Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellows Drawn Into Lakota Culture Through Art And Place
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
Boxes and drawers in The Heritage Center collection at Red Cloud Indian School allowed Gwylene Gallimard of Charleston, South Carolina, to travel through Lakota culture. The collection includes nearly 10,000 pieces of Native American art. As Gwylene stood in the midst of the large storage facility, she felt as though she was in the past with the people who created the works. Gwylene appreciated the art in The Heritage Center gallery, yet it was the archives that drew her fully into Lakota Territory.
“Some of the pieces were very old and some were more recent,” Gwylene says, “but they were all considered important for the culture of Lakota people.”
A 1st generation French immigrant and co-leader in the “conNECKtedTOO” project, Gwylene is one of 29 fellows in the 2018 - 2019 Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) cohort who visited Lakota Territory. ILI is a year-long intensive leadership program for artists, culture bearers and other arts professionals. A collaborative program of Alternate ROOTS, First Peoples Fund, National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures (NALAC) and PA’I Foundation, ILI seeks to challenge dominant social norms while honoring differences of histories, traditions, vocabulary and more.
The cohort traveled to the ILI Lakota Territory convening — hosted by First Peoples Fund — September 12 - 16, 2018, for an immersive experience. Their journey began with grounding in the place through ceremony at Pe’ Sla, one of the sacred sites for Lakota people.
“When I was there in Lakota country, it was a much more diverse crowd than I’ve been in for a long time,” Gwylene says.
Visiting the collections and gallery at The Heritage Center gave the ILI cohort a chance to experience efforts to preserve and perpetuate Lakota history and culture. The gallery allowed them to see artists today who are working toward the same experience.
Joe Tolbert, a current ILI fellow from Knoxville, Tennessee, discovered the world of Native art for the first time.
“I felt like this whole world and tradition of art emerged out of nowhere,” Joe says. “I wondered why I didn’t know these artists existed, because their work is amazing. Had I not been on this trip, I probably never would have gone to the Red Cloud Heritage Center. I never would have seen these artists.”
Joe is the founder and lead cultural strategist for Art at the Intersections, a scholar, and Cultural Organizer. Coming to Lakota Territory for the first time laid foundational thought for interculturality, deepening his commitment to the goals of ILI to build stronger strategic intercultural collaborations, and promote traditional and contemporary practices of artists and culture bearers.
“After spending time with elders and cohort, and really taking in the learning that First Peoples Fund allowed me to experience, I came away being committed to helping people understand the Native American perspective,” Joe says. “I feel more committed to doing the hard things and getting through the hard things, to being able to share and educate in every way I can.”
Coming together to support transformative practices of artists and culture bearers allows these ILI fellows to align with one another and create a unique network of professionals with shared values. They are poised to fill in gaps that exists along cultural lines.
While lodging at High Country Guest Ranch, fellows and staff were treated by The Sioux Chef, Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota), a 2015 FPF Artist in Business Leadership fellow. ILI fellows enjoyed an exquisite meal and Sean’s accompanying presentation on Indigenous foods and his efforts to revitalize traditional foodways.
“I have followed Sean Sherman’s career closely,” says ILI fellow Tara Moses (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma). “Not only being able to experience the food and lecture, but also having a one-on-one conversation with Sean was great because he and his team were always open and available.”
The intimacy throughout the convening was unique for Tara, an experience unlike she’s had with other fellowships and programs. She is a director, playwright, and Artistic Director of Binge Theatre Company, the world’s first online theatre company. Tara decided to apply for ILI after spotting the opportunity posted on Twitter.
“It was the first and only intercultural fellowship of its kind that I’ve ever seen, so that was a big enticer, especially since one of the founding partners is a Native organization,” Tara says. “It’s also cross-disciplinary in the arts which is something I do as a community organizer and artistic director. It felt as though it was an individually-designed fellowship just for me.”
“I felt like this whole world and tradition of art emerged out of nowhere,” Joe says. “I wondered why I didn’t know these artists existed, because their work is amazing. Had I not been on this trip, I probably never would have gone to the Red Cloud Heritage Center. I never would have seen these artists.”
Joe is the founder and lead cultural strategist for Art at the Intersections, a scholar, and Cultural Organizer. Coming to Lakota Territory for the first time laid foundational thought for interculturality, deepening his commitment to the goals of ILI to build stronger strategic intercultural collaborations, and promote traditional and contemporary practices of artists and culture bearers.
“After spending time with elders and cohort, and really taking in the learning that First Peoples Fund allowed me to experience, I came away being committed to helping people understand the Native American perspective,” Joe says. “I feel more committed to doing the hard things and getting through the hard things, to being able to share and educate in every way I can.”
Coming together to support transformative practices of artists and culture bearers allows these ILI fellows to align with one another and create a unique network of professionals with shared values. They are poised to fill in gaps that exists along cultural lines.
While lodging at High Country Guest Ranch, fellows and staff were treated by The Sioux Chef, Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota), a 2015 FPF Artist in Business Leadership fellow. ILI fellows enjoyed an exquisite meal and Sean’s accompanying presentation on Indigenous foods and his efforts to revitalize traditional foodways.
Creating Spaces and Opportunity for Art
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
Fox Spears’ (Karuk) primary medium is monotype printmaking. He uses hand-cut stencils and layers of ink on paper to create images inspired from Karuk basketry designs. His prints are in the collection of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington.
His other mediums include drawing, painting, and installation work. Fox resides in Seattle, Washington.
Fox lays out supplies for a printmaking workshop, his mind envisioning what the projects can be. But he leaves the creativity open-ended when students arrive.
During the flood of workshops he hosted this spring and summer, Fox demonstrated his own work with the supplies and offered ideas to Native youth, fellow artists, and elders. Then he let them bring their own vision to life with stamps and tissue paper or drawing with sharpies on squares. At some of the workshops, public art experiences, and drop-in studio sessions, he had a small press to allow participants to do actual printmaking.
“I’m always amazed at the diversity of creativity that can exist within a group of people,” Fox says. “Seeing what everyone makes is so fun.”
Having space to create is one of the greatest challenges for artists. Through his 2018 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership program, Fox was able to purchase a small print press he uses at home and workshops. His fellowship helps support the workshops where he provides creative space and inspiration for potential artists to find their voice as he did after returning to college in his late-twenties.
Fox pursued interior design, wanting that structure, but a visit to the National Museum of the American Indian in New York opened the world of printmaking to him. It was also the first time he saw contemporary Native artwork in a show.
Fox developed a voice in printmaking with guidance from James Lavadour, co-founder of Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts on the Umatilla Reservation in northeastern Oregon.
Working full-time at his day job, Fox retreats to Crow’s Shadow twice a year with a small group of fellow Native artists to focus on printmaking.
Fox is pushing into the remainder of the year with more workshops planned and brief residency in the Seattle Public Library, where he hopes to involve visitors in assembling the art.
“As an urban Native who lives away from our ancestral homelands, I find that making art is the way I am best able to maintain a regular connection with Karuk culture and language,” Fox says. “It’s a way that I can formally document my relationship with my ancestors, and a way to share Karuk culture with others.”
Blooming From Her Mother’s Prayers
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
Nanibaa Beck (Diné) was exposed to contemporary Native American art and practice at an early age. After 20+ years of assisting her father, Victor Beck, Sr., a master Navajo silversmith, Nanibaa created her jewelry line NOTABOVE in 2013. Her earlier research work and museum fellowships included the National Museum of American Indian and the Peabody Essex Museum.
Originally from Pinon, Arizona, Nanibaa currently resides in North Carolina.
Nanibaa watched the young Diné woman approach her jewelry table at the Heard Museum Market. When Diana Onko tried on the necklace with a black abalone stone, the connection was immediate.
The two women had an unspoken language forming between them, words and emotions woven into the necklace Nanibaa began six months prior as part of healing from her mother’s passing.
When Nanibaa learned Diana’s mother had passed and that her favorite stone had been black abalone, she made sure Diana was able to purchase the necklace.
“I know what I put into that necklace,” Nanibaa says. “I know that she feels it in a way no one else would have understood quite like her.”
While Nanibaa’s father taught her the art of metalsmithing, her mother redefined love.
“Before she passed, I was able to really reconnect and strengthen my relationship with my mom,” Nanibaa says. “Her amount of the love, the number of prayers—she defined then redefined love for me. It made sense to connect that feeling with blooming. That’s why I have the hashtag: ‘I am blooming from my mother’s prayers.’”
Nanibaa carries on that love through her Language Collection. The Diné word for writing means “tracing the line.” As a jewelry maker, she takes time to create each piece by hand using a mini saw blade to trace and cut out lines.
“That’s important to me because it’s going back to the way that we understand what writing is about,” Nanibaa explains. “You’re moving along the line.”
Nanibaa carried her mother’s love into a space where she elevated her skill with an 8-week concentration class at Penland School of Crafts.
“It was a nice chance to learn how other people not only work and are artists but to enhance my knowledge of the work I want to create,” Nanibaa says. “And also getting myself into a mindset that allows me to grow.”
She carries her mother’s love into the fellowships she was blessed with this year—First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership and Artist in Residence at the School for Advanced Research, both of which propelled her forward in formal education and equipment.
Nanibaa’s experiences in the fellowships helped her focus on creating around blossoms for her Bloom Collection: #Iambloomingfrommymothersprayers.
Innovative Indigenous Design
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
Rico Lanaat’ Worl’s (Tlingit/Athabascan) art is a focused study in learning formline design, the traditional style of the Indigenous Northwest Coast people. His skateboards are featured in museum collections such as the Anchorage Museum, the Museum of the North, and the Burke Museum in Seattle.
Rico currently serves on the board of directors for the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council. His art business, Trickster Company, is showcased online and with a storefront in downtown Juneau, Alaska.
Instead of notes, artistic sketches filled the page during class while Rico pursued his degree in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. After earning that degree, Rico came home and worked for a regional tribal nonprofit in repatriation and on designing language learning games. Though soon, he found himself creating more and more art.
Generations of Rico’s people have lived, worked, and created in the challenging climate of the Northwest Coast. He seeks to honor those values and traditions while exemplifying contemporary art and what it means to live a healthy, modern, Indigenous lifestyle.
“I create design that represents that Native people are an important part of this world.”
— Rico Worl (Tlingit/Athabascan)
Skateboards became Rico’s canvas and platform to reach youth, to instill pride in who they are as Native people.
When he decided to create a deck of cards, it took four months to design every face card as an individual piece of art. It took just four days to fund production through Kickstarter.com.
Along with Rico’s sister — 2017 Artist in Business Leadership fellow Crystal Worl — with her interdisciplinary art, Trickster Company was born. The family business provides jobs and an outlet for local artists in their community. Always striving for innovation, Rico is using his 2018 Artist in Business Leadership program to experiment with integrating leather and seal fur into his metal work.
When Rico sees youth ride a skateboard they picked up at Trickster Company, he knows centuries of living and creating on his people’s land is being experienced and upheld by the next generation.
Bringing Home Ancient Works of Art
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
Kandi McGilton (Metlakatla Indian Community) is a modern Tsimshian artist in southeast Alaska. A student of renowned master weavers Delores and Holly Churchill, Kandi practices the endangered Annette Island style of Tsimshian basketry. She received the Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award in 2017 to help continue her apprenticeship.
Kandi specializes in devilfish bags (octopus bags) through her business, Devilfish Designs. She collaborates with 2017 First Peoples Fund fellow David R. Boxley (Tsimshian) to create traditional formline designs. She co-founded the Haayk Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to revitalize Sm’algyax, the language of the Tsimshian.
Dedicated and determined, Kandi still struggled with learning how to weave. She had teachers and worked hard, but couldn’t get it down. When Kandi heard Holly Churchill (Haida) was on her island, house sitting in the small fishing community of Metlakatla, she tracked down the traditional weaver.
“I kind of threw myself at her, saying ‘I want to learn how to weave from you,’” Kandi says with a laugh.
Kandi visited with Holly in the evenings, and experienced a transformation.
Holly recognized her technique problem immediately and asked if Kandi would like to learn Tsimshian style. Shocked that was even possible, Kandi said yes.
Holly introduced Kandi to her mother, Delores Churchill (Haida), a former Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards honoree and 2015 Cultural Capital fellow. Delores had Kandi reverse her weaving to clockwise and with a Z-twist. It all fell into place at last.
“The Tsimshian of Annette Islands Reserve has a unique style of weaving,” Kandi explains. “It uses all red cedar twining with the incorporation of maiden’s hair fern and canary grass false embroidery.”
Kandi is now taking the gift of her knowledge into replicating ancient baskets held in museums. Selecting pieces from hundreds of photos taken at the Museum of Anthropology, the Royal BC Museum, and the Burke Museum, Kandi is sitting down and weaving the replicas. Supported by her 2018 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital fellowship, her goal is copying one piece from each museum. In this way, she is bringing the ancient pieces home.
“I’m extremely grateful for First Peoples Fund believing in this project, and understanding how important it is for me to create these replicas for our people to study and be proud of,” Kandi says.
“I’m extremely grateful for First Peoples Fund believing in this project, and understanding how important it is for me to create these replicas for our people to study and be proud of.”
— Kandi McGilton (Metlakatla Indian Community)
With moving into leadership roles in the community, Kandi still presents her baskets to Delores. She takes a float plane or ferry to leave her island and visit her mentor in Ketchikan for Delores to critique her work.
“Delores is amazing with small intricacies,” Kandi says. “She was a saint from the start.”
Hosting ArtChangeUS REMAP: Pine Ridge: “Reclaiming Our Way of Knowing”
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
A cultural exchange intended to immerse ArtChangeUs attendees in the Lakota story also worked to empower individual Native artists. Molina Parker (Oglala Lakota) came into the space at Racing Magpie in Rapid City, South Dakota for a collaborative art piece with Tasha Abourezk (Three Affiliated Tribes). Together, they drew people with ArtChangeUs REMAP into a group project that bonded them.
“We felt like we could trust each other,” Molina says. Both she and Tasha are former First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership fellows. “There was a cultural exchange, and I found that empowering. Everyone was willing to listen to each other.”
First Peoples Fund welcomed the REMAP program to Lakota Territory in Pine Ridge and Rapid City, South Dakota, where everyone experienced a greater understanding of the climate, the people, and one another. ArtChangeUS REMAP: Pine Ridge: “Reclaiming Our Way of Knowing” engaged Native and non-Native artists, educators, activists, and changemakers in two days of immersive cultural experiences.
Arts in a Changing America director Roberta Uno says, “It was moving to hear Mary Bordeaux talk about coming to Rapid City as a child and not feeling welcome as a Lakota — and now a Lakota led-space is redefining what an arts center can be — inclusive of heritage and contemporary, as well as all people.”
The REMAP: Pine Ridge program encompassed diverse cultures and brought together people from New York, Hawai’i, Alaska, and places in between. Representatives from valued First Peoples Fund partners such as ArtPlace America and the Bush Foundation joined in the REMAP effort. We welcomed many who haven’t had the opportunity to visit the area. This led to connecting our artist fellows with larger national organizations.
“Many hands went into the effort, and it showed in every way,” Roberta says.
An initiative based out of the California Institute of the Arts, the ArtChangeUS mission is to reframe the national arts conversation by embracing the cultural assets of demographic change. REMAP is one of their primary programs. It focuses on bringing together an exceptional mix of leading artists, activists, scholars, and changemakers for cultural exchanges.
This was fulfilled in Lakota Territory with artist workshops, poets, educators, and other passionate presenters. The experience brought a better understanding for visitors of how much the area has to offer.
“There’s a Hawaiian proverb ‘Ma ka hana ka ʻike’ — basically, one learns by doing,” Roberta says. “All the artistic workshops by Mike Marshall, Molina Parker, Tasha Abourezk, Ohitika Locke, Tanaya Winder, and others were brilliant and it was a wonderful time to get to know each other and enjoy each participant’s company. Racing Magpie was ideal for these artistic exchanges; it is an inviting and inspiring space.”
In a full immersion experience that included grounding at He Sapa (Black Hills), the group had the opportunity to visit the Pine Ridge Reservation and Red Cloud Indian School Heritage Center.
“We were able to share the Lakota culture on Pine Ridge, the art that is being made there,” Mary Bordeaux (Sicangu/Oglala Lakota) says. She is the Vice President of Programs and Operations at First Peoples Fund. “It was good to bring all of those national folks to participate, see what we’re doing, and appreciate it.”
The project served to remap and recreate the image of Lakota people and their lifeways in modern times. While Native people honor and preserve traditions — mainly through art — their lives today are far removed from the romanticized version so firmly embedded in mainstream culture.
“A lot of people don’t realize that we use iPhones, we’re all on the internet,” Molina says. “We’ve started new traditions with art forms. We have a rich culture, and we want to share that with people.”
The workshop, led by Molina and Tasha, of creating quilt squares mixed with beading was a representation of how art can reshape demographics and bridge gaps. Tasha is sewing the pieces together to form a wall hanging as a reminder of the shared experience during the workshop.
“We were all laughing, enjoying ourselves, telling stories while we worked,” Molina says. “Some of these people are directors of their organizations, and I didn’t know that going in. But no one had airs. Everyone just came and had fun. It brought us together, and I think that’s what art does.”
Bringing Business Training to Rural Artists by Winter Trails, Aircraft, and Boat
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
A non-profit tribal corporation, Kawerak, Inc. provides services within the Bering Strait Region of northwestern Alaska. They offer services to twenty federally recognized tribes located throughout sixteen communities.
Kawerak is headquartered in the hub community of Nome, employs 230 individuals throughout the region, and serves the approximately 7,400 Alaska Native residents. One of their missions is to advance the arts community within the Bering Strait Region. Kawerak’s Community Planning and Development provides technical assistance to approximately 30 artists in the region per year.
Online platforms like Etsy and Facebook are changing market opportunities for these artists. They are no longer limited to underpricing their handcrafted carvings, seal skin parkas, slippers, and beadwork for a quick sale to cruise ship tourists. Kawerak launched the Bering Strait Arts and Crafts Facebook page to connect these beautiful items with potential buyers. The page has grown to nearly 5,000 artists and shoppers.
“That blew open the market online where folks are being able to sell on a national level,” Alice explains.
Training artists in how to utilize these new markets, especially e-commerce, is one aspect of Kawerak’s work in building an Indigenous Arts Ecology through their long-time partnership with First Peoples Fund (FPF).
Alice first learned of FPF shortly after she was hired on at Kawerak as a training specialist. She read a notice in Anchorage about a Native Artists Professional Development (NAPD) training. She attended and was amazed by the program’s potential to help artists with marketing and business skills.
“The NAPD incorporates the discussion of our traditional and indigenous values along with business tools and resources,” Alice says. “That’s the first I’d seen that.”
“The NAPD incorporates the discussion of our traditional and indigenous values along with business tools and resources. That’s the first I’d seen that.”
— Alice Bioff (Inupiaq)
With additional funding through FPF, Kawerak sent two of their artists through the Train the Trainer program —traditional tattoo artist Marjorie Tahbone (Iñupiaq / Kiowa) and carver Randall Jones (Alaska Native Shishmaref). These artists consistently bring valuable training by boat or plane to rural artists.
“It’s a collaborative effort between Kawerak, First Peoples Fund, local communities, tribal offices, and the trainers,” Alice says.
“It’s opening artists’ eyes to what options are out there for them,” Carol Piscoya (Nome Eskimo Community) says. She is the vice president of Kawerak’s Community Services Division.
Thousands of miles away from urban hubs, in communities that can only be reached by winter trails, aircraft, or boat, Native artists are receiving training and assistance from Kawerak, Inc. The nonprofit organization is committed to bringing resources to even the most remote areas.
“With the internet becoming more accessible in our region, we have people who hold smartphones in their hands now,” Alice Bioff (Inupiaq) says. She works in Kawerak’s Community Planning and Development Department as the Business Planning Specialist. “The whole landscape is changing. We have folks selling online using social media.”
“With the internet becoming more accessible in our region, we have people who hold smartphones in their hands now. The whole landscape is changing. We have folks selling online using social media.”
— Alice Bioff (Inupiaq), Business Planning Specialist for Kawerak, Inc.
Most Alaska Native artists in the region practice the subsistence lifestyle of their ancestors. Their way of art follows their way of life. Hunting whale, walrus, seal, moose, and caribou follows the tradition of not wasting animal by-products. This often becomes art ranging from seal skin sewn mittens to walrus ivory transformed into works of art through figurines, jewelry, and utilitarian tools.
GATHERING THE DATA
What do the artists in remote areas need most from Kawerak? Where can funds best be utilized to have the highest impact on artists and their communities? To answer these questions, Alice and her staff are surveying artists, which is not an easy task with rural and hard to access communities.
Part of their Indigenous Arts Ecology program is to complete this survey with a goal of reaching 60 artists. They met with carvers, skin sewers, dancers, and singers to start collecting data. They want a better understanding of how they can support the art community, especially in knowing what tools and resources would be beneficial.
“We hope to create a strong program that will continue to support the arts in our region,” Alice says. “We need good data on what the arts community looks like.”
With this data, Kawerak can evaluate the needs of artists and how best to meet those needs while building networks within the Bering Strait Region between artists and source partners.
“I’m excited about the artist survey,” Carol says. “I’m curious what the results will be because it gives us an idea of where we may fill in the gaps of what the artists themselves need or want.”
Decades of Cultural Revitalization, Preservation, and Perpetuation in One Life
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
Total darkness surrounded Elaine Grinnell (Jamestown S’Klallam and Lummi) except flickering light showing through cracks in the potbelly stove. The light illuminated her grandfather’s face as he calmly peeled apples and told stories during those World War II blackouts along the Jamestown Beach.
Even with barbed wire rolled out on the sandy beach and her mother working at the ammunition depot, Elaine forgot her fears as she absorbed each word. Her grandfather, David Prince, gave her the gift of storytelling.
“I just watched the expressions on his face and listened to the tone of his voice,” Elaine says. “I don’t think he realized what he did for me, and my mother never really understood how I was passing on our culture and traditions, and preservation of things that are nearly lost, such as our language.”
Living with her grandparents, Elaine found they wouldn’t speak to her in Klallam, but her grandfather used some of the vocabulary in his stories. Not only does Elaine do this now, she became a certified Klallam language teacher in 2003.
Art and tradition are tightly woven through Elaine’s life and won’t let her retire. She still tells stories several times a week at NatureBridge, an environmental literacy education program based at Olympic National Park.
“I have the best time with the kids,” Elaine says. “If we have handicapped, that’s fine, too. I’ve had little kids come up to me and put their hands on my throat so they can hear my voice. I’m just so happy that God and my grandfather and grandmother gave me this ability to enjoy what I’m doing. I’ve gone to Africa and Japan and had interpreters, and maybe they don’t understand it, but they respond to my actions.”
At 81-years-old, Elaine continues to serve on several committees and boards. Her steadfast dedication led her granddaughter, Khia Grinnell (Jamestown S’Klallam and Lummi), to nominate Elaine for a First Peoples Fund Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award.
“She embodies so much spirit of the Klallam community. There’s a warmth about her that’s contagious.”
— Khia Grinnell (S'Klallam & Lummi), Elaine's Granddaughter
Elaine is one of the Pacific Northwest’s Native cultural and traditional treasures, and we were pleased to recognize her with a 2018 Community Spirit Award (CSA). In June, we visited Sequim, Washington to honor Elaine in her community. Over 100 people gathered at the community center from tribes in Washington, Canada, and Oregon, as well as First Peoples Fund staff from South Dakota.
“I was so thrilled,” Elaine says. “They gave me a blanket in honor of this award, and I put it on my bed, looked at it, and said, ‘It really is true, isn’t it?’ The First Peoples Fund representatives came from South Dakota clear out to Sequim. It’s way out on the Olympic Peninsula. But they found their way and came to visit and see what I was doing and where I was doing it. I’ll forever more be so deeply touched by that.”
Elaine recently went to Alaska and was able to visit with Marie Meade (Yup’ik), another 2018 CSA recipient.
“We talked about things we’ve done in the communities and compare differences and likenesses," said Elaine. "It was so interesting to listen to someone else’s culture. A lot of the things coincided with mine.”
Though storytelling is her predominate art medium these days, Elaine continues teaching three generations in her family cultural foodways and traditional basket weaving.
Along with showing her family how to gather, prepare, and weave Western Red Cedar bark, she practices traditional food gathering and cooking. She spent much of her life living on and around the Straights of Juan de Fuca (also known as the Salish Sea) where she dug clams, picked oysters, caught salmon, crab, and octopus and prepared them in traditional ways.
Elaine takes her cultural practices worldwide—or down the road to an ailing community member. “This week, I went to visit a lady who has an autoimmune system issue. She was so lonesome for Indian food, so my grandson and I took her clam chowder and fry bread. She just tore into it. That was so fun to see her smile.
“She and my grandson had a lot in common. I’m putting generations together. I want all my grandchildren to know people I know because they can benefit from their knowledge, their feelings, and their spirit.”
Singer. Songwriter. Peacemaker.
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
Raye Zaragoza is an award-winning singer, songwriter, and performer whose multinational heritage (O’odham, Mexican, Taiwanese and Japanese) deeply informs her music. Her song “In the River,” in response to DAPL, garnered half a million video views, national media coverage, a Global Music Award, and an Honesty Oscar. Her debut album “Fight For You” released in 2017.
Raye resides in North Hollywood, California, and is a 2018 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership fellow.
Music resounded from the stage under the lights in the restaurant. Raye wanted to be on the stage, not waiting tables in front of it as she made cash to support her fledgling music career.
Raye had pursued acting for a time, only to find she stayed up nights writing songs. At nineteen and singing at a pie shop three hours every Tuesday while getting booked at other local venues, she came to a realization.
“I decided, ‘I’m a singer-songwriter,” she says. “‘This means more to me than anything, and I’m going to give it my all.’”
“I decided, ‘I’m a singer-songwriter. This means more to me than anything, and I’m going to give it my all.”
2018 is Raye’s first year as a full-time musician and living on her own. It’s filled with incredible opportunities she only dreamed of.
Raye launched the year with a tour in Germany. Though her audiences weren’t always fluent English speakers, they connected with Raye’s style.
“For me, it’s the most important thing to write music with a message that can open minds,” she says. “Many people have said my music is healing, and I hope I can continue to heal those who are suffering within my community and around the world.”
“Many people have said my music is healing, and I hope I can continue to heal those who are suffering within my community and around the world.”
Raye’s year sped up when she attended FPF’s Fellowship Convening in Santa Fe.
“It was great that First Peoples Fund educated us on the importance of having a lawyer,” she says. Through her fellowship funds, she was able to hire a lawyer who can protect her rights as an independent artist.
She also connected with 2018 Artist in Business Leadership fellow Jeff Peterson (Native Hawaiian) when they co-wrote, performed, and recorded a song at the convening. He is now her guitar teacher via Skype.
“He’s taught me riffs and variations, helping me take my songs to the next level,” Raye says.
With a fast-paced year halfway behind her, Raye is trying to reflect on the journey, but things aren’t slowing down. This summer, she’s on the biggest tour of her life, opening for Dispatch and Nahko and Medicine for the People. She’s looking ahead to her FPF grant helping her finish a home studio and record her EP.
“It’s amazing to be able to just focus on music,” Raye says. “I’m really blessed.”
This Mountain is Going to Bring Our People Back
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
Joseph Brophy Toledo (Jemez Pueblo) has served the Pueblo of Jemez in various capacities for over four decades. He works with Indigenous youth groups, is an adjunct instructor for the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), and worked as a creative consultant for Robert Mirabal Productions. Brophy has served on the Native American Global Sports Committee and been instrumental in international indigenous projects.
His art includes pottery, painting, corn husk art, models of traditional structures, and the creation of traditional tools, weapons, and instruments.
Sitting at the top of Flower Hill, a sacred mountain for his people, Brophy shared with Roger Fragua (Jemez Pueblo) how he was tired of talking about needs in the community. It was time to take action.
They launched the Flower Hill Institute in 2016, a nonprofit which helps expand Brophy’s capacity to share art and language with his community.
“A lot of the tribal people have forgotten about the mountain,” Brophy says. “We’re reminding them, and now everybody wants to go back to Flower Hill. That’s the whole reason behind the name. This mountain is going to bring our people back.”
Through Flower Hill and his 2018 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital fellowship, Brophy is leading a youth art project to paint the water tower overlooking the Pueblo of Jemez. They are telling the story of their community.
“We don’t just do art; we talk through art,” he says.
They reached out to elders to hear their stories and opinions, and Brophy shepherded the students in designing images.
“A lot of the designs for the tank are based on their stories,” he says. “The elders are very impressed with what we are doing with our youth. It’s something they’ve wanted, but it’s all been just talk. Now we have action, and everyone’s moving in. I want the elders to do a lot of the painting. It’s happening.”
“The elders are very impressed with what we are doing with our youth. It’s something they’ve wanted, but it’s all been just talk. Now we have action, and everyone’s moving in.”
Living in an agriculture community, it is critical for youth to understand how the ecosystem functions, from fish in the streams to bird migration routes. Drawing from his many artistic mediums, Brophy worked with the youth to create corn husk dragonflies and also perform what he calls the pollinator dance with butterfly wings.
During the culture and science youth camp in July, Brophy took students out on the Rio Grande River in canoes and kayaks to measure water levels, check for contaminants, and sample for macroinvertebrate as they learned the vitalness of understanding the water in their community.
Working through the interconnected Flower Hill Institute, Brophy sees the youth art project on the water tower as becoming a source of pride for everyone.
“I appreciate First Peoples Fund allowing us to do what we’re doing,” he says. “It means a lot to our kids and to everyone else that is a part of it now.”
Flower Hill, their sacred mountain, is bringing Brophy’s people back.
REZARTX Producing Space for Native Voices
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
Dynamic spoken word, the rhythm of rap, the captivating gentleness of acoustics. Artists for the REZILIENCE Indigenous Arts Experience brought a mixture of performing arts that ignited and energized their audience while sharing passion, hope, and healing at the family-friendly event.
The inspiration for REZILIENCE Indigenous Arts Experience, also known as REZARTX, came three years ago.
“I started seeing how people enjoyed community events around Native arts in a way that was more interactive,” says The REZILIENCE Organization’s Executive Director Warren Montoya (Santa Ana Pueblo).
A 2017 School for Advanced Research (SAR) fellow and accomplished muralist, Warren has gained recognition at Santa Fe Indian Market, Heard Indian Market, and has shown in several galleries. His business, REZONATE Art, produces events and public art projects. So for him, The REZILIENCE Organization and its annual REZARTX event is an extension of work he has been doing throughout his life.
The mission of The REZILIENCE Organization is to provide creative spaces and environments that promote imagining, learning, and practicing positive life-ways to encourage the well-being and achievements of Indigenous communities. REZILIENCE launched its first REZARTX event in 2016.
Once First Peoples Fund learned more about REZILIENCE, we invited them to apply for the Our Nations’ Spaces (ONS) grant program. Helping bring their annual REZARTX event to life in 2018 met the goals of the ONS grant to advance and foster support for Native arts.
For instance, over the past three years, REZILIENCE has fostered strong relationships with over 70 artists, giving them opportunities to showcase and educate the public about their work. The organization has created over 30 partnerships with various entities including community organizations, companies, schools, museums, tribal governments, behavioral health facilities, and youth programs.
The moment where all these partnerships coalesce is the REZARTX annual event. Directed by Indigenous philosophies for building community, the event is a mass collaboration. The REZILIENCE team handles logistics while inviting partners to take ownership of each focus area during the experience.
“What’s critical and unique with REZILIENCE is that it’s part of this movement to build a greater community by the people who it’s about,” says Jaclyn Roessel (Navajo), Warren’s wife and a volunteer for the organization.
“What’s critical and unique with REZILIENCE is that it’s part of this movement to build a greater community by the people who it’s about.”
— - Jaclyn Roessel (Navajo)
“It’s an examination of how do you build strong communities, how did our ancestors do it?” Warren adds. “It’s intimidating at times but we want it to become something people can utilize and look towards as a space to engage, to see it as their own space.”
REZARTX was held at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their state-of-the-art Albuquerque Journal Theatre is one of the largest indoor theaters in New Mexico and provided optimal sound quality and three levels of seating.
Inside the plaza, attendees watched the stunning 8’x40’ video mural installation near the stage. Sponsored by Albuquerque’s Public Art and created by Joseph Hopkins (Muskogee Creek / Seminole) and Britney King (Navajo / Chippewa-Cree) four screens flashed the past, present, and future of Indigenous people in images and words to kick off the robust concert schedule.
Bobby Wilson (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) of the 1491s — a Native sketch comedy group — emceed the concert which captivated audiences with stellar performances by Native American, Alaskan and Hawaiian Native artists. Beats resounded from alternative rock, folk, island reggae, hip-hop, and soul along with cultural dances and traditional songs, all supported by visual effects and stage projections.
“It’s an examination of how do you build strong communities, how did our ancestors do it? [...] we want it to become something people can utilize and look towards as a space to engage, to see it as their own space.”
— Warren Montoya (Santa Ana Pueblo), The REZILIENCE Organization's Executive Director
Among the performers were two former First Peoples Fund fellows: Tall Paul (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) and Tanaya Winder (Duckwater Shoshone / Pyramid Lake Paiute / Southern Ute). This was Tanaya’s second appearance at REZARTX.
“Tanaya did poetry and an awesome acoustic session,” Warren says. “She was able to premiere some new pieces at REZARTX. And I can’t believe how amazing Tall Paul is as an artist. He’s quiet, but onstage, he’s rolling through those lyrics.”
Bold, Free, Passionate, Courageous
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015
Hailing from a long line of Native Hawaiian singers, musicians and performers on her mother’s side and Diné storytellers and medicine people on her father’s side, Heidi K Brandow is a painter and printmaker. Her work is commonly filled with whimsical characters and monsters often combined with poetry, stories, and personal reflections.
Represented by Form and Concept Gallery of Santa Fe, and by Chaco Gallery of Albuquerque, Heidi is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. She studied design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Istanbul Technical University in Turkey.
Heidi was selected for the inaugural cohort of the 2018 Story Maps Fellowship in Santa Fe, and is preparing for a pop-up show at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in August. Heidi is a 2018 Artist in Business Leadership Fellow.
When Heidi landed in Turkey for a student exchange trip, she did not expect the warm welcome and sense of kinship with the people. Their awareness of Native people drew her into a world far from her traditional Hawai’i and Diné upbringing, yet similarities connected her to the country.
“I love the place, the people, the land, the culture,” Heidi says. “I committed myself to keeping that relationship open over the years.”
Through her art — which draws inspiration from her cultural heritage, pop culture and critical theory — Heidi focuses on social engagement projects to meet global community needs.
“(in)dispensable” is a collaborative venture between Heidi and designer Sinem Sayar that documents individuals working in the solid waste + recycling industry in Turkey. As Heidi’s third social engagement project, it is the first time they accomplished everything planned. With experience, knowledge, and strong partnerships, the only element lacking was funding to explore the project fully. The final boost came from Heidi’s First Peoples Fund (FPF) 2018 Artist in Business Leadership program.
Her fellowship is also supporting reconfiguration and upgrades to Heidi’s art studio. “First Peoples Fund has been fundamental in allowing me to get the materials and tools I need to have a more streamlined process,” she says.
Finishing her FPF fellowship, Heidi hopes to return to Turkey this fall and produce a film of the “(in)dispensable” project.
While her day job as a retention specialist at the Institute of American Indian Arts allows Heidi to support her two boys, she is working toward a full-time career as an artist. “I believe my arts practice is a reflection of the true person I aspire to be — bold, free, passionate, and courageous.”
