audience Award.

• Farida Zahran (writer-director) with “The Leftover Ladies” (Egypt, U.S.A.): A 60-something woman has her life turned upside down when her polygamous husband, who had been happily ensconced with his second wife, unexpectedly expresses a renewed interest in their stale relationship.

Zahran is an Egyptian writer-director based in Brooklyn. Most recently, she wrote on the acclaimed Hulu series, “Ramy.” Farida has been supported by programs such as the NYFF Artist Academy, Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab, and TIFF Writers’ Studio. She is a graduate of the New York University Graduate Film Program. 

Art Love Collective co-founders Hollie Blakeney and Morgan Long felt the Lawrence arts community was lacking something, and they opened Lawrence’s newest gallery with the intention of filling that void. 

The collective opened its doors at 646 Vermont St. in mid-March. Blakeney — who based the business model on an arts co-op she founded in Michigan — refers to Art Love as a “hub” where people can gather not only to purchase and create art, but also to host events and attend artist-led classes.

“Our goal is to provide a safe space for artists from all communities, and to be able to help them sell and promote their work,” Blakeney said. “We really want to help artists grow in an inclusive environment with communal support.” 

The collective’s business model aims to make art accessible for artists of all backgrounds. Of the 35 members and 13 commissioned artists, Blakeney said about half are people of color or queer. 

Local artist and co-chair and community coordinator for the Indigenous Community Center Moniqué Mercurio, of the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation, said that before Art Love opened, she didn’t have any luck with local galleries.

“As an Indigenous artist, I’ve tried very hard to get into shops locally,” Mercurio said. “I wasn’t met in any capacity of support whatsoever … I work with the community in a very large capacity, so, you know, I’m getting a very good feel of genuine people versus performative people.”

Sam Azzaro, who joined the collective as soon as it opened in March, said they enjoy having space to make their art without censorship. Azzaro has worked in a variety of mediums, including photography, drawing, sculpture and metal work. They received a bachelor’s in fine arts from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater before pursuing a master’s degree in higher education administration at the University of Kansas.

Some of Azzaro’s most recent work deals with the complexities of growing up transgender, and they say the collective allows them to create and show their work unapologetically. 

“It’s a space where I don’t have to apologize for who I am,” Azzaro said. “Growing up, it really felt like I had to be closeted and hide that part of myself away. Or I had to tiptoe around varying people in my life. I don’t have to do that anymore. I am here to take up as much space as I want and as I need.” 

Blakeney and Long aim to keep money in the artists’ pockets by charging creatives a monthly membership fee and taking a 10% commission. According to Blakeney, traditional galleries charge commissions as high as 70% and prohibit artists from selling their work anywhere else, forcing the creative to raise their prices and cater to a wealthier clientele. 

Membership plans at the collective range from $100 to $200 per month and come with access to Art Love’s gallery and 24-hour studios. Additionally, the more expensive options give artists discounts on classroom and event space rentals and online exposure through the collective’s digital art market. There’s also a guest artist option that doesn’t require a membership but takes a 40% commission on sales. 

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“The main point of this space is just to keep everything in the artists’ pockets — we aren’t here to make money off of them,” Long said. Laughing a bit, she added: “We really just want to pay rent. That’s it.” 

By providing an inclusive home base for artists, musicians and writers, Blakeney and Long aim to simultaneously make original artwork accessible and encourage an entire generation of underrepresented artists. 

“It’s so empowering for me to see them also take up that space that they need,” Azzaro said. “Being able to support Black artists, Indigenous artists and queer artists in any sort of capacity is something that I really enjoy and love.”

The collective’s Final Friday exhibition, set for 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 28, will feature Indigenous artists. On Sunday, it will host the kickoff for Actions for Justice Week, a week dedicated to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Trans (MMIWG2ST) people. Read more about that at this link.

Art Love Collective is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Learn more on their website, artlovecollective.org.

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Chloe Anderson (she/her), a contributor to The Lawrence Times, is a freelance photojournalist with work also published in Climbing magazine, Kansas Reflector and Sharp End Publishing. As a recent graduate of the University of Kansas, Chloe hopes to continue her career in photography, rock climbing and writing somewhere out West.

You can view her portfolio, articles and commissioned work here. Check out more of her work for the Times here.

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Photographer Matika Wilbur was tired of seeing one-dimensional, insipid, degrading depictions of Native Americans in mainstream media and popular culture. So in 2012, Wilbur, who is of Swinomish and Tulalip descent, decided to create her own catalog of images.

She sold everything in her Seattle apartment and, with Kickstarter backing, headed out on the road, cameras in hand. Her goal: To illustrate Native Americans’ diversity and complexity by photographing members of all of the then-562 federally-recognized U.S. tribes.

Ten years, 600,000 miles, and several vehicles later, Wilbur has published her work – portraits and interviews – in a stunning new book: Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America. Over hundreds of pages, we meet Native elders, rappers, professors, artists, activists, linguists, dancers, ranchers, comedians, and more.

“In a lot of ways, this work is narrative correction work,” Wilbur said. “When I was talking to folks, I was aiming to understand, ‘What are some of the true stories about your people that you want people to know?'”

In her interviews with the people she photographed, they shared stories about the lasting effects of colonization and relocation; about environmental destruction done to Native lands; and about the traumatic experience of those who had been taken from their homes as children and sent to Indian boarding schools to be “assimilated,” forced to give up their language and Native identity.

But along with those painful conversations, Wilbur said, she also heard “the best parts: how we’ve healed from that, and what our people are doing to move forward, and to develop healthy and strong and thriving Indigenous nations.”

Wilbur dedicates Project 562 to her daughter Alma Bee, now three years old, with these words:

May your children hear and breathe the words of our Indigenous ancestors. May we all be so lucky to know an Indigenous future.

Photos reprinted with permission from Project 562: Changing The Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur © 2023. Photographs by Matika Wilbur © 2023. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

America’s biggest powwow kicked off last night with the Miss Indian World competition and heads into the weekend ready to showcase Indigenous songs and dances, while bringing millions of dollars from visitors to Albuquerque.

The Gathering of Nations is in its 40th year and each year opinions, both positive and negative, grow stronger from the local Indigenous community. This begs the question, can such a large (and seemingly very profitable) Indigenous event, held by a non-Indigenous person, truly have the best interests of Indigenous people in mind?

A comedic video short by the popular Indigenous comedy troupe, the 1491’s, gives you the gist of why the Gathering of Nations elicits such hot takes. 

In the slapstick short video lasting just under five minutes the 1491’s get to the heart of the story.

An actor playing Gathering of Nations founder, Derek Matthews, trips, falls, and has a vision of Crazy Horse (played by the very pale and shirtless 1491’s member, Ryan Redcorn) who tells him he must “commodify” Indian culture to the max by starting the powwow. 

“Charge the dancers, charge the singers, charge the lady singers, charge the tiny tots, charge the piss out of them, hell charge the veterans extra,” Redcorn says with a deadpan, defiant face.

He dares Matthews to run with the exploitation of Indian culture and the idea here is Matthews will undoubtedly know more about business than Indians and can exploit the culture far better than Indian people ever could and most importantly, make a lot of money. 

Redcorn/Crazy Horse goes on to say that as long as Indians think other Indians will be there, they will show up and continue to show up in droves each and every year, never caring that the event is not run by an actual Indigenous person, or if the event contributes back to the communities.  

While the video is a parody at heart, one wonders how far the 1491’s are from the truth.

Despite this reputation, the powwow is a major tourist attraction that prints money for Albuquerque businesses. According to officials at the Gathering of Nations, the powwow brings in more than 100,000 people to the city that then spend their money on hotels, restaurants, golf courses and $10 frybread. Officials estimate the weekend will bring in between $24-$28 million in tax revenue for the city.

All this revenue leads to skepticism about commodifying culture just like the 1491’s parody.

Count Wendy Grey Eyes, as one of the skeptical ones. 

Grey Eyes (Diné) is an assistant professor of Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico. She is also the faculty advisor for the Kiva club, an organization for Native students that has been running for 71 years, one of the oldest in the nation, she said.

The Kiva Club runs a bit of counter programming during the Gathering week, called “Nizhoni Days.” This year UNM is hosting a series of lectures and other events, leading up to the student run powwow held on Sunday at Johnson Field on the campus. 

Not only is the powwow free, there is also a free community feed held each year after the last song, typically around 5 p.m. Grey Eyes estimates there were about 2000 people who attended the Kiva Club powwow last year,  and around half of that attended the community feed. “That line went from one end of Johnson Field to the other,” Grey Eyes said recalling the amount of people waiting for food. 

In the end, Grey Eyes understands the Gathering as a big event for Indigenous people but also sees how Indigenous people are rising up with their own events, not so much as an oppositional voice but with a focus on a more authentic representation, “We’ve seen a lot of non-Natives try to exploit Indigenous people, and I think (Matthews) needs to think about giving this even back to the people.” 

Artists create their own revenue

Cochiti Pueblo musician Jir Anderson acknowledges the opportunity Gathering creates for events outside the powwow.

“It’s a really amazing and beautiful event, it really brings the community together and not just our Native community but the community at large,”Anderson said.

He is the founder of Native Guitars Tour, a musical event centered on Native musicians with shows held throughout the year. 

“I’m always excited around Gathering of Nations’ time.”

More than just a powwow

Anderson and his tour just came back from a show at The Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas, Nevada. They have shows to come at Indian Market in Santa Fe, a film festival in California, Indigenous Peoples Day in Phoenix, a music festival in Nashville and after that, a show in Canada. 

Needless to say Anderson has created a successful tour to showcase Indigenous musicians. 

What he is focused on is creating an atmosphere for working Native musicians to thrive and more importantly, paying musicians for their labor. He strives to create spaces for Native musicians as professionals who are not just playing for that ever loaded term, “exposure.”  

Anderson has played Stage 49, a stage for contemporary Native musicians within the Gathering of Nations venue. He’s gone the exposure route and performed on that stage for free.

“I’ve done that stage and hadn’t got paid. All I’ll say about that is up to each organization and how they run things, I don’t know what their budget is like.” 

Anderson seeks sponsorships to pay his artists. “I hear (Gathering) are paying some of their artists now, I won’t take credit for that,” Anderson adds tongue in cheek. 

He is very sympathetic to the ups and downs of arts organizations and what sponsorships they may or may not get. 

In regards to the Gathering, “We are trying to create this collective of artists for Gathering and kind of make it like the South by Southwest.” 

He is doing his part by producing his Native Guitars shows on three different days on four different stages with 30 Indigenous musicians. This year he’s even incorporated a fashion show on Saturday at the Sunshine Theater.  He sees the Gathering as an opportunity to bring more people to Albuquerque and is focused on the big picture. “Let’s bring as many artists as we can.” 

Powwow Blues

It’s a similar experience for musician and promoter Greg Yazzie.

“(Gathering of Nations) don’t pay people out. They get paid in exposure basically which is like bullshit,” said Yazzie,  a founder of Chapter House Records, an indie rock collective of Indigenous musicians throughout the southwest. 

Gathering of Nations has a dedicated stage for contemporary Indigenous music, Stage 49, which welcomes talent from all over the country. Officials with the powwow were unavailable to comment on artists’ payment.

Yazzie (Diné) had considered playing Stage 49 last year, largely because he lives in Albuquerque and wouldn’t have too much overhead costs for travel and lodging.

Other Indigenous musicians are not so lucky. “A lot of people travel really far,” Yazzie said. This means on top of playing for free, you get to pay for gas and lodging from a far away rez. This can make the powwow pilgrimage all the way to Albuquerque quite expensive. 

And that’s not all.

‘Stop, and uplift each other’

“They want you to sign all this stuff saying we are going to record you and put you on YouTube forever and it’s our rights, it’s our property,” Yazzie adds. In the end Yazzie decided not to play Stage 49 with his band because he didn’t want to be exploited in perpetuity on the Gathering of Nations YouTube channel.

It’s been 15 years since Aaron Fry (Cherokee/Chickasaw), a professor of Native American Art History at the University of New Mexico, went to his last Gathering of Nations powwow.

“I was on Gathering head staff in ‘97 and my wife was Miss Indian World,” he said.

He’s now focused on the community oriented events as an arena director for the many local powwows around Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

He’s seen how things are run behind the scenes, “You don’t want to see how the sausage is made.” 

Over the years, Fry’s observed that the pageantry at Gathering often takes precedence over the cultural aspects of the event. Another thing he’s observed is Gathering has missed the mark in the past on certain cultural protocols, like having a giant gourd dance and neglecting to invite the Kiowa Tribe to dance, a tribe that is largely known for gourd dancing throughout Indian Country. 

“A lot of folks feel like it’s super commercialized, all about the money and the contests,” he said.

Fry who dances powwow and teaches a class on powwow arts at UNM, notes that while this may be true, historically contests and prize money have always been a part of powwow culture, at least in some part. 

For Fry however, in the end Gathering became less about culture and more about prize money. 

“It ends up being so much about the contest, you end up losing some of the fun parts of the powwow. The sitting around and socializing, eating in your auntie’s camp,” he said. “That focus on competition and the money has some weird effects.” 

He did note this focus did have one surprising and positive effect: powwow clothing innovations. From an artistic standpoint, “The big money powwows have made people’s dance clothes better.”

The distance from the last time Fry attended Gathering to now, makes him reflect on his first few years of attendance. 

In the end, he suggests people should see it once. “Grand Entry is pretty moving,” but much like the popular art tourist attraction to the north in Santa Fe that also charges a hefty price for entry, it may not be as rewarding on subsequent visits.

For Fry who has experienced Gathering in many ways, the thrill is gone. But for tourists, newcomers and people with interest in Indigenous cultures, perhaps there is an experience to be had: pay the price, see it once, but perhaps no need to see it after that. 

“Gathering is like the Meow Wolf of the powwow world,” he said.

Photographer Matika Wilbur was tired of seeing one-dimensional, insipid, degrading depictions of Native Americans in mainstream media and popular culture. So in 2012, Wilbur, who is of Swinomish and Tulalip descent, decided to create her own catalog of images.

She sold everything in her Seattle apartment and, with Kickstarter backing, headed out on the road, cameras in hand. Her goal: To illustrate Native Americans’ diversity and complexity by photographing members of all of the then-562 federally-recognized U.S. tribes.

Ten years, 600,000 miles, and several vehicles later, Wilbur has published her work – portraits and interviews – in a stunning new book: Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America. Over hundreds of pages, we meet Native elders, rappers, professors, artists, activists, linguists, dancers, ranchers, comedians, and more.

“In a lot of ways, this work is narrative correction work,” Wilbur said. “When I was talking to folks, I was aiming to understand, ‘What are some of the true stories about your people that you want people to know?'”

In her interviews with the people she photographed, they shared stories about the lasting effects of colonization and relocation; about environmental destruction done to Native lands; and about the traumatic experience of those who had been taken from their homes as children and sent to Indian boarding schools to be “assimilated,” forced to give up their language and Native identity.

But along with those painful conversations, Wilbur said, she also heard “the best parts: how we’ve healed from that, and what our people are doing to move forward, and to develop healthy and strong and thriving Indigenous nations.”

Wilbur dedicates Project 562 to her daughter Alma Bee, now three years old, with these words:

May your children

hear and breathe

the words of

our Indigenous ancestors.

May we all be so lucky to

know an Indigenous future.

Photos reprinted with permission from Project 562: Changing The Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur © 2023. Photographs by Matika Wilbur © 2023. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

The interview with Matika Wilbur was produced by Michael Levitt and edited by Justine Kenin. contributed to this story

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Photographer Matika Wilbur was tired of seeing one-dimensional, insipid, degrading depictions of Native Americans in mainstream media and popular culture. So in 2012, Wilbur, who is of Swinomish and Tulalip descent, decided to create her own catalog of images.

She sold everything in her Seattle apartment and, with Kickstarter backing, headed out on the road, cameras in hand. Her goal: To illustrate Native Americans’ diversity and complexity by photographing members of all of the then-562 federally-recognized U.S. tribes.

Ten years, 600,000 miles, and several vehicles later, Wilbur has published her work – portraits and interviews – in a stunning new book: Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America. Over hundreds of pages, we meet Native elders, rappers, professors, artists, activists, linguists, dancers, ranchers, comedians, and more.

“In a lot of ways, this work is narrative correction work,” Wilbur said. “When I was talking to folks, I was aiming to understand, ‘What are some of the true stories about your people that you want people to know?'”

In her interviews with the people she photographed, they shared stories about the lasting effects of colonization and relocation; about environmental destruction done to Native lands; and about the traumatic experience of those who had been taken from their homes as children and sent to Indian boarding schools to be “assimilated,” forced to give up their language and Native identity.

But along with those painful conversations, Wilbur said, she also heard “the best parts: how we’ve healed from that, and what our people are doing to move forward, and to develop healthy and strong and thriving Indigenous nations.”

Wilbur dedicates Project 562 to her daughter Alma Bee, now three years old, with these words:

May your children

hear and breathe

the words of

our Indigenous ancestors.

May we all be so lucky to

know an Indigenous future.

Photos reprinted with permission from Project 562: Changing The Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur © 2023. Photographs by Matika Wilbur © 2023. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

The interview with Matika Wilbur was produced by Michael Levitt and edited by Justine Kenin. contributed to this story

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

The Latino Cultural Center will be hosting an American Indian Art Festival this weekend to showcase Native artists from across the continent.

The festival will include traditional and contemporary Native music, dance and cultural presentations. Friday evening performances include an Indigenous comedy set by Ron Kanutski, a Ojibwe-Cree comedian from Canada. On Saturday, there will be traditional Indian stickball led by Eli Hickman of the Mississippi Choctaw. The event will also feature conversations on topics such as the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and the history of Indian boarding schools.

The American Indian Art Festival will be held at the Latino Cultural Center on April 28 and 29 and is free for visitors

Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.

This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.

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When approaching the registration desk at Council Oak Comprehensive Healthcare a person is greeted by one or two staff members and a giant painting by Bobby C. Martin (Muscogee Nation) titled “But You Don’t Look Indian …” Martin also created the giant tiled painting on the opposite wall depicting the Council Oak tree with a long branch extending across the lobby’s walls stretching back to the Muscogee Nation’s ancestral lands.  

Opened in 2021, Council Oak Comprehensive Healthcare, 10109 E. 79th St., started as a hospital, but it also has evolved into a Muscogee Nation art museum. While doctors use some of the best technology to treat Native patients from any tribe, the art is also meant to help heal those seeking treatment and their loved ones who accompany them.  

This isn’t the Indian Health Service environments of bland rooms with public service announcements, uncomfortable chairs and long waits as depicted in Muscogee/Seminole filmmaker Sterlin Harjo’s “Reservation Dogs.” Council Oak is a world-class treatment center and home to the most extensive collection of Muscogee art on display in the state.  

“I’m happy we’re here to help our people who are here for medication or are sick,” says artist Yatika Fields (Muscogee, Cherokee, Osage), who has many pieces at Council Oak. “Art is powerful. Art inspires. Art is a tool that really can create healing, and create a way of new thinking, open a new door and passageway for that process of imagination and healing to begin.” 

The hospital 

Muscogee Nation officials had long been looking for a way to grow their medical presence in Tulsa, but nothing fit their needs. Then they saw on the news in late March 2021 that Cancer Treatment Centers of America Tulsa would close in June and the campus residing within the reservation would soon be for sale. 

“Within 20 minutes, we had texts going between myself, Chief (David) Hill and Shawn (Terry), who is our Secretary of Health,” says Rhonda Beaver, chief administrative officer for the Muscogee Nation Department of Health. “Within a couple of weeks, we were having dinner with the owner … He was delighted to know our mission and his mission aligned with what we were trying to do, so we came to terms on an agreement.” 

As the COVID-19 pandemic intensified, the deal was done fast in what was essentially a turnkey operation. In their monthly meeting in June 2021, Muscogee Nation National Council voted unanimously to purchase the property. The previous owner left behind everything that didn’t fit through a doorway.  

“I believe all of that more so became a sense of urgency as a result of the pandemic,” says Beaver, who worked for IHS for nearly two decades before joining her tribe’s health department. “We had a hard time placing our patients. By the time we would call around there would be no beds here in Oklahoma. So we would call other states like Louisiana, Colorado, Arkansas. And then in some instances, by the time we’d get ready to move that patient to Louisiana, we’d get a phone call back and say the bed’s gone.” 

Council Oak first opened in August 2021 with urgent care to test Oklahomans for COVID-19. Operations since have expanded with the focus solely on helping area tribal citizens with urogynecology, pulmonology, an HIV and hepatitis clinic, a diabetes clinic, a surgery center and a neurology clinic focusing on general neurology, stroke prevention, post-stroke and headache treatment. There’s also a hospice wing with a negative pressure room for those who want to be close to their loved one without sharing the same air. 

The hospital also has some of the best technology in the region for helping find a problem and then treat it. There is a 512-slice CT machine, which means “it slices you up 512 times. The more it slices you up, the easier it is for them to see and to catch something,” Beaver says. “We recently bought a DaVinci Robot for the surgery suites. That was a $2 million investment for the facility. We know new doctors are learning with this technology, so when they get here, we want to be ready for them.” 

The 20-acre campus comprises 336,385 square feet of health care facilities including inpatient and outpatient accommodations. It includes a 30,386-square-foot medical office building and about 40 hotel rooms that are being remodeled to better accommodate family members and patients with added amenities for longer stays. When completed, the rooms will be offered at a reduced price. 

“We know the needs of our people, and we want them to have a facility where they feel comfortable, where they feel like they’re at home, where they feel like they’re getting the healing that they deserve, where they’re getting culturally appropriate care, where we’re the friendliest facility around, and that they know they’re getting taken care of here,” Beaver says. “That’s ultimately our mission. We’re very pleased we can build something that mostly resembles what the Muscogee people are about.”  

From health care to art 

In September 2021, Muscogee Nation opened a 65-suite, monoclonal antibody infusion center that infused more than 5,000 Native and non-Native COVID-19 patients. It was a collaboration between IHS and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Tulsa County, which allocated $500,000 to assist with infusion center costs.  

When sculptor Kenneth Johnson (Muscogee) first visited Council Oak, he stood in the courtyard with hired art curator Julie O’Keefe (Osage) as she pointed out there were no flowers or birds or anything from the natural world. As they stood there, Johnson looked up at those patients in second-floor windows looking down on a drab courtyard that had a couple of benches with shade.

“There were people sitting up there for an hour looking down with their life literally flowing in and out of them, and I pictured something that would be inspirational,” says Johnson, who resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he operates Kenneth Johnson Studio. “I saw a beautiful white ethereal egret coming out of that courtyard. It’s interacting with an 11-foot stainless steel pole that has two powder coated white steel feathers on it, and it represents feather dance. It’s a form of prayer. Since many people here are dealing with their mortality, they want to know their prayers are being heard.” 

In the center of the installation Johnson and his team are creating a 32-foot turtle rising out of the ground that is made of Georgian marble from the Muscogee ancestral homelands. Its white stone signifies healing. Johnson says the turtle is made in four quadrants, and each quadrant has a bench inscribed with a saying in the Muscogee language from four different Muscogee Nation citizens: Bobby Yargee‘s states “Have love for one another”; Johnson’s great grandmother Ida Bruner’s states “Think on the good things”; Phillip Deere’s states “Keep standing strong”; and Joy Harjo’s is from a song she wrote, “Pass this love on, It knows how to bend, it will never break.” There’s also a water fountain in the center that is meant to be touched. 

“The colors are important. The concepts are important. The language is important. It’s all incorporated into something. What we see out there now is a corporate landscape, and what Muscogee Nation has empowered is Indigenous branding on the landscape,” he says. “All these are incorporated into the concept that a hospital should be doing, which is healing, or giving you the tools to grieve or mourn, and it reminds you people have gone before you and done the same things.” 

Art for healing 

O’Keefe’s background is in consulting and dealing with artists throughout Indian Country, including extensive work with Bacone College’s collection of late Muscogee artist Acee Blue Eagle’s art, so hospital administrators contracted her to help them. 

When she first visited the facility in February 2022, O’Keefe quickly realized there was so much space to work with “they could fill this place every day with art, and it would never fill up.” 

Everyone agreed all art should come from Muscogee Nation artists. Some of the works would be acquired, whether it was one of Yatika Fields’ paintings or maybe some of his father Tom Fields’ photographs or a beaded bandolier bag created by Jay McGirt. But there would need to be new art commissioned as well to fit the needs of the hospital and its patients. 

“All of these new pieces of artwork needed to reflect healing — healing not just within the mind or the body, but also within the spirit,” O’Keefe says. “I asked the artists to really convey within their work what they viewed as healing. How they viewed their people as healing. How they viewed themselves. How they viewed their caregivers, and how this affected them. 

The commissions brought about “incredible murals and paintings and sculptures and pieces where the Muscogee (Creek) community, but also the greater Native community, can come into this facility and they can experience some of that,” O’Keefe says. 

Overall, there are hundreds of pieces by more than 30 Muscogee artists. Some of the artists, like Johnson, have created their biggest pieces to date for Council Oak.  

Fields had to double check the measurements of his studio to make sure there was enough room for the 10-foot-by-30-foot canvas, much less space for him to work on it before he embarked on his largest piece yet. The result is a massive oil painting full of bright colors depicting a ribbon dance from a green corn ceremony. 

“My work is kind of like a vessel, and an entryway into free association with those memories. So it’s not a painting of such a literal ceremony, but yet literal mark makings that bring you into it and take you further, which in reality I think a ceremony should do. It kind of opens up pathways and doors for you to feel all senses and find a place in you where you’re connected in unison with the space and atmosphere you’re in,” says Fields, who is a Tulsa Artist Fellow and works locally with Joseph Gierek Fine Art and with Garth Grennan Gallery in New York City. “I feel it’s really fitting that it’s right across from where you’re getting medications to feel better, because this is just another piece that’s going to make you feel better.” 

Immediate impacts 

Dr. Micah Wright (Choctaw) grew up with tribal/native care for his primary health source. That motivated him to become a doctor “to have the opportunity to give back to the system that provided for my family. Providing care to Native patients is a huge privilege for me.” 

He understands the importance of the Muscogee art that fills the campus. 

“In order to gain trust from my patients and their family, we aim to provide an atmosphere that promotes healing and embodies cultural awareness,” Wright says. “By creating a space that implements cultural history and artwork, patients and their family are able to feel represented.” 

Every time Beaver walks through the Council Oak hallways and offices she’s reminded of her family, friends and past events that cling to her heart.  

“When I see a picture of a ceremonial dance, it reminds me of taking my grandfather to these places. When I see Tom Fields’ black and white pictures of churches, it reminds me of Fourth Sunday (fellowship gatherings),” she says. “I get these good feelings, positive feelings. It’s not cold, it’s not sterile and it’s not uncomfortable. I think that helps in a healing process.” 

Renovations continue throughout the campus as it turns to spring. There is art in storage ready to be hung once construction is completed in those areas. Some are being loaned to museums for exhibits. Johnson and his team are nearing completion on his courtyard installation. Muscogee Nation hosts its second annual art market a few miles down the road at River Spirit Casino and Resort. 

Standing in the main hallway not far from Fields’ “The Ribbon Dance,” O’Keefe admires a giant painting by Starr Hardridge (Muscogee) titled “Breath Giver” that depicts a young Muscogee girl blowing a flower’s seeds into the air. 

“This has been a project that will go down in my own personal history as one of the most fascinating and interesting and fulfilling projects I’ve ever worked on,” she says. “You do not have to be an artist to heal from art. You can go observe it, you can change the way you feel in a moment by just taking the time for a little self-care and going to take a look at something beautiful that stops you for just a minute, takes you out of your world and then go on. But sometimes that’s just the little push that we need. And art can do all of that.”