Latest news with #IndigenousArts
Associated Press
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
New ‘IndigiPalooza' event in Montana to celebrate Native art, storytelling
Almost immediately after a successful 2022 festival that gathered Native authors to celebrate Native writing, participant and Montana Poet Laureate Chris La Tray said people began asking if something similar would happen again. That hunger for another event on the heels of the James Welch Native Lit Festiva l was the impetus behind IndigiPalooza, a two-day Indigenous arts and storytelling event. The event, which takes place Aug. 1-2 at the Missoula Public Library, will bring together more than a dozen Indigenous artists, musicians, writers and creators for panel discussions, live music, an art market and a traditional foods cooking demonstration. All events are free and open to the public. 'We never get this kind of a platform for just Native people to be talking about our work among other Native people,' La Tray said. A citizen of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, La Tray said when he travels the country for book events, conferences and literary festivals, he is often the only Native person in the room. 'That can be exhausting,' he told Montana Free Press in a recent interview. 'Native people need opportunities for us to be gathered among ourselves.' Blackfeet artist John Pepion, who will appear on a panel at the event, said it's important for people to hear from Indigenous artists. 'We're out here telling the world, 'Look, here we are. This is what we've been through, and this is where we're going,'' he said. 'It's better to (do that) as a collective.' Joy Harjo, citizen of the Muscogee Nation and the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate, will kick off the event Friday, Aug. 1, with a poetry reading and discussion. When La Tray and his co-organizers began planning the event about a year ago, he said he immediately thought of Harjo. 'The ground that she's broken for other people, she's one of our most cherished elders,' said La Tray. 'Whether it's in our community or just as an Indigenous person helping to keep us visible.' The IndigiPalooza schedule features several panel discussions, including one where writers will discuss the importance of Indigenous storytelling. A panel of three writers at IndigiPalooza will discuss the importance of Indigenous storytelling. Another panel of four community leaders will talk about their experiences sharing Native language and culture with the public. One session will focus on entrepreneurship, examining how Indigenous artists make a living, and another will explore poetry and oral tradition. Native musicians Foreshadow (Salish and Blackfeet) and Supaman (Apsáalooke) will perform an evening hip-hop show. 'It's entirely modern,' La Tray said. 'If you go to a powwow, there's this traditional dancing and a lot of this traditional stuff. I feel like there's plenty of opportunity to see that, but what can happen, too, is that people can get this idea that that's all we are. But we are modern participants in the world as it is today. … We can still be Native without being shoved into this box that people like to keep us in, like everything stopped in the 1880s.' La Tray organized the event with Selya Avila, community engagement specialist at the Missoula Public Library, and Anna East, founding director of Chickadee Community Services, a nonprofit that supports Indigenous education. IndigiPalooza, they said, was almost entirely grassroots-funded, with the majority of money coming from individual donors. 'The tradition of Indigenous storytelling goes back millennia,' East said. 'And right now, in the time of Lily Gladstone and Reservation Dogs and Indigenous fashion and a return to Indigenous approaches to nutrition and food sovereignty, all of those are important parts of the culture that everybody can learn from.' Bringing people together for storytelling, Avila said, builds power and sparks joy. 'It reminds us that we're not just talking about history or identity in abstract terms — we're talking about people, communities, creativity, and futures,' she said. 'That's what makes (IndigiPalooza) valuable. It's living, breathing and grounded in community. And really it's just going to be so much fun!' ___ This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Calgary Herald
26-06-2025
- General
- Calgary Herald
New Indigenous cultural centre to open in Banff
In late April, a group of officials from Indigenous Arts at the Banff Centre travelled to Mini Thni to confer with elders. Article content The elders, all from the Stoney Nakoda First Nation community formerly known as Morley, were to decide on a name for the Banff Centre's new building dedicated to Indigenous culture and gatherings. Article content 'We brought, through protocol, cloth tobacco,' says Janine Windolph, director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre. 'That way we were asking in a good way to the elders. That was a really important part of it was the spiritual care.' Article content Article content Alice Kaquitts, Charles Rabbit, Watson Kaquitts and Tina Fox, all community elders from Mini Thni, named the building Îethka Mâkochî Ahogi Chi Pa Bi Ti: Îethka Territory House of Respect. Article content Article content 'Part of it was to acknowledge the Stoney connection to space, but also the responsibility to practise hospitality values to other natures that gather here and that role in terms of being grounded together in respect,' says Windolph. 'The elders felt House of Respect was the best one to really understand those relations, nation to nation, and how we can hold each other in a good way.' Article content In May, a pipe ceremony and dinner with the elders was held in honour of them bestowing the name on the new building, which is on the side of Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain and housed in one of the Banff Centre's former chalets at the top of Ken Madsen path. Article content On Saturday, it will officially open to the public and mark a new chapter in celebrating Indigenous culture in the Banff Centre. The building will provide space for ceremonies, feasts and potlucks. There is office space for elders and staff, and it will eventually house permanent exhibitions of artwork by Indigenous artists from across Canada. Article content Article content 'There was a need to have more of a casual gathering space but also to acknowledge the Indigenous history and connections,' Windolph says. 'What I find important here is that they are really looking at not only understanding what the Indigenous narrative is on this site, but taking it to the point where they are embodying it and understanding it and helping to share the narrative.' Article content Indigenous studies have long been a part of the programming at the Banff Centre. This season, the centre is offering residencies for emerging and established Indigenous artists in fashion, video and audio production and visual arts. Article content 'A lot of the programs are having knowledge keepers and elders as faculty,' Windolph says. 'So they are not just there to open up and pray, they are there to teach. I lot of the skills they were teaching were porcupine-quill jewelry, caribou tufting, beadwork, of course. In fashion, they were doing different ribbon work, working with hides. The idea is that people might come to the fashion program with a fashion background, but they might not have had the experience of working with elders and learning those traditional adornment techniques. Having that access in many communities is important. Article content 'Having that access in many communities is important. Sometimes, some communities don't have an active practice that may have been part of their history. Even on a larger scale, a lot of artists come in here learning, and they have been permitted to teach these skills in their communities. What we're seeing is a revitalization of culture that starts with that learning and networking. As they go back into their community, they are teaching these skills and bringing them back.' Article content
SBS Australia
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
NITV Radio - On Air Program 13/6/2025
Coming up on this episode of NITV Radio we chat with the two recipients of the 2025 First Nations Fellowship award at the recent First Nations Arts & Culture Awards. Candice Lorrae, an award wining First Nations singer, song writer and music producer and Ben Graetz who has been working in the performing arts sector for over 26 years. The Fellowship award by, Creative Australia supports outstanding, established artists' or arts workers' creative activity and professional development. We also look at the latest in Indigenous news.
