WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
National Museum of the American Indian
NMAI Youth In Action: “Digital Futures for Women” | Juventud en acción: “Futuros digitales para mujeres”
March 1-31. Free. Streaming online. In English with English and Spanish captions
In an industry that is often dominated by men, how are Native women making space for themselves and others? Moderator April Armijo (Navajo/Pueblo of Acoma) and panelists Natalie Contreras (Tepehuán/Coca/P’urépecha) and Danielle Boyer (Ojibwe) discuss how young Indigenous women are forging their own paths in the tech world and creating a more inclusive environment. This program is part of the Youth in Action: Conversations about Our Future series, which features young Indigenous activists and changemakers from across the Western Hemisphere who are working towards equity and social justice for Indigenous peoples. Recorded live on March 1, 2023
“The Aunties of Reservation Dogs”
March 1-31. Free. Streaming online.
A conversation among the talented Indigenous writers/directors and the actors who play the comedic and sassy aunties on the hit TV series Reservation Dogs. The discussion provides insight into the representation of Indigenous women in the media, the importance of their stories being told in their own voices, their role in breaking stereotypes, and the power of humor in storytelling.
- Sarah Podemski (Anishinaabe/Ashkenazi),
- Tamara Podemski (Anishinaabe/Ashkenazi),
- Jane Schmieding (Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux),
- Nathalie Standingcloud (Cherokee Nation),
- Tazbah Chavez (Diné /Nüümü/San Carlos Apache)
PBS | Women’s History Month
Unladylike2020 Series Free. Streaming online. Profiles–each about 11 min. long–of significant women from diverse backgrounds in US history include
Zitkála-Šá (1876-1938): Trailblazing American Indian Composer and Writer
Queen Lili’uokalani (1838-1917): The First and Last Queen of Hawai’i
Susan La Flesch Picotte (1865-1915): The First American Indian Doctor
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On
Free online with PBS Passport. The story of the Oscar-winning artist from her rise to prominence in New York’s Greenwich Village folk music scene through her six-decade groundbreaking career as a singer-songwriter, social activist, educator, and artist. Directed by Madison Thomas. American Masters series.
IAIA | Institute for American Indian Arts
“Inherent Memory”
Feb 24-June 25. In-person in Santa Fe
Contemporary Indigenous basketry-related art created by Indigenous women and nonbinary artists from California and the Great Basin, including painting, sculpture, multimedia, basketry, poetry, video, and photography. Exhibiting artists include Sarah Biscarra Dilley (Northern Chumash), whose multimedia video layers basketry images over landscapes of her homelands, exploring the spaces between the worlds of bloodlines, bodies, and the land. Artist and activist Fawn Douglas (Las Vegas Paiute Tribe) shares and preserves stories of Indigenous peoples, the natural world, and the environment through sculptural baskets, bracelets made of willow, and basketry-inspired paintings. Brittany Britton (Hupa) creates burden baskets made of loosely twined wire. Natalie Ball’s (Klamath, Modoc, and African American) work addresses racial narratives critical to the understanding of self and nation, as well as shared experiences and histories.
Cultural Survival
“Safebuarding Indigenous Women’s Rights through Indigenous Community Media”
Tues, March 7, 10:00 am PST/1:00 pm EST. Online. Free with registration
The experiences of Indigenous women in community media–how to effectively use radio and other media to educate about and advocate for Indigenous peoples’ rights.
Speakers:
Yeny Paucar Palomino (Aymara), Member of Unión de Mujeres Aymaras del Abya Yala and Red de Comunicadores Indígenas de la Región de Puno (Redcirp)
Adriana Sunun (Maya Kakchiquel), Maya Lawyers Association
Elena Brito Herrera (Maya Ixil), Board member, Community Radio Tiichajil Tenam
Moderator:Rosy Sul Gonzáles (Maya Kaqchikel) Indigenous Rights Radio Manager, Cultural Survival
MMIWG
News and Two Series
Yurok Tribe and US Justice Dept’s MMIP Initiative
The US Marshals Service is teaming up with the Yurok Tribe to establish a pilot location for the federal agency’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative (MMIP), part of the Justice Department’s new push to address the disproportionately high rates of violence experienced by Native Americans. The BIA estimates there are more than 4,200 missing and murdered cases that have gone unsolved. The work of advocates to bring attention to this crisis is leading to a new quality of attention from these agencies.
Murder in Big Horn
Three-part documentary. On demand and streaming. Free with Showtime subscription.
In this three part series, directors Razelle Benally and Matthew Galkin craft a powerful portrait of tribal members and their communities within Big Horn County, Montana battling an epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) that has been prevalent since colonization. The three-part docuseries examines the circumstances surrounding many of these cases, told solely through the perspectives of those involved: Native families, Native journalists, and local law enforcement officers. All three episodes are now streaming.
Alaska Daily
March 2-30. Weekly episodes. Season One (2nd Half). On ABC and with subscription to Hulu.
Eileen (Hilary Swank) is a journalist from New York who moves to Alaska for a clean start and who looks for redemption both personally and professionally after joining a daily metro newspaper in Anchorage. She works with her colleague, Roz Friendly (Grace Dove), an Alaskan Native and star reporter, as they investigate and report on the missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis in the state of Alaska. Created by Tom McCarthy. ABC will announce if it will produce Season 2 after the end of March.
FILM FESTIVALS
Hybrid | Online
Indigenous Film & Arts Festival | Monthly Film Series “Quintessentially Indigenous”
International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management
Presented by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Wed, Mar 8, 7-8:15 MT Online and In-person at Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Free, but registration on the DMNS is required to get link
Svonni vs The Swedish Tax Agency Narrative. Sweden. Maria Fredriksson. In Swedish with English subtitles. A Sámi woman tries to convince the Swedish Tax Agency she has a legitimate tax deduction for the purchase of a dog, while the Swedish authority refuses to accept that Rikke is a herding tool and not a pet. An illustration of cultural clashes and the struggle to practice Sámi culture in today’s Sweden. Hi, My Name is Lilliana Documentary.US. Lilliana Rice (San Luis Rey Band of Páyomkawichm Indians). In their first short film, Lilliana shares their thoughts on the indigenous images in animated film that they grew up with, and how they plan to make a difference. LonghouseDocumentary. US. Erik Sanchez. Inside a Chinook longhouse, ceremony elevates the structure and participants to another plane of existence. The Interview Canada. Ayana Harper. In English and French with open captions. A budding documentary filmmaker struggles to find the right interviewee for her film school project. Finding her subject is just the first challenge. Following the screening is a live Zoom discussion with the filmmakers, moderated by Mervyn Tano, President IIIRM.
RAI Film Festival
March 3-31. Tickets and passes. Online worldwide and in-person in Bristol, UK.
All films are available for streaming worldwide 3-31 March, accessible with an Online Festival Pass ($60 US). Follow the tabs in the menu to find the films organised by categories. There are 5 competitive categories and 6 themed Special Programmes, approximately 60 films in all.
Two of the Special Programme strands offer large curated selections of Indigenous film:
“Alanis Obomsawin” is a retrospective of the groundbreaking filmmaker on the occasion of her receipt of the RAI Lifetime Achievement Award 2023. Alanis Obomsawin, a member of the Abenaki Nation, has worked as a director and producer at the National Film Board of Canada since 1967. In a remarkable career of 54 years, she has over 50 films to her credit with special focus on the lives of First Nation and Métis peoples. With this selection of 10 films we aim to give an overview of her career from her first feature documentary Mother of Many Children (1977) to her most recent Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair (2021).
“Arandu – Listen to the Weather” is a celebration of 35 years of Indigenous filmmaking from Brazil. Guest curators Christian Fischgold, Takumā Kuikuro and Graci Guaraní programmed 8 classic films in this key tradition of contemporary Latin American cinema.
Colorado Environmental Film Festival
Last day. Sun, March 5. Tickets. Online.
Indigenous Documentary Shorts For links to the trailers click on the titles.
A Common Thread Canada. Rosalee Yagihara
Imilirijut Canada. Vincent L’Hérault, Tim Anaviapik Soucie. In English, Inuktitut
Mālama i ke Kai (take care of the ocean) US. Genisis Stice, Mekia Kekona Eaton, Bonshia Kajimwe
Saging the World US. Rose Ramirez, Deborah Small, David Bryant
Voices of the Grand Canyon US. Deidre Peaches
FILM FESTIVALS
In-Person in Austin, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City, Columbia MO, Kamloops BC
SXSW Film and TV Festival
March 10-19. Tickets. In-person in Austin, TX
Frybread Face and Me World premiere. Narrative feature. US. Director/screenwriter: Billy Luther (Navajo, Hopi, Laguna Pueblo). Prod: Chad Burris (Chickasaw). Exec prod: Taika Waititi. An 11-year-old city boy is sent to his grandmother’s ranch on the Navajo reservation against his will. He is introduced to a new way of life, and an unexpected guest teaches him the importance of family, tradition, and what it means to be a man. Cast List: Kier Tallman, Charly Hogan, Martin Seinsmeir, Kahara Hodges,Ryan Begay, Sarah Natani (Narrative Spotlight)
War Pony Narrative feature. US. Gina Gammell, Riley Keough. The interlocking stories of two young Oglala Lakota men growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Bound by their shared search for belonging, each grapples with a world built against them, navigating their unique paths to manhood. Cast: Jojo Bapteise Whiting, Ladainian Crazy Thunder
Fancy Dance Director: Erica Tremblay, Producers: Deidre Backs, Erica Tremblay, Heather Rae, Nina Yang-Bongiovi, Tommy Oliver, Screenwriters: Erica Tremblay, Miciana Alise. Following her sister’s disappearance, a Native American hustler kidnaps her niece from the child’s white grandparents and sets out for the state powwow in the hopes of keeping what’s left of her family intact. Cast: Lily Gladstone, Isabel Deroy-Olson, Ryan Begay, Crystle Lightning, Audrey Wasailewski, Shea Whigham.
14th Native Women in Film Festival
March 5-10. Tickets. In-person in Los Angeles
This festival focuses on women decolonizing the film industry and this year includes feature films by Darlene Naponse, Josh and Rebecca Tickell, Jules Arita Koostachin, Katy Dore and Jack Kohler, Payton K Counts and Sir Curtis Kirby III, Faith Leone Howe, Ivey-Camille Manybeads Tso, and Tiffany Ayalik and Kylik Kisoun Taylor. Many new short films are also being screened, as well as discussions on women screenwriters and directors and producers. For full details on the films and filmmakers and events go to the festival’s website and read about it in ICT.
30th San Diego Latino Film Festival
March 9-19. Tickets. In-person in San Diego. Trailers available on festival’s website.
Documentary features
La rebelión de las flores Argentina. María Laura Vásquez. In 2019, a group of women from different Indigenous nations peacefully occupied Argentina’s Ministry of the Interior demanding an end to death in their territories and the need to recover a way of life on earth where reciprocity and solidarity between peoples and nature is an urgent need.
Albertina y los Muertos Chile. César Borie. Albertina sells flowers at the cemetery in San Miguel de Azapa, Chile, a town built over Indigenous tombs. For half of a century, she has led traditions that seek prosperity for the living while keeping their relationship with the dead on good terms. This balance must continue, even after Albertina is gone. Historias Originarias Films Showcase.
Mukí Sopalírili Aligué Gawichí Nirúgame Mexico. Santiago Esteinou. Rita Patiño, an indigenous woman from Mexico, was found by a human rights organization inside a Kansas psychiatric hospital, where she had been involuntarily confined, for 12 years, Returned to Mexico, she lives with Juanita, her niece and primary caregiver. This is a moving portrait of the lives of these two Tarahumara women, that questions the multiple forms of racism and discrimination that indigenous women in Mexico and the United States face.
Narrative Features
Finlandia. Spain, Mexico. Horacio Alcala. Outside of Oaxaca lives a group of Muxes, third gender and non-binary people, who make a living sewing and looking after their elders. Parallel to this, designers in Spain plot to appropriate their designs. The film follows their lives, indulging in their intoxicating ‘velas’ and grieving their lost loves, all in the beautiful setting of rural Mexico. Starring Noé Hernández.
Manco Càpac Peru. Henry Vallejo. In Spanish, Quechua. Elisban arrives in the city of Puno, too late to meet his friend Hermogenes, with whom he was going to work. Homeless and without money, he survives from unstable small jobs, in a city that sharpens his loneliness at every step. The inertia of continuing to move forward may lead him to a better fate. Spotlight Films Showcase.
Short Works
3 días, 3 años Mexico. Florencia Gómez Sántiz. In Tzotzil, Spanish
Decolonizing Dinner US. Alejandro Miranda Cruz
APINÁN – Nosotros Los Lenca Honduras. Asael Talavera
Decolonizing Dinner US. Alejandro Miranda Cruz
Strong Yaqui Women US. Miroslava Gonzalez (Yoeme, Yaquis of SoCal)
True/False Film Fest
March 2-5. Tickets. In-person in Columbia, MO
This year a festival dedicated to independent documentary film that is located in a college town whose university houses one of the world’s oldest journalism schools includes a new film about a campaign for freedom of the press in the Muscogee Nation, and a new film from Sakha, the largest Russian republic which has the largest native ethnic group in Siberia.
Bad Press US/Muscogee Nation. Rebecca Landsberry-Baker (Muscogee) & Joe Peeler. Angel Ellis, a fearless indigenous journalist, fights for independent media and democracy in her community.
Paradise Sakha Republic. Alexander AbaturovIn. In Yakut with English subtitles. A Siberian village fights apocalyptic wildfires without help from Moscow. Institutional neglect vies with mythic elemental forces in this intimate portrait of a community, a story interwoven with its folklore about the wind blowing over the sacred mountain.
11th Athena Film Festival
Mar 2-5. Tickets. In-person in New York City.
The annual Athena Film Festival is a joint partnership between Barnard College’s Athena Center for Leadership and the initiative Women and Hollywood.
Mar 4, 6:00 pm. Buffy Saint Marie: Carry It On Documentary feature. US, Canada. Madison Thomas. The lstory of the Oscar-winning artist from her rise to prominence in New York’s Greenwich Village folk music scene through her six-decade groundbreaking career as a singer-songwriter, social activist, educator, and artist.
Mar 5, 3:00 pm. “Shorts Program II” includes Long Line of Ladies Documentary short. US. Rayka Zehtabchi, Shaandiin Tome. intimately observes the months-long process of one girl and her tight-knit Karuk community as they come together to prepare for her Ihuk, the coming-of-age ceremony for girls which went dormant for over 120 years due to the violence and destruction brought on by the California Gold Rush.
Kamloops Film Festival
March 2-11. Tickets. In person in Kamloops, British Columbia.
On Sacred Ground Narrative feature. US. Joshua Tickell. Based on true events during the 2016 construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline that runs through the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, the film follows Daniel (William Mapother), a journalist and military veteran, and Elliot (David Arquette), an oil company executive who find themselves of opposite sides of the fight. Cast: Amy smart, Frances fisher, Kerry Knuppe, Irene Bedard. Preceded by Məca dir by Ritchie Hemphill, Ryan Hache.
Rosie Narrative feature. Canada. Gail Maurice. When Rosie’s Mom dies she needs somewhere to live. The only relative to be found is Fred (Frédérique) – tough, street-smart, and currently working in a sex shop, though not for long. Her two best friends – who refuse to be restricted by gender – are Flo and Mo; they are loyal to the core and Fred’s own chosen family. When the adult store goes up in flames the colorful foursome must do what they have to to survive. A quirky family of fringe dwellers is born! Starring Keris Hope Hill, Melanie Bray, Constant Bernard, Alex Trahan, Josee Young, Brandon Oakes.
THEATER
Seattle Rep
Between Two Knees
Mar 3-26. Tickets. In-person in Seattle. By The 1491s. Directed by Eric Ting, The first play by acclaimed intertribal sketch comedy troupe The 1491s—best known for the hit television series “Reservation Dogs”—takes audiences on a searing and absurdly funny series of vignettes through American history centered on one family’s account of their experiences from the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 to the protests there in 1973.
EVENTS
In Lenapehoking/New York
The Shed
“The Yanomami Struggle”
Sat, March 4, 1:30 pm. Free with admission to the exhibition. Seating is limited. In-person in New York City
As part of the exhibition “The Yanomami Struggle,” a 3-part program on Saturdays in Feb, March and April is discussing related issues. This program includes an address by Mirian Masaquiza, associate social affairs officer for the Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; artistic responses by poet, artist, and activist Cecilia Vicuña, musician and composer Laura Ortman, and singer and composer Jennifer Kreisberg; and a closing reflection facilitated by Candice Hopkins, executive director and chief curator at Forge Project.
Exhibition Tours, free with admission:
Wednesdays at 12 pm, 2 pm, 4 pm
Fridays at 12 pm, 2 pm, 6 pm
Saturdays at 12 pm, 2 pm, 4 pm
Bard Graduate Center
“Shaped by the Loom: Weaving Worlds in the American Southwest”
Tickets. In-person in New York City
In “Shaped by the Loom” historic blankets, garments, and rugs are situated alongside contemporary works by Diné weavers and visual artists. The exhibit highlights seasonal cycles that guide the harvesting of dye plants, the cosmologies that inform a weaver’s work, and the songs, stories, and prayers that are woven into every piece. Additional programs in music and film will be offered in April and May.
Gallery tours on Thursdays, March 2, 9, 16
Sat, March 4. 2-4 pm “Studio Visit: Making Dyes from Plants” An ongoing demonstration by Diné ethnobotanist Arnold Clifford.
Sat, March 4, 4 pm Curator Tour (sold out)
The New School
“HYBRID: Conflicting Relations”
Sat, March 11, 11 am – 4 pm EST. Free with registration. Livestreamed and in-person in New York City
“Conflicting Relations” is a day-long program that brings together artists, curators, and institutions as part of Sámi artist Matti Aikio’s 2022-2023 Vera List Center Sámi Fellowship. Indigenous perspectives on matters of hospitality—and acknowledging the various forms of social, cultural, and political inhospitality that Sámi peoples experience.
The morning session panel considers what hospitality looks like when led by Indigenous artists and how institutions self-correct to be in good relations with artists, the land, and local communities. The conversations include choreographer and director Emily Johnson and Ali Rosa-Salas of Henry Street Settlement, the parent organization of Abrons Art Center, and artist Elina Waage Mikalsen and Karoline Trollvik, Office for Contemporary Art Norway, who discuss their experience working for and in Sámi and majority institutions. Other speakers include S.J Norman, Ana Beatriz Sepúlveda, and Karoline Trollvik,
In the afternoon session Matti Aikio presents his research on the so-called “neo-Lapp movement” in Finland in conversation with Wanda Nanibush, Anishinaabe artist, educator and Curator of Indigenous Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The discussion focuses on the nature of Indigenous sovereignty, exemplified in the ongoing conflict between Sámi culture and the Nordic nations’ use of natural resources. Closing remarks by Jussi Koitela, Head of Programme, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, and Carin Kuoni, Senior Director and Chief Curator, Vera List Center.
The program is livestreamed on the Vera List Center and Frame Contemporary Art Finland websites and features closed captioning. This event is part of The New School’s ongoing “Rehearsing Hospitalities” project.
Historic Huguenot Street
“Sights and Sounds of Late Winter”
Sat, March 11, 11-12:30. Tickets. In-person in New Paltz, NY
Ethnoecologist Justin Wexler conducts seasonal explorations of the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary in New York’s mid-Hudson valley through the lens of Munsee language, history and folklore.
Abrons Art Center
“Kinstillatory Mappings in Light and Dark Matter”
Thurs, March 16, 6:00 pm EST. Free with RSVP. In-person in New York City
An ongoing project organized by Emily Johnson and Karyn Recollect that centers Indigenous protocol and knowledge. Guest artists and organizers are invited to gather around a fire to share stories and performances in honor and protection of the land, water and air of Lenapehoking, where Abrons Art Center is located.
AWARDS AND HONORS
National Endowment for the Arts – 2023 National Heritage Fellows
The NEA National Heritage Fellowships recognize the recipients’ artistic excellence and support their continuing contributions to our nation’s traditional arts heritage.
Among the 2023 Fellows are
- Ed Eugene Carriere (Suquamish) Suquamish Basketmaker from Indianola, WA
- Roen Hufford Kapa Maker from Waimea, Hawai’i
- Elizabeth James-Perry (Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, Aquinnah) Wampum and Fiber Artist from Dartmouth, MA
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
2023 Big Sky Award
Presented to a film that artistically honors the character, history, tradition and imagination of the American West.
Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun Director: Banchi Hanuse. An intimate portrait of a young Siksika woman, Logan Red Crow, her family, as she prepares for participation in Indian Relay, one of the most dangerous horse races in the world.
