Lily Gladstone made history this year as the first Native American nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, for her starring role in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. A win for her this year would be especially resonant, as a rising generation of Native writers, actors and showrunners continues to transform the kinds of stories Hollywood tells about Indigenous people.

As Gladstone makes headlines with her series of “firsts”, she’s worked hard to spotlight Native designers and emphasize her pride in her Blackfeet history and language, reminding audiences at every turn that “first” is very different from “only”.

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When we asked Gladstone to share a short list of people she considers part of her Native Hollywood network, Gladstone sent 42 names, a list that included not only prominent writers and directors, like Sterlin Harjo and Sierra Teller Ornelas, but also Native cinematographers, film editors, costume and set designers, and wardrobe and stunt specialists.

The Guardian spoke with eight of these artists about breaking into the industry, the work they’re doing now, and the kind of Hollywood future they’re trying to create.

Erica Tremblay, film-maker

Seneca-Cayuga Nation

Tremblay directed Fancy Dance, a feature film starring Gladstone slated for release this year, which she co-wrote with Miciana Alise

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When it comes to Native representation in Hollywood, what’s changed – and what hasn’t?

The reality is that Native Americans have been making films, making art, crafting their own stories, for millennia. Oftentimes, when people talk about “representation”, it can have this weird overtone of discovery. Native Americans have been on this continent making art for all of history. We’ve been out here representing ourselves, representing our stories and representing our communities forever.

Getting a distributor for Fancy Dance was a long journey – something you wrote about publicly, before the film was finally picked up by AppleTV+.

We premiered at Sundance in 2023, got all of these incredible reviews. The audiences on social media were talking about how much they loved Lily. We were like, okay, is someone going to buy the film? Last year was a very fraught time in our industry, and independent film was hit quite hard. Lily’s bravery in continuing to push this film was so vital in getting us across the finish line.

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What do you enjoy about working on projects with other Native artists?

We have a certain shorthand and a certain humor. When Native folks show up to a project they really show up. When we were making Fancy Dance, we had the set calls translated into Cayuga, and everyone on set was using Cayuga as a living, breathing language, every day, which was so special – calling words like “action” and “roll” and “set” in Cayuga.

Is there anything distinctive about the Indigenous artists you know working in film right now?

The one thing that I love about Native Hollywood is the support system. Everyone really roots for everyone else to succeed. You might think in a world of limited resources there would be this competition, but everyone collectively celebrates every time someone else has a win. You can really see that kind of culture embodied in how Lily is scooping everyone up and dragging us with her as she goes through this process.

Ryker Sixkiller, actor/stunt actor

Cherokee from Wauhillau, Oklahoma

Worked on Reservation Dogs, Killer of the Flower Moon, Keep Quiet

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How did you break into work as a stunt actor?

I joined some acting groups on social media. From there, I submitted for everything. Paid, non-paid, pizza provided. I’ve been very fortunate to land a few roles, but that came with hundreds of auditions that I didn’t land.

When it comes to Native representation in Hollywood, what has changed over the course of your career?

I didn’t land my first Native role until 2021. Prior to that, I never fit society’s stereotypical “look” of a Native American. During the first several years of my career, I always feared that landing a Native role would put me in a compromising position by being asked to do something on screen that was a misrepresentation of Native identity. With more Natives and allies in the industry, we don’t have to worry about that as much and it’s a relief. There is a much larger platform for Native stories than ever before.

What new Native-driven projects are you most excited about?

The latest season of True Detective, which stars Kali Reis, and Rez Ball, a new coming-of-age sports drama on Netflix produced by LeBron James.

Isabel Deroy-Olson, actor

Tr’ondek Hwech’in / Anishinaabe

The 18-year-old stars with Gladstone in Fancy Dance, a drama set for release later this year

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What are some things you enjoy about working on projects (or on set) with other Native artists?

I mean, we are all human, but having people who come from the same cultural background, even though our Nations are very diverse, means we can skip the cultural competency and history lessons we often find ourselves telling as the only Indigenous people in the room, and get right to the good stuff – creating art. On Fancy Dance, there were so many strong Indigenous women working on-screen and as part of the crew, I felt like I was really being taken care of and watched out for. The aunties were everywhere, and it was the best.

What have been some of the most meaningful milestones for you in terms of Native representation?

Reservation Dogs changed the landscape of film and TV for me. As a young Indigenous woman, I didn’t have lots of representation. Getting to see my younger sibling and my cousins see themselves represented on screen makes me so happy.

What new Native-driven projects are you most excited about?

Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s so gratifying getting to see the success of other young Indigenous actors.

Ivy and Ivan MacDonald, documentary film-makers

Blackfeet tribe of Browning Montana

The siblings are co-directors on Bring Them Home, a documentary about an Indigenous effort to re-establish a wild buffalo herd on ancestral land

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What did you do to build your career?

I studied film-making in college, and my brother Ivan was getting his masters in social work. We ended up creating a documentary, When They Were Here, about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Later we won an Emmy for an ESPN short that we helped produce, Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible, in Browning, Montana, where I grew up, that was teaching young women how to defend themselves. We have our first feature, Bring Them Back, premiering at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival this month. Lily narrated the film.

How do you know Lily?

We met each other at a grocery store in Missoula, Montana. I was working, and she came in, and I told one of my co-workers: “That’s Lily Gladstone.” Lily and I both went to the University of Montana. In film school, before I knew her, I had an editing class, and they had all this stock footage of the actors doing different scenes, and they had one Lily was in. I was the only one in the class who made Lily the main character.

Are their ways your Native identity shapes your approach to film-making?

My brother and I talk about: ‘No extractive filmmaking.’ You don’t go into a community – whether it’s a narrative or a documentary – and extract a story. You get local crew, you get people to help you that are from the community. That’s such an important aspect of my Indigenous way of thinking. You don’t just go in, take a story, and leave. You try to create this community before you shoot.

Rose Stiffarm, cinematographer

Siksikaitsitapi, Quw’utsun, W̱SÁNEĆ, Aaniiih, Nakoda

Stiffarm, a freelance cinematographer and director of photography, is working on A’soka’piiwa, a horror film

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What motivates the work that you do?

I had an encounter with this woman in Seattle. She was asking me where I came from: ‘Are you from Samoa, or the Philippines? Are you Hawaiian?’ She told me she didn’t think Natives existed anymore. I was, mind you, on the public bus. This was 10, maybe 15 years ago. There wasn’t a whole lot of representation on Indigenous people on-screen. It’s really exciting to see this huge shift. People will see this new representation, and that will change how they see Indigenous people.

How does your experience shape how you approach making films?

As much as operating the camera, it’s knowing when not to operate the camera. Sometimes, here’s things that just shouldn’t be filmed. As an Indigenous cinematographer, if there’s something that’s happening, a ceremony that I am familiar with, I know enough to turn the camera off and put the lens cap on, so people can see I’m not recording. For documentary work, that’s huge.

What are some of your favorite recent Native-lead projects?

I really appreciated Rutherford Falls. The cinematography balanced the darkness behind drama, the brightness behind comedy. It doesn’t take place on the rez, it takes place in the suburbs, which is a different perspective that you don’t normally see. And the topics they handled – land back, cultural appropriation, the media – were done in a way that you’re laughing and slapping your knee the whole time. The showrunners, Sierra Teller Ornelas and Jana Schmieding, are doing a show called Bonnie next – I’m really looking forward to that.

Brooke Pepion Swaney, writer, director and producer

Citizen of the Blackfeet Nation, and a Bitterroot Salish descendant

Swaney directed the documentary Daughter of a Lost Bird. Her comedy script Tinder on the Rez was a 2020 Indigenous List pick

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How did you start your career?

I went to film school at NYU and during the last year, I realized I wasn’t going to get much done on my own personal projects if I stayed. I was going to get swallowed up by the city. I missed being back in Montana. I’m a westerner. I wanted to come back and make films there.

When it comes to Native representation in Hollywood, what has and hasn’t changed?

Unless Indigenous people are making the content, we’re still being situated in the past, and we’re still contending with a lot of very big stereotypes. You have all of these sports team images in the back of people’s heads, and this American mythology: ‘Oh, the frontier, it’s totally open.’ And it’s not open. We’ve been here. It’s an uphill battle. People in the 70s were saying: ‘We’re still here,’ and now, 50-some years later, we’re having to say the same thing.

What films or television shows are you trying to make at the moment?

Tinder on the Rez is a comedy. The heroine moves back to the reservation and is trying to date all these people, while feeling the pressure of the real things happening in her family. We’re dealing with this character who is not a great person. It’s like Fleabag. I’ve also been writing a dark comedy feature, about a tribal cop and his activist cousin who decide to take matters into their own hands when a white supremacist beats up their brother/cousin.

Alaina Maker, costume and wardrobe

Osage Citizen, Deer Clan

Maker was the key costumer on Fancy Dance and a set costumer on Killers of the Flower Moon and Reservation Dogs

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How did you break into the film industry?

On Killers of the Flower Moon, I interviewed with a couple different departments. The costume supervisor asked me if I could make Osage clothes, and I told her yes. My mom taught me how to make ribbon work – women wear ribbon work skirts, and men wear ribbon work suits. Throughout my whole life, I’ve watched her make things. Every family has different patterns that they wear.

First, I was in the sewing room of the costume department, working with the tailor. Then I was asked to come assist with the fittings, and I was able to provide a bit of my knowledge about the clothing. I was asked to be part of the demonstrations that were done to show the crew how the clothes should be worn. Then they asked me to come to the first week of shooting. That’s how I got my start as a set costumer.

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Do you feel like you need to move to LA? Or as Sterlin Harjo and others bring a lot of Indigenous film and TV work to Oklahoma, can you build a career there?

There’s a time when I did think about moving to somewhere other than Oklahoma to get more jobs. But I get most of my energy and creativity being around my people. I’ve seen a lot of good projects come through Tulsa. We have a lot of creative people here in Oklahoma. I know Sterlin is working on something with Ethan Hawke that will be produced here, and I think that’s great. I hope more people want to create things here, in our home.

Are there works of Native art that you like to recommend?

A Pipe for February, by Charles Red Corn, is a book set in the 1920s, in the reign of terror era. If people want to see another perspective on the Killers of a Flower Moon era, that’s really good.

Razelle Benally, director and screenwriter

Oglala Lakota / Diné

A recent NYU Film graduate, she co-directed and produced the documentary series Murder in Big Horn, and has written for Dark Winds, a crime drama set in the 1970s Navajo Nation

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What are some things you enjoy about working on set with other Native artists? Many of us share the nostalgia of waking up to the smell and sound of grandma making tortillas or fry bread. Many of us know what it’s like to have that one rowdy uncle or wild auntie who brags about all the mischief they got into on the rez when they were teenagers. Many of us have parents or relatives who experienced horrific things at boarding school and that’s why we grew up rarely getting hugs or hearing the words “I love you” from them. When you have a shared history or similar upbringing, you connect easier. You don’t have to explain why it’s important for us to gather together at the beginning of each shoot day to smudge or why you shouldn’t whistle at night.

What is one of your most meaningful recent projects?

The epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, men, and LGBTQ+ folks is staggering. My cousin was found deceased on the streets of Gallup, New Mexico, a few years ago; not long after that, my brother’s best friend was found deceased in Arizona. Both Dinè, both no longer with us, both close to our family. With Murder in Big Horn, I was able to lend my personal experience towards making of the series in an ethical and informed way.

When it comes to Native representation in Hollywood, what has changed, and what hasn’t?

I’ll tell you what has not changed … getting asked a question about Native representation in the industry. What has changed: a lot of people these days are embracing their Indigeneity. Especially folks who grew up not connected to their lineage or who grew up away from their rez. I do believe film, television and pop culture has influenced that. It’s cool to be Native these days. I love that for our people.

The bustling Arizona Indian Festival earlier this month in Scottsdale showcased Native singing, dancing and art to promote tourism and awareness of Arizona’s tribal communities as visitors learned about Indigenous culture and history through vendors, art and demonstrations.

To ensure that visitors interacted with real Native art, an Arizona Indian Festival committee vetted all festival vendors for authenticity. Vendors were also required to show a certificate of degree of Indian or Alaska Native blood, which proves they are authentic members of Native American nations in Arizona.

Silversmith Steve LaRance from the Hopi Tribe said people visiting the Southwest find Native American culture interesting and want an authentic experience. 

“Our artwork carries a lot of that beauty and culture when we create it,” he said.

LaRance said the authenticity of Native American arts and crafts is important because there are knockoffs from Indonesia, China, Japan and other countries that take away from the income of Native people and their families.

“It’s all about the money because Native American arts and crafts is a multibillion-dollar industry annually,” LaRance said.

LaRance said Native American arts and crafts are highly regarded all over the world because they carry the culture and history of Indigenous people.

“Each piece I create is a one-of-a-kind piece and I always am glad that I have a client or customer that just is really appreciative of the work that I put into my creations, and they appreciate the culture that it comes from and not only the culture but the artists that created it,” LaRance said.

LaRance said he can create simple sterling silver rings that take about a day to finish or make an elaborate piece of jewelry that takes two or three months, depending on the complexity, design and materials.

Another artist at the festival, Navajo jeweler Tonya June Rafael, said there are knockoffs threatening her business, and there is nothing she can do about it. Rafael said once at a show she sat next to two big booths that resold mass-produced jewelry.

“I’m a one-man person and I’m trying to sell my jewelry. … I mean how do I compete with that?” Rafael said.

Despite the challenges, Rafael said she wants her work to inspire younger Native artists to create their own designs.

Rug weaver Sonja Morgan from the Navajo Nation said there’s been a push for authentic Native art because Native American tradition is being recognized more, even in movies.

The festival raises awareness about Indigenous culture and all the hard work that artists put in. Morgan used a Navajo loom to show people the complex process of rug weaving.

She said authentic art is always the best because a buyer knows the work came straight from the artist and the artist didn’t add anything cheap or skimp on the process.

Morgan said when she makes a rug, she thinks about who she is making it for and keeping good spirits in the product.

“There’s more of the blessings and the prayers,” Morgan said of authentic art. Morgan said she loves showing people her work and seeing their positive reactions.

“These are the things all colonizers tried to take away from us. They tried killing all of us, but we are still here … trying to keep it alive,” Morgan said of Indigenous art and culture.

Navajo silversmith McHale Alcott explained the festival is also about family and continuing Indigenous art across generations.

“It’s like a family gathering,” Alcott said. “It’s like a family reunion for all of us.” 

LUBBOCK, Texas (NEWS RELEASE) –

WHAT:

Texas Tech University’s School of Art will officially open its exhibit “Belonging: Contemporary Native Ceramics from the Southern Plains.”

WHEN:

7 p.m. Friday (Feb. 23)

WHERE:

The Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts’ (LHUCA) Icehouse, 511 Avenue J

EVENT:

The School of Art’s Landmark Arts opens “Belonging: Contemporary Native Ceramics from the Southern Plains.” The collection is curated by assistant professor Klinton Burgio-Ericson and is on display through March 23.

With its many and diverse entanglements, the concept of belonging grounds a fresh exploration of contemporary Native art in clay. This exhibit spotlights the contemporary ceramics practices among Native American artists in the region, and their reflections on belonging based in particular cultural roots, ancestral connections, personal insights, and individual experiences.

The exhibition features artwork by seven native artists living and working in the Southern Plains. Due to the size of the collection, the exhibit is housed off campus at LHUCA. The official opening will feature a keynote conversation from Karita Coffey (Comanche) and Anita Fields (Osage/Muscogee).

Other artists include:

• Chase Kahwinhut Earles (Caddo)
• Raven Halfmoon (Caddo/Choctaw/Delaware)
• Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara/Lakota)
• Jane Osti (Cherokee National Treasure)
• Cortney YellowHorse-Metzger (Osage)

Media and the public are invited to attend the keynote conversation followed by a reception in the galleries at 8:30 p.m.

CONTACT:

Rachel Kiwior

Director of Marketing & Communications, J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts, Texas Tech University

rachel.kiwior@ttu.edu

(806) 834-6163

Follow Texas Tech on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, YouTube and Spotify.

Copyright 2024 KCBD. All rights reserved.

A Peruvian artist, who weaves with a native cotton fibre that was outlawed under Spanish colonial rule, is one of 14 artists to benefit from a new partnership between the Sydney Biennale and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris.

Cristina Flores Pescorán, who is based in The Hague, uses a Peruvian cotton species called Gossypium barbadense to create her work.

Known for its long, glossy fibres, the plant was a staple of pre-colonial Peruvian society. However, its use was forbidden during colonisation because its natural earth tones were believed to “contaminate” the preferred species of pure white cotton.

Flores Pescorán uses weaving techniques from the Chancay culture which she learned from specialist artisan Esteban Nazario Redondo.

By favouring the natural beauty of the native cotton, Flores Pescorán told The Art Newspaper, she hopes to connect with a tradition of her ancestors that was “considered dead”.

Fondation Cartier’s partnership with Sydney Biennale began in 2022 with the Australian premiere of The Great Animal Orchestra, a symphony by the pioneering American soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause. The work was shown at the Fondation’s Paris museum in 2016.

This year’s partnership goes much further. A new role of First Nations curatorial fellow has been created at the Fondation Cartier, and celebrated Australian Indigenous artist Tony Albert was named as its inaugural recipient.

Albert told The Art Newspaper his role is to work closely with 14 artists to realise their works for the Biennale. The 14 artists, who are a selection of a much larger group of indigenous artists in the Biennale, were chosen by Fondation Cartier and the Biennale’s artistic directors, Cosmin Costinaş and Inti Guerrero.

Indeed, the Fondation Cartier is supporting indigenous artists from various world cultures.

One of the selected artists is Mangala Bai Maravi, daughter of a Baiga tattoo artist from Lalpur village, Madhya Pradesh, India, translates tribal tattoo designs to paper and canvas.

The first ever all-female group of Guatemalan kite makers, Orquídeas Barrileteras, will exhibit the intricately designed, colourful kites that are flown in celebration of life and death.

The Australian Indigenous artist Kaylene Whiskey, whose paintings are a vibrant mash-up of pop culture icons such as Dolly Parton and Tina Turner alongside elements drawn from traditional Aṉangu culture, has also been selected.

Tony Albert met the entire Fondation Cartier team in Paris last year “which gave a lot of clarity to the work they are doing”.

His main role will be to position the new fellowship for success in future Biennales, although the Fondation has only committed to continuing the initiative for this year’s Biennale and the next.

“There’s so many options: will we grow one of the commissions outside of the Biennale for the Fondation?” Albert said.

“I love that it’s not set in stone. It’s quite fluid in the way in which it could happen, which also is much more in line with Indigenous principles and ways of thinking and working. The outcome might even be based on Country.”

Albert said the success of the Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori exhibition at the Fondation’s museum in Paris in 2022 had trained the Fondation’s gaze on Australia, a country where it previously had relatively little experience.

He said it was important that Fondation Cartier had made it clear that “the [jewellery] product and the art are not aligned in any given way”.

Hervé Chandès, artistic managing director of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, said the partnership with the Sydney Biennale “meaningfully demonstrates a commitment to diversity, inclusivity, artistic innovation and excellence”.

“This partnership reflects our belief in empowering First Nations communities to share their truths and underscores the crucial role of listening to their voices as we navigate the challenges of our planet,” Chandès said.

• Tony Albert, The Garden + Forbidden Fruit, view at Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney, until 9 March

• Sydney Biennale, 9 March – 10 June

Brian Chilson

Just as Indigenous scholars like Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone)  — author of the 2023 National Book Award-winning “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History” — are reconfiguring American history “outside the tropes of discovery,” dominant, often Eurocentric narratives within art history are being rightfully challenged.

Take “Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s to 1970s,” for example, which opened at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts on Friday. Originating at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the exhibition “features Indigenous artists who made significant yet often overlooked contributions to both abstract expressionism and modern Native American art,” in the words of IAIA chief curator Manuela Well-Off-Man, who spoke to the Arkansas Times via email. 

Spoiler alert: It wasn’t a bunch of white guys who invented abstraction, and modernism — an umbrella term for a period of artistic rule-breaking that occurred in the context of devastating and abrupt societal change between industrialization and the world wars — didn’t emerge in a cultural vacuum. Abstraction has a longstanding presence within the visual languages of Indigenous cultures, and many of the brilliant artistic innovations associated with the origins of modernism in Europe occurred within a rapidly increasing confluence of cultures, wherein European avant-garde artists like Édouard Manet and Pablo Picasso would have encountered and been respectively influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints and masks from the Dan region of Africa. The list goes on. 

Closer to home, when the perceived capital of the art world was displaced from Paris to New York in the aftermath of the Second World War, the New York School and abstract expressionism became a focal point of innovation. “While New York School artists freely borrowed from Indigenous cultures for their abstract art, Native artists in ‘Action/Abstraction Redefined’ didn’t have to look far,” Well-Off-Man said. “They drew on their lived experiences and cultural traditions to create these powerful and often personal works.”

Brian Chilson

“Action/Abstraction Redefined” features 36 artists and over 50 works of art from IAIA’s permanent collection across the movements of abstract expressionism, color field and hard-edge painting, showing how Native artists culled inspiration from traditional designs found on Indigenous pottery, petroglyphs, basketry, textiles and rawhide containers called parfleches while co-creating and responding to new waves of artistic expression. 

An underlying current of the exhibition is the innovative pedagogy that took place at IAIA as a counterweight to the forced assimilation and cultural erasure many Native American students experienced elsewhere. Further context from Blackhawk’s “Rediscovery of America” provides jarring statistics: By the 1920s, 40 percent of Native American children had been forcibly removed from their families and relocated in government-sponsored boarding schools where they were instrumentally divorced from their native language and forms of cultural expression. 

Brian Chilson

Linda Lomaheftawa (Dawavenka; Hopi/Choctaw) was one of the first students enrolled in IAIA, which opened its doors in 1962. In the first room of the “Action/Abstraction” exhibition, her atmospheric painting titled “The Quiet Land, the Warm Land” invites lingering contemplation on a spatially ambiguous field of smoky, warm tones with thick drips of light paint protruding from the surface of the canvas like relief sculpture. 

“Trail of Tears,” a large monochrome painting by T.C. Cannon (Tommy Wayne; Caddo/Kiowa), is a striking confrontation with slashes of black and grey paint without visual respite or escape. During his studies at IAIA, Cannon was a student of Fritz Scholder (Luiseño) and became later known for a highly chromatic pop art-infused style that challenged stereotypes with a sophisticated scope of imagery. A quote by the artist marks the wall overhead: “I dream of a great breadth of Indian art that ranges through the whole region of our past, present, and future.”

Brian Chilson

Scholder’s color field paintings “New Mexico #21” and “New Mexico #40” are also featured in the exhibition, and utilize powerful earthy reds that are often seen in the searing backgrounds of his later figurative work. Like Cannon, Scholder’s remarkable use of color and striking imagery broke stereotypes about the tropes of Native American art. Fascinatingly, the exhibition catalogue for “Action/Abstraction” notes that Mark Rothko, who has long been synonymous with color field painting, took his signature format from Native American art he observed in Santa Fe.

“White Environ VI,”  an arrestingly bright painting by George Morrison (Wah Wah Teh Go Nay Ga Bo, Standing In the Northern Lights; Chippewa) incised with organic shapes and flecks of warm hues hangs next to “White Painting No. 1,” an impasto feast of color. Morrison exhibited with abstract expressionists Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and 1950s, co-influencing both the New York School artists and the future trajectories of Native American art.

“As Native artists such as George Morrison gravitated toward New York, the exposure to avant-garde art gave them a new freedom of expression and liberated them from the expectations of the conservative Native art market and museums,” Well-Off-Man said. “Without these artists’ willingness to take risks and experiment with new art processes, the high level of diversity in contemporary Native art could not have happened.”

Brian Chilson

The exhibition culminates with hard edge color, which is used directionally in Harvey Herman’s (Sioux) triptych “Geometric #4,” where brash bands of pigment angle toward — or from, depending on how you might see it — a single centered line, bringing to mind urgency, harmony and even a quickening of life force.

Catherine Walworth, the Jackye and Curtis Finch Jr. curator of drawings at AMFA, remarked that the exhibition offers a new way of understanding both the evolutions of Native American art and its place in conversations about modern art movements.

“The exhibition reminds us that, for those artists like Jackson Pollock who were drawing inspiration from Native American art, there has always been…a long history of abstract design. On the flip side, Native artists in ‘Action/Abstraction Redefined’ bring a totally unique visual and even conceptual perspective to postwar abstract art movements coming out of centers like New York. It’s a breath of fresh air to see these unique interpretations of familiar styles,” Walworth said. “Risk-takers at IAIA defied Native American art styles that, for some, had become stereotypical or static, and eventually new categories would be established at Indian art exhibitions to accommodate new trends.”

In organizing AMFA’s iteration of the exhibition, Walworth considered how featured works could be in conversation with the museum’s permanent collection.

“The painting styles the exhibition’s curators used to categorize works ‘Action/Abstraction Redefined’ may not be familiar to everyone, so we installed a large screenprint on Masonite by Richard Anuszkiewicz — ‘Triangulated Green #24’ — alongside Elaine de Kooning’s gestural ‘Standing Bull’ in one of our permanent collection galleries to give visitors a broader sense of both hard-edge and action painting,” Walworth said. “I also pulled out two small works on paper by the so-called Indian Space Painters Will Barnet and Steve Wheeler that illustrate their indebtedness to Native art. … And then we have contemporary examples that show the ongoing trajectory of Native American art, including Kay WalkingStick’s charcoal drawing ‘Blame the Mountains,’ Dawn Walden’s ‘What is the Point’ — woven from cedar bark, cedar roots, black ash and sweetgrass — and Raven Halfmoon’s ceramic sculpture ‘Do You Practice Your Culture?’”

Brian Chilson

In “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History,” Blackhawk notes the need for “multiracial histories,” stating “if the existing paradigms of U.S. history have been maintained by excluding Indigenous people, historicizing the agency of Indigenous peoples offers vital ways to remake those paradigms.” I recommend contemplating the paradigm shift in the company of a work by Lomeheftawa or Morrison. Meanwhile, I’ll be reflecting on how artistic expression that Western culture calls “avant-garde” — which roughly translates to “ahead of its time” — has been inspired by long-standing Indigenous modes of making. 

“Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s to 1970s” is on display at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts until Sunday, May 26. 

We’re only two months into the new year, but 2024 has already proven itself to be the year of local markets.

Just this month, three local markets that debuted last year have made their return including the Making Black History Market, Tucson Together Market (hey, that’s us!) and the Indigenous Market, which is now back for round two.

The Indigenous Market Vol. 2 is back from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25 at the Fourth Avenue Coalition Space at 311 E. Seventh St. The market features handcrafted goodies, beaded and silver jewelry, food and music from over 30 local Indigenous artists and makers.

Some of this year’s vendors include Beads Over Diamonds, Cactus Bloom Design, Kaotic Kitties and Spirit of Cukṣon.

There will also be food from Reservation Sensation and OaxaRico, along with live entertainment from local DJ MizSkoden.

The first Indigenous Market took place last year as a night event at the Fourth Avenue Coalition Space, thanks to local artist Josie Rios, who is also known as Beads Over Diamonds.

“The team at Historic Fourth Ave. Coalition inspired me,” Rios said in an email to #ThisIsTucson last year. “I love that they use their platform to uplift (underrepresented) voices and I wanted to do the same. I’ve always appreciated the opportunity I have been given and when the idea came up to utilize the Coalition Space as a platform, I couldn’t wait to jump at it and give Indigenous makers an opportunity to show the community their talent.”

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Market attendees can park in the paid parking lot directly across from the Coalition Space. Alternatively, downtown parking meters are free on weekends.

“I am just so grateful that I get to be part of this event and cannot wait to meet so many new people,” Rios said.

If you go

What: Indigenous Market Vol. 2.

When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25.

Where: Fourth Avenue Coalition Space, 311 E. Seventh St.

Cost: Free to attend, bring money for goodies!

For more information, visit Rios’ Instagram page.

Since starting his photography journey in 2017, Indigenous Fort Collins artist Joe Pekara has captured striking photographs of nature, concerts and Native American culture.

Pekara, also known under his artistic moniker Pharaoh 171, hosted an artist talk Feb. 15 to discuss his exhibit at the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art.

He is currently working for rapper 50 Cent. 

“When my uncle passed away in 2016, my grandmother gifted me his camera; … when he passed I got really into (photography),” Pekara said. “It was like a coping thing because he was like my best friend.” 

“Her and I receiving the CRA award for the Grammys was really special. I think it was the (least noticed) success for Indigenous people, so to have it displayed means a lot. Not to be self centered, but I don’t think the project we did got the attention it should have received.” -Joe Pekara, Indigenous Fort Collins artist 

He started with photographs taken locally in Fort Collins. 

“I would go out and just be in nature,” Pekara said. 

Pekara started doing photography as a career through a friend who opened for the band Hieroglyphics at the Aggie Theatre in Old Town. He sent Hieroglyphics the photos he took.

“I wasn’t trying to get any work out of it,” Pekara said. “It was just, you know, ‘I took it, here it is,’ and a few weeks later they offered me a job,” 

Many artists see their art much differently than a viewer might.

“Looking at a photo, to me, is probably more intimate than if you looked at the same one,” Pekara said. “I know where I took that photo, I know the spot where I was mentally at that time. So to see those moments come to a brighter moment, that’s awesome.” 

Pekara’s exhibit is currently on display at the Colorado State University Center for the Arts. Some photos are printed on photo paper, but others are done on natural materials like wood and leather, which was enabled by a Fort Collins printing business called Wood & Slate.

The exhibit is a collaboration with Red Berry Woman, an Indigenous fashion designer based in South Dakota whose legal name is Norma Baker-Flying Horse. Pekara and Red Berry Woman won the Cultural Recognition Award at the 64th annual Grammy Awards in April 2022, leaving Pekara with a total of four Grammy awards. The exhibit also includes other aspects of Pekara’s work, including concert photographs and some of his first nature shots. 

“I photograph most of her events,” Pekara said. “Her and I receiving the CRA award for the Grammys was really special. I think it was the (least noticed) success for Indigenous people, so to have it displayed means a lot. Not to be self centered, but I don’t think the project we did got the attention it should have received.” 

But acclaim isn’t what matters most to Pekara. 

“There’s success beyond the big spotlight,” Pekara said. 

During the artist talk, Pekara was joined onstage by important people in his life who all had an opportunity to say a few words, including Red Berry Woman. She spoke about family history and how representation for Indigenous people is changing.

“Joe has done such a beautiful job capturing our culture, capturing this kind of fashion,” Red Berry Woman said. “I hope you all feel the impact that he has done for me and my family.”

“We’re not making this Native fashion just for the accolades, it’s a message,” Red Berry Woman said. “It’s a message that we are still here, we will always be here and we have survived quite a bit.”

She touched on the various misconceptions about Indigenous peoples throughout different forms of media. 

“It’s a very small world when you’re Native — it really is — and I really think because of that, we have a very special opportunity to change the narrative,” Red Berry Woman said. 

Art includes a variety of mediums that can be used to find aspects of oneself that might not otherwise be discovered.

“We are finding our balance between what we were and what we are becoming,” Red Berry Woman said. “We’re doing that through fashion. We’re doing that through this industry.” 

There were many words of wisdom spoken throughout the event. 

“Learn about where you come from,” Red Berry Woman said. “You never know: You might find some strength or some inspiration to begin something new. You never know where it will take you.” 

Pekara offered some parting words before the talk gave way to a reception where guests could enjoy the photos on display.

“There is no success without risk and failure, and you can’t succeed unless you learn from your failures,” Pekara said.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Opening Feb. 16, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum will highlight seven women artists in “Lighting Pathways: Matriarchs of Oklahoma Native Art” who overcame significant challenges to forge success in the fine art world while carrying forward their diverse tribal cultures. 

Among these seven artists are three Cherokee artists: Mary Adair, Jane Osti, and Virginia Stroud.

Adair is a painter and regalia maker based in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. She studied painting at Bacone College, won awards for painting and fashion and later taught art at Sequoyah High School. Osti is a Tahlequah-based ceramic artist and Cherokee National Treasure. She earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and master’s degree from Northeastern State University, but her primary influence was apprenticing with Anna Belle Sixkiller Mitchell (Cherokee Nation, 1926–2021). 

Stroud (Keetoowah Cherokee/Muscogee), a Bacone alumna from Tahlequah, is a painter and a life-long activist. She and her adopted sister Sharron Ahtone Harjo (Kiowa) were instrumental in reviving ledger art in the 1970s. In the 1960s, the Cherokee tear dress was invented for Stroud to wear as she represented Cherokee people as Miss Indian America.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Oklahoma witnessed an exuberant era for Native American art, marked by sold-out exhibitions. Bacone College and the Philbrook Indian Annual served as vital platforms, empowering Native women artists to enter the art world and forge impressive careers despite many obstacles. The exhibition celebrates the groundbreaking achievements of these women, many of whom exhibited in the 1985 national traveling exhibition “Daughters of the Earth.”  

Curated by Cherokee Nation citizen America Meredith and Tahnee Ahtone (Kiowa/Seminole/Mvskoki), this National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum exhibition honors these artists, acknowledging their pivotal role in paving the way for future generations of Oklahoma Native women artists. 

Drawing from various public and private collections, including the museum’s own, this exhibition pays tribute to the artists “who made an impact on the broader sphere of contemporary art, museums, and galleries.”

Lighting Pathways: Matriarchs of Oklahoma Native Art will be on view through April 28, 2024.