November is Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month in US

International Inuit Day November 7
Veterans Day November 11 in US

Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month. Every US President since 1995 has issued annual proclamations designating the month of November as the time to celebrate the cultures, accomplishments, and contributions of Native American and Alaska Native communities. It is an excellent month for finding both online and in-person special events, discussions and film and performances that reflect a wide range of Indigenous ideas and creativity and present issues facing Native communities as well as the richness of Indigenous heritage.

HONORING NATIVE VETERANS

National Museum of the American Indian
Veterans Day Event

Nov 11. Free. In-person at NMAI in Washington DC and livestreamed.

Recognize and honor the military service of Native Americans on Veterans Day 2023. Events include family activities; a presentation about the National Native American Veterans Memorial by the memorial designer, Harvey Pratt, and curator Rebecca Trautmann; special hospitality for veterans; and a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial, preceded by the presentation of colors by the Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society.

In-person, and livestreamed at AmericanIndian.si.edu/livestream

3-4 pm. Meet the Memorial Designer, Rasmuson Theater, Level 1
Memorial designer and veteran, Harvey Pratt (Cheyenne and Arapaho), and curator Rebecca Trautmann discuss the design process and creation of the National Native American Veterans Memorial.
4:30-5:30. Presentation of Colors and Wreath-Laying Ceremony at the National Native American Veterans Memorial. The Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society present the colors to open a wreath-laying ceremony led by Director Cynthia Chavez Lamar at the National Native American Veterans Memorial. The Memorial Flame will remain lit from 4:30 to 6:30 PM.

In-person only

10 am–5:30 pm. Veterans Hospitality Suite, Patrons Lounge, Level 4
Veterans are invited to enjoy light refreshments in the museum’s Hospitality Suite.

2–5:30 pm. Memorial Information at the Veteran Profile Teaching Cart. Veteran postcard activity: Write a postcard to a veteran or active-duty service member and the museum will send it for you.

4–4:25 pm. Screening of Why We Serve (25 min.) in Rasmuson Theater, Level 1

The Heard Museum
“In the Service Of: American Indian Veteran Artists and Tributes”
Ongoing

Art and tribute art created by and for American Indian veterans. Through the artwork on display, the exhibition reflects the myriad reasons—land, family and cultural responsibility—why American Indian men and women enlist in the U.S. military and serve at a higher percentage than other ethnic groups.

The exhibition includes works of art created by Rick Bartow (Mad River Band of Wiyot), T.C. Cannon(Caddo/Kiowa), Sherman Chaddlesone (Kiowa), Bob Haozous (Diné/Warm Springs Apache), Doug Hyde(Nez Perce/Assiniboine/Chippewa), Yazzie Johnson (Diné) and Gail Bird (Laguna Pueblo/Santo Domingo Pueblo), Charles Loloma (Hopi), Jesse Monongya (Diné/Hopi), TahNibaa Naataanii (Diné), Shirley Pino(Santa Ana Pueblo), and Helen Begay (Diné).

STREAMING and BROADCAST

PBS Celebrates Native American and Alaska Native Heritage

PBS has a month-long array of programs that can be streamed at PBS.org or on the PBS App, as well as PBS Passport. Many are also scheduled for national or local broadcast. These include documentaries, often programmed in the major PBS documentary series POV and Independent Lens and other series (in parentheses below), and a new fictional series as well. At the PBS webpage are links to each production’s trailer and specific information about its making and its story.

HBO Documentary Films
Navajo Police: Class 57 

Navajo Police: Class 57 Directors and exec prods: Kahlil Hudson, Alex Jablonski, David Nordstrom; More exec prods: Blackhorse Lowe, Myles Estey, Nicole Stott, Jonathan Silberberg, Davis Guggenheim, and Laurene Powell Jobs. A three-part docuseries that follows a group of recruits as they fight their way through the Navajo Police Training Academy and out into the field.

Firelight Media”In the Making” Series Online

“In the Making” is a series of original short films, produced in a collaboration between Firelight Media and PBS’ award winning documentary series American Masters. Films in Season 2 include:

Far Out There: Lily Gladstone US. Brooke Pepion Swaney (Blackfeet, Salish and Kootenai descendant). A profile of actress Lily Gladstone (Blackfeet) as she prepares for the release of the high-profile Hollywood film Killers of the Flower Moon.

Jonathan Thunder: Good Mythology US. Sergio Rapu (Rapanui). Artist Jonathan Thunder (Anishnaabe) dives deep into the inspirations behind his surrealist paintings and animations, from the killing of an iconic American hero to critical perspectives of how Indigenous people were portrayed in early childhood cartoons.

FILMS AND FESTIVALS

Hybrid

48th American Indian Film Festival

Nov 3-11. Hybrid. Tickets. Nov 3-8: In-person in San Francisco. Nov 3-11: Streaming online (Titles TBA). 

This year’s festival features numerous features and several dozen short films. Works that are streaming are TBA. Tickets are purchased on Eventive where descriptions, credits and trailers are available.

Opening NightBones of Crows Narrative feature. Canada. Marie Clements (Métis, Dene). Cree matriarch Aline Spears (Grace Dove) survives a childhood in Canada’s residential school system to continue her family’s generational fight in the face of systemic starvation, racism, and sexual abuse.

Narrative features

The Beehive Narrative. Canada. Alexander Lasheras (Métis). Rosemary’s curiosity leads her to discover a mysterious growth on a tree branch, initially assumed to be a beehive. As she meticulously documents its unusual growth, the family begins to slowly realize the darkness it may harbor.

Café Daughter Narrative. Canada. Shelley Niro (Bay of Quinte Mohawk). In a small Saskatchewan town in the 1960s, Yvette Wong, a young girl of Chinese and Cree heritage, struggles with her Indigenous identity amidst family tragedy

Gift of Fear Narrative. US. Jack Kohler, Katy Dore. Mili’s former crew kidnaps her girlfriend. Tribal cops and an agent from the Federal Missing and Murdered Unit are on the case, but Mili waited for the authorities once…she won’t wait this time.

Rosie Narrative. Canada. Gail Maurice. the story of a young, orphaned, Indigenous girl who is forced to live with her reluctant, street-smart Aunty Fred, an artist who creates art from found and discarded objects or other peoples’ trash, and how Rosie finds her family here.

Documentary features

Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun Documentary. Canada. Banchi Hanuse (Nuxalk). A thrilling portrait of a young Siksika woman, Logan Red Crow, and the deep bonds she has with her father and her family as she prepares for one of the most dangerous horse races in the world.

Daughter of a Lost Bird Documentary. US. Brooke Pepion Swaney (Blackfeet, Salish-Kootenai). Kendra Mylnechuk, an adult Native adoptee, born in 1980 at the cusp of the enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act, is on a journey to reconnect with her birth family and discover her Lummi heritage.

Sacred Dog “Sunka Wakhan” Documentary. US. Jeremy Williams. A Lakota family teaches their young about their own culture through the sport of Indian Relay – a sport derived from fighting battles against their enemies.

Tough Skin Documentary. US. Montana Cypress (Miccosukee). a look into the perilous world of Alligator Wrestling through the eyes of Florida’s Indian tribes. From a culture based practice to the commercially viable world of gator wrestling championships

Mid-length films

Amanisowin Narrative. Canada. Peter Brass (Saulteaux). Three friends embark on their first paranormal investigation at a family home only to find more than they were expecting.

Braves Wear Braids Documentary. Canada. Jamie Starlight, Bryce Starlight. Through personal stories encouraging Indigenous youth not to cut their hair.

Cara Romero: Following the Light Documentary. US. Kaela Waldstein. A documentary on contemporary fine art photographer Cara Romero, an enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Tribe.

Fire Tender Documentary. US. Ronnie Jo Draper (Yurok), Marissa Lila. The film’s story centers around contemporary Yurok women and their efforts with cultural burning to return Indigenous relationships with fire to the land.

Hand Games in the Delta Documentary. Canada. Taylor Smith (Métis). A group of Indigenous Hand Games players based in the Yukon travelled to four separate communities in the Delta region of the Northwest Territories teaching Hand Games to citizens.

The Nationals Documentary. US. Hyde Harper. Meet the Haudenosaunee U21 lacrosse team as they compete at the 2022 World Lacrosse Men’s U21 Championship.

Native Ball: Legacy of a Trailblazer Documentary. US. Megan Harrington. Each year in the U.S., nearly 5,000 high-school girls’ basketball players earn a full-ride Division I scholarship. In 1992, only one was Native American: Blackfeet Nation’s Malia Kipp. Living in two worlds presented challenges, but Kipp carried the burden with grace and grit.

Ohskennó:ten Owí:ra (Little Deer) Narrative. Canada. Jonathan Elliot (Mohawk). On Christmas Eve, 1967, two young Indigenous girls are forced to battle the elements, confront their darkest secrets and work together in order to return home to their families after a daring escape from the Mohawk Institute Residential School.

Red Nation International Film Festival 

Nov 1-30. Hybrid. Tickets. Nov 1-12: In-person in Los Angeles. Nov13-30: Online on Red Nation TV Network

Opening Films

Four Souls of Coyote Feature animation. Hungary. Aron Gauder. Billed as an epic adventure based on a Native American creation myth, the film highlights the increasingly pressing need to live in harmony with the environment.

Finality of Dusk Narrative feature. Canada. Madison Thomas (Ojibwe/Saulteaux, Russian/Ukrainian descendant). In the year 2045 amidst environmental devastation, Ishkode and her unlikely companion Niife join forces on what is left of the land to save themselves by protecting each other.

Closing Films

Bones of Crows Narrative feature. Marie Clements (Métis). Removed from their family home and forced into Canada’s residential school system, Cree musical prodigy Aline and her siblings are plunged into a struggle for survival. Bones of Crows is Aline’s journey from child to matriarch, a moving multi-generational epic of resilience, survival and the pursuit of justice.

The Unknown Country Narrative feature. US. Morrisa Maltz. Starring Lily Gladstone, Raymond Lee,Richard Ray Whitman, Lainey Bearkiller Shangreaux. An unexpected invitation rushes a grieving young woman into a lonely road trip through the American Midwest towards the border between Texas and Mexico. 

A Boy Called Piano – The Story of Fa’amoana John Luafutu Feature documentary. Aotearoa/New Zealand. Nina Nawalowalo. Arriving in New Zealand from Samoa as a young child in the 1950s, Fa’amoana was taken from his family, suffering terrible abuse alongside thousands of other Pacific Islander and Maori children. His harsh journey ultimately leads to healing for himself and his family through harnessing the power of his voice as a storyteller. Also streaming 

Other in-person feature/mid-length film programs. Go to the festival website to read full descriptions.

  • Café Daughter Narrative. Canada. Shelley Niro (Bay of Kente Mohawk)
  • War Pony Narrative. US. Gina Gammell, Riley Keough
  • Gift of Fear Narrative. US. Katy More, Jack Kohler
  • The Bears on Pine Ridge Documentary. US. Noel Octavio Bass
  • The Genízaro Experience-Shadows in Light Documentary. US. Gary Medina Cook
  • True Story Documentary. Canada. Dinae Robinson (Anishnaabe)
  • Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun Documentary. Canada. Banchi Hanuse (Nuxalk)
  • Guadelupe: The Making of a Nation Documentary. Mexico. Jesús Manuel Muñoz
  • Blue Bear Woman (Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau) Documentary. Canada. Claude Hamel
  • Giwe: Returning Home Mid-length documentary. Canada. Taye Alvis (Ojibwe, Anishnaabe)
  • Finding Peace Mid-length documentary. Canada. Lancelot Burton (Cree), Agnieszka Pajor. 

Online Features: Nov 13-30

  • ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak) Documentary. US. Schon Duncan, Michael McDermit
  • Common Ground Documentary. US. Joshua Tickell, Rebecca Harrell Tickell
  • Navajo Nation U.S.A. Documentary. US. Deren Paul Abram
  • Custodians: A Story of Ancient Echoes Documentary. Canada. Producer: Harry Lafond (Muskeg Lake Cree)
  • The Nature of Healing Documentary. Canada. Faith Leone Howe
  • The Can’t Kill Us Documentary. US. Jonathan Bloodwolf Lopez (Tiwa)
  • The Son Rises Narrative. US. Alexander Seyum
  • A Boy Called Piano – The Story of Fa’amoana John Luafutu Feature documentary. Aotearoa/New Zealand

DocNYC

Nov 8-26. Tickets. Hybrid. Nov 8-14: In-person in New York City. Nov 14-26: Online. Assisted listening available for in-person screenings (see website for more information).

Nov 8, 15 and online. Bad Press US. Rebecca Landsberry-Baker (Muscogee Creek), Joe Peeler. Reporter Angel Ellis of the Muscogee Nation’s hard-hitting news outlet, Mvskoke Media, runs headlong into censorship and threats as she strives to expose corruption. The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers and special guests.

Nov 15. In-person only. Lakota Nation vs. United States US. Jesse Shortbull, Laura Tomaselli. As American settlers moved west, the U.S. government signed treaty after treaty with Lakota and other Indigenous tribes, only to continually break their legal and moral commitments with complete impunity. As traditional Lakota lands shrink under impingement, exploitation, and genocide, a new generation take a new stand against their oppressors.

FILMS AND FESTIVALS

In-person in US

Urbanworld Film Festival

Nov 1-5. Tickets. In-person in New York City

Frybread Face and Me Narrative feature. US. Billy Luther. The tender coming-of-age tale of 11-year-old Benny who’s been sent from his San Diego home to live with his grandmother on the Navajo reservation in the summer of 1990. He soon bonds with his cousin Dawn, AKA “Frybread Face.” Framed as a fond remembrance narrated by the adult Benny,

Inky Pinky Ponky Narrative feature. Aotearoa/New Zealand. Damon Fepulea’I, Ramon Te Wake. At St Valentine’s High, a fakalei (aka a Tongan individual assigned male at birth who has a feminine gender expression, a “third spirit”) gets involved with the Rugby Captain. A story told against a backdrop of rugby, Island mums, gender fluidity,micro-agressions and teenage angst.

Imagining Indigenous Cinema: New Voices, New Visions
Fancy Dance

Sat, Nov 11, 2-4:30 pm EST. Free. In-person at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Fancy Dance Narrative feature. US. Erica Tremblay (Seneca-Cayuga). This moving narrative debut, set on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma, focuses on Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson), a teenager whose mom has vanished, and her Aunt Jax (Lily Gladstone). With Jax’s custody of her niece under threat, the pair hit the road to search for their missing relative, Followed by conversation with the film series’ co-curator, Colleen Thurston (Choctaw) and the director.

Indigenous Film & Arts Festival 

Last day! Nov 9. In-person at various venues in Denver

Wed, Nov 8. Tickets $5. In-person at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Coming Home. Program includes Seed Mother: Coming Home, Lyed Corn with Ash, Puamun, The Politics of Toheroa Soup, and more.

Thurs, Nov 9. Free. In-person at the University of Denver’s Museum of Anthropology. “Cara Romero Photography: Storytelling through an Indigenous Lens.” Exhibition and Artist talk

First Nations Film and Video Festival 

Nov 1-10. Tickets. In-person at various venues in Chicago. Go to the website for additional programs and for descriptions and credits.

Opening ProgramBones of Crows Narrative. Canada. Marie Clements (Métis, Dene). A multi-generational epic and story of resilience told through the eyes of Cree matriarch Aline Spears. Grounded in historical truth, the film weaves together underrepresented moments in Canadian and Indigenous history.

Closing ProgramHey, Viktor! Narrative. Canada. Cody Lightning. A struggling Indigenous actor tries to rejuvenate his career by getting a sequel made to the beloved film Smoke Signals film in this wildly funny and somewhat raunchy debut mockumentary.

St. Louis Film Festival

Nov 9 -19. Tickets. In-person in St. Louis 

Bad Press Feature documentary. US. Rebecca Landsberry-Baker (Muscogee Creek), Joe Peeler. When the Muscogee Nation government abruptly repeals its landmark Free Press Act to muzzle the tribe’s hard-hitting news outlet, defiant and foul-mouthed journalist Angel Ellis charges headfirst into a historic (and surprisingly funny) battle to restore her tribe’s press freedoms

Four Souls of Coyote Feature animation. Hungary. Aron Gauder. Billed as an epic adventure based on a Native American creation myth, this gorgeously animated film highlights the increasingly pressing need to live in harmony with the environment before it is too late.

Les Filles Du Roi Historical feature/Musical. Canada. Corey Payette. In this soaring trilingual musical, a young Mohawk girl, Kateri, and her brother, Jean-Baptiste, have their lives disrupted upon the arrival of “les Filles du Roi” (daughters of the King) in 1665 New France.

We Are Guardians Feature documentary. Brazil, US. Edivan Guajajara, Chelsea Greene, Rob Grobman. Follows Indigenous forest guardian Marçal Guajajara and activist Puyr Tembé as they fight to protect their territories from deforestation, an illegal logger who has no choice but to cut the forest down, and a large landowner at the mercy of thousands of invaders and extractive industry.

Documentary Shorts 4 – “Documenting Our Land”

Five short documentaries explore Innu lands now flooded, the continuation of language, Indigenous cuisine, guarding the land, and traditional marriage practices reconsidered by a younger generation in the foothills of the Himalayas.

26th Media City Film Festival

Nov 7-11. Pay what you like. In-person in Detroit.

Four of this festival’s eight separate programs of international short experimental films include:

Kicking the Clouds US. Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk, Pechanga Band of Luiseño) A reflection on descendants and ancestors, guided by a 50-year-old audio recording of the filmmaker’s grandmother learning the Pechanga language.

Yaangna Plays Itself US. Adam Piron (Kiowa, Mohawk). An ode to the memories of El Aliso, the sycamore tree that once stood at the center of Yaangna, the Gabrieleño village that Los Angeles grew out from.

Fighting Looks Different 2 Me Now US. Fox Maxy (Luiseño, Payómkawichum and Diegueño, Iipay Kumeyaay). Documents the filmmaker’s homecoming to the ancestral lands of the Mesa Grande Band of Diegueño Mission Indians.

The Winged Stone Mexico. Colectivo Los Ingrávidos. Through the floating garden, into the mountain of signs and changes, arises the path of the winged stone.

The Red Ghetto US. Hadassah GreenSky (Odawa). The Cass Corridor neighborhood of Detroit, otherwise known as the Red Ghetto, was home to Native American and First Nations families from the 1940s to the 1970s. The stories of those times are now lived through their grandchildren.

More Film Festivals

In-person in Amsterdam, London

IDFA – International Documentary Festival

Nov 8-19 Tickets. In-person in Amsterdam.

Bad Press Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, (Muskogee), Joe Peeler For description see DocNYC.

Bila Burba Feature documentary. Panama. Duiren Wagua (Gunadule) Every year the Gunadule, the original inhabitants of northern Panama, reenact their successful uprising in 1925 against the repressive government of Panama, particularly significant now as the government is undertaking sale of their lands.

Canuto’s Transformation Feature documentary. Brazil. Ariel Kuaray Ortega (Mbyá-Guaraní), Ernesto de Carvalho. Ariel Kuaray Ortega returns to his hometown to visit his grandfather in a region of Brazil bordering Argentina, to finally hear the full story of Canuto, a fellow villager who turned into a jaguar and then died a tragic death. A plan soon arises to make a film about the mysterious Canuto, with the villagers playing all the roles. The result is an extraordinary and intriguing communal project that addresses major themes—colonization, the disadvantaged status of indigenous communities—and records everyday beauty and fun as well.

Ch’ul be, Sacred Path Feature documentary. Mexico. Humberto Gómez Pérez (Tzotzil Maya). Preparations for the annual festival in honor of the town’s patron saint Andrew the Apostle are in full swing. The film focuses on Martha and Diego, a married couple who have been appointed guardians of the saint, and on Román and his son Tino, who have been called upon to serve as musicians. Music has a key role to play in this blend of Catholic and Mayan faith. Meticulously and with love, the filmmaker—son of Martha and Diego—captures the dedication with which these servants of faith execute their allotted tasks.

Floating with Spirits VR documentary. Mexico. Juanita Onzaga. This cinematic virtual reality experience transports you to the mountains of Oaxaca in Mexico. There we meet Jocelynne and Jaquelyne, two young Mazatecs. While they prepare for the traditional Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, Jocelynne and Jaquelyne share the stories that were passed down to them by their grandmother, a shaman who upheld the community’s mystical values.

małni – towards the ocean, towards the shore Experimental documentary. US. Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk, Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians). The death myth of the Chinook people, the original inhabitants of the American Northwest, centers on a conversation between a wolf and a coyote about the hereafter, about what follows this life. Video artist Sky Hopinka circles around this myth in this, his first documentary, an ethereal contemplation of the transfer of knowledge from generation to generation, and the value of cultural identity.

Ozogoche Narrative feature. Ecuador, Belgium, Qatar. Joe Houlberg Silva. A beautifully filmed account of daily life in a Kichwa community in Ecuador that is living around the Ozogoche lakes. Two forms of migration, moving in opposite directions, are subtly linked.

People from the Heart of the Earth Mid-length documentary. Brazil. The collective Guahu’i Guyra spent three years filming their people, the Guarani-Kaiowá. Much of their ancestral lands have been destroyed by monoculture and deforestation. In the small territory they managed to retake, a few families try to live according to their traditional way of life.

Marungka tjalatjunu/Dipped in Black Documentary short. Australia. Derik Lynch, Matthew Thorne. As a queer person and Aboriginal, Derik Lynch has suffered in the city of Adelaide and decides to return home to his remote Anangu community, where he performs inma, a traditional form of visual, verbal and physical storytelling. Derik knows his country because he knows his stories, he says in this engaging portrait.

Native Spirit Indigenous Film Festival

Last day! Nov 7. Tickets. In-person at various venues in London 

A three-week schedule of programs is featuring 70 films by international Indigenous filmmakers and artists from more than 30 tribes and Indigenous nations. For more information and trailers go to the website.

Fri, Nov 3Two from Sakha. Тарыҥ-The Season of Dying Water Sakha, Even, Yakutia, Russian Federation. Svetlana Romanova, Chelsea Tuggle and Lettre de Sibérie (Letter From Siberia) France/Russian Federation Chris Marker. Images of Siberia are often limited to exoticized portraits of rural communities living in harsh conditions, its residents often cast as provincial wanderers stuck in a different time. Aiming to visually describe a more grounded contemporary reality, The Season of Dying Water argues that life in and around Yakutsk is more complicated. Inspired by Chris Marker’s 1957 highly individualized travelogue film Lettre de Sibérie, offers an update 65 years later. 

Sun, Nov 5Turtle Island Tales: Torcheu Aachimow. 12 short films by Wapikoni Mobile filmmakers curated by Jack Belhumeur, attending in person, and online Q&A with Réal Junior Leblanc, Isabelle Kanapé and Manuel Kak’wa Kurtness.

Closing Night Nov 7. Twice Colonized Greenland, Canada. Lin Alluna. Renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter has led a lifelong fight for the rights of her people. When her son suddenly dies, Aaju embarks on a journey to reclaim her language and culture after a lifetime of whitewashing and forced assimilation. But is it possible to change the world and mend your own wounds at the same time?

EXHIBITIONS/EVENTS

National Museum of the American Indian

“Raven Chacon in Concert and Conversation”
Nov 4, 2-5 pm EDT. Free. In-person at NMAI in Washington, DC

Artist Raven Chacon (Diné) is joined by Joy Harjo, Candice Hopkins, Ange Loft, Laura Ortman and Olivia Shorti to present 2 pieces, including selections from his work “For Zikála-Sá”, a portfolio of scores dedicated to contemporary Native American and First Nations women to celebrate their contributions to music. Followed by a conversation with the five participants moderated by Chacon.

National Portrait Gallery

All events are free and in-person at NPG in Washington, DC. Online registration may be required for specific events

“Kinship”: An Artist Talk with Anna Tsouhlarakis
Sat, Nov 4, 3:30-4:30 pm EDT.
The artist will discuss her work in sculpture, installation, video and performance, the “Kinship” exhibition, and her performance on Nov 5

Performance of “Portrait of an Indigenous Womxn (Removed)”
Sun, Nov 5, 1-3 pm EDT

Artist Anna Tsouhlarakis draws awareness to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Movement, creating an onsite sculpture that features existing posters of MMIW. Accompanied by a singer with a hand drum, Tsouhlarakis will carry the sculpture through the galleries in a reflection on the history and representation of Native Americans. These performances pay tribute to Ella Mae Begay and Sumi Juan.

Emerging Artist Talk and Poetry Reading
Mon, Nov 6, 4 – 5 pm EST
Kinsale Drake, an emerging poet, editor and playwright, will give a public talk on her work with the changing wxman collective and NDN Girls Book Club. She has performed twice at Carnegie Hall and was the recipient of the Joy Harjo Poetry Award and the Aspen Institute’s Emerging Writer Fellowship. Register here.

Art and the MMIW Crisis
Mon, Nov 6, 5:30-7:00 pm EST
This keynote panel on the theme of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls will feature activists and scholars Mary Kathryn Nagle, Grace Bulltail, Kathleen Ash-Milby and Ashley Minner. The hour-long public panel will be moderated by performance artist Anna Tsouhlarakis, followed by an audience Q&A. Supported by the American Women’s History Initiative. Register here.

National Gallery of Art
“The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans” 

Sept 22, 2023-Jan 15, 2024. Free. In-person in Washington, DC

Curated by artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation), this exhibition brings together works by an intergenerational group of nearly 50 living Native artists practicing across the United States. Their powerful expressions reflect the diversity of Native American individual, regional, and cultural identities. At the same time, these works share a worldview informed by thousands of years of reverence, study, and concern for the land.

Events

John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art
Nov 1-3. Free with registration. In-person at the National Gallery of Art

Wed, Nov 1. 1-2 pm EDT
Session I: Keynote Conversation. The artist and exhibition curator, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and the 23rd US Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo, will discuss the exhibition theme of reverence, study and concern for the land. Introduced by Molly Donovan, NGA curator of contemporary art and consulting curator on the exhibition.

Thurs, Nov 2, 6-7 pm EDT
Session II. Education. A conversation between artists whose academic and educational work benefit their communities.
Presenters:
Keith BraveHeart (Oglala Lakota), educator, Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute, University of South Dakota
Sean Chandler (Aaniiih), president, Aaniiih Nakoda College
Gerald Clarke, Jr. (Cahuilla), professor, Ethnic Studies, University of California- Riverside
Moderator: Gabrielle A. Tayac (Piscataway), public historian and Assoc Prof at George Mason University

Fri, Nov 3, 1-2 pm EDT
Session III: Leadership. Artists and museums professionals discuss the impact of their leadership roles in cultural organizations.
Presenters:
Brandie Macdonald (Chickasaw, Choctaw heritage), Exec. Director, Indiana University’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Melissa Melero-Moose (Fallon Paiute-Shoshone), artist and founder/director of the art collective Great Basin Native Artists
Elizabeth A. Woody (Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs), artist, writer, State of Oregon Poet Laureate (2016-2018)
Gabrielle A. Tayac (Piscataway), educator, curator, founder and director of the Public History Lab, George Mason University
Moderator: Shana Bushyhead Condill (Eastern Band of Cherokee), executive director, Museum of the Cherokee Indian

Music on the Mezzanine
Sat, Nov 4, 12-12:30, 1-1:30. Free. Performance by guitarist, producer, and songwriter Lakota John (Lumbee) whose sound weaves blues into the Indigenous music of his ancestors.

Indigenous Futures (National Gallery Nights)
Thurs, Nov 9, 6-9 pm EST. Free. Lottery for registration opens Mon, Oct 30 and closes Thurs, Nov 2 at noon. A special evening celebrating the exhibition “The Land Carries Our Ancestors.” Nicholas Galanin (Lingít/Unangax̂)—an activist, musician, and visual artist—performs electro-soul as Ya Tseen. Hear pop-up talks in the galleries from curators and community members. Make your own art inspired by the land and environment. Program designed by Dr. Elizabeth Rule, author of “Indigenous DC”

Imagining Indigenous Cinema: New Voices, New Visions
Nov 11-26. Film Festival. For Sat, Nov 11 screening of Fancy Dance, see above.

Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield
The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha
“Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers”

June 25, 2023-Jan 7, 2024 at the Aldrich
May 18-Sept 14, 2024 at the Bemis

Raven Halfmoon (Caddo) fuses Caddo pottery traditions (a history of making mostly done by women) with populist gestures—often tagging her work (a reference to Caddo tattooing). Her works are both torso-scaled and colossal-sized stoneware sculptures, with some soaring up to twelve feet and weighing over eight hundred pounds. With inspirations that orbit centuries from ancient Indigenous pottery to Moai statues to Land Art, she explores the intersection of tradition, history, gender, and personal experience.

“Raven Halfmoon – Book Release with NDN Girls Book Club”
Fri, Nov 3, 5-8 pm EDT. Tickets. In-person at the Aldrich. NDN Girls Club founder and poet Kinsale Drake and talented local Indigenous writers will provide an evening of poetry reading, art, and more in celebration of the release of the catalogue, Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers.

BAMPFA/Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archives
“Duane Linklater: mymothersside”  
Oct 7, 2023-Feb 25, 2024. Tickets. In-person at UC-Berkeley.

Working across a range of media–painting, sculpture, and video, Duane Linklater has been making art that interrogates the construct of museums, their conventions, and their historical exclusion of Indigenous people.  He addresses the contradictions of contemporary Indigenous life within settler systems of knowledge, representation, and value.

Tanya Lupin Linklater: “Ewako ôma asked, This then is the earth”
Nov 1-4. Free. Open rehearsals to the public, In person at Berkeley

Artist/choreographer, Tanya Lupin Linklater, Fall 2023 artist in residence at UC-Berkeley’s Arts Research Center, performs a series of dance rehearsals with Ivan Aubin-Malo an(Woloq) and Ceinwen Gobert in response to the cyclical, seasonal, affective and formal qualities of the works in the exhibition “Duane Linklater: mymothersside.”. 

Eiteljorg Museum “Native Art History Is Made Here”Closes March 24, 2024. Tickets. In-person in Indianapolis.

An exhibition of works by contemporary artists from the first two rounds of the Eiteljorg’s biennial Fellowship, in 1999 and 2001. The Fellows whose works appear in this new exhibition include Allan Houser, George Morrison, Joe Feddersen, Shelley Niro, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and more.

Whitney Museum of American Art
“Rose B. Simpson: Counterculture”

Oct 4, 2023-Jan 21, 2024. Tickets. In-person in New York City

The five figures on view—cast in concrete in colors reminiscent of Rose B. Simpson’s work in clay—are titled Counterculture as a reference to the importance of communities that live separately from dominant cultures but still have significant cultural impact. These watchful figures serve as stand-ins for those that colonization has aimed to silence. This installation is presented in conjunction with a billboard on Gansevoort Street titled “Encounter,” a collaboration between Simpson and filmmaker Razelle Benally–a photographic image that depicts a queer Indigenous individual framed against a rock face in northern New Mexico.

The Heard Museum
“Indeterminate Beauty”

Through April 22, 2024. Tickets. In-person in Phoenix.

A “brief yet bold” selection of works by influential Kiowa/Caddo artist T.C. Cannon. His artistic motivations were ignited by the sociopolitical atmosphere of America during the mid-20th century, illustrated by saturated colors juxtaposed with subjects that examine identity.

TALKING ABOUT

The Newberry Library
D’Arcy McNickle Distinguished Lecture
“Myths, Memory, and Indigenous Survival in the Gulf South” 

Nov 2, 6-7 pm CDT. Hybrid. In-person in Chicago and live-streamed on Zoom. 

Historian Elizabeth Ellis (Peoria Nation of Oklahoma) discusses the impact in the Gulf South of local legends about the supposed dying out of Native Americans even as Native peoples remain alive and well in the region. She examines how these have shaped and restricted the political rights of contemporary tribes in the region, using Mississippi and Louisiana as historical case studies.

Nebraska Public Media
in partnership with Vision Maker Media and Durham Museum 
”Restoring Indigenous Food Sovereignty”

Tues, Nov 7, 6 pm. CST. Free with registration. In-person at the Durham Museum in Omaha.

Inspired by topics in Ken Burns’s The American Buffalo, this conversation will explore rematriation – the restoration and revitalization of Indigenous foodways, lifeways and cultural knowledge. Learn about this growing movement through excerpts from the recent short films Homecoming by Julianna Brannum (Comanche), a companion film to The American Buffalo that documents Jason Baldes and the work of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, and Seed Warriors, which highlights Deb Echo-Hawk and the Pawnee Seed Preservation Society.

Panelists:

  • Brandon Cobb(Cherokee Nation), Indigenous Conservation Specialist, The Nature Conservancy
  • Suzi French (Umóⁿhoⁿ), farm-to-school director for the Umóⁿhoⁿ Nation Public School
  • Dan O’Brien, featured in The American Buffalo, owner of Wild Idea Buffalo Ranch and author of Great Plains Bison
  • Rebekka Schlichting(Ioway Tribe of Kansas & Nebraska), assistant professor of the practice at the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, owner of Native Storytelling Nation and director of Seed Warriors
  • Renée Sans Souci (Umóⁿhoⁿ), Indigenous Educator and Cultural Consultant (moderator)

National Museum of American History
“Cooking Up History: Indigenous Food Knowledge & Healthy Ecosystems” 

Sat, Nov 4, 3:30-4:30 EDT. Free with registration. In-person at the NMAH and Livestreamed. Registration ends soon. To receive a link to the livestream, please select “livestream” at checkout.

Guest chef Mariah Gladstone (Blackfeet, Cherokee) will share how Indigenous growers and food practitioners are using ancestral foods and land management to sustain and strengthen their communities and their surrounding environments. Part of the Food History Weekend: Food, Climate, and Community collection.

The New School/Parsons School of Design
“Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook”

Nov 7, 6-7:30 pm EST. Free. In-person at the Tishman Auditorium at The New School in New York City

In this talk, Dr. Dori Tunstall, Associate Professor of Design Anthropolgoy at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Swinburne University in Australia, will explore what decolonizing design might mean for institutions and organizations. She addresses the need for Putting Indigenous First and understanding one’s individual and institutional positionality vis-a-vis Indigenous sovereignty. 

READING ABOUT

Forge Project
Forging

Forging is a digital-first journal for critically imagining Native futures. Its editors and contributors are deeply committed to changing the way we study and interpret Indigenous survivance in the face of settler colonialism, with a focus on engaging, highlighting, and learning from Native voices.

“Postmodernism is Not Permission” Oct 18, 2023. Artist and Forge Project 2023 Fellow Kite (Oglala Lakota) reflects on Indigenous epistemologies, ethical art making, and the responsibilities we have to non-human kin.

“Finding Home” Sept 28, 2023. For Indigenous game developers and virtual-reality designers, creating their own digital worlds has become an expression of self-determination in an industry that hasn’t always seen the value In Native perspectives. Vincent Schilling (Akwesasne Mohawk) reflects on game design and VR and the work of John Romero (Yaqui, Cherokee, Mexican), Dr. Elizabeth LaPensée (Irish, Anishnaabe, Métis), Skawennati (Kahnawake Mohawk)

Vera List Center
Forum 2023: Correction* Catalogue

The publication of the online catalogue to Forum 2023, the most recent annual convening at the Vera List Center, Oct 12-14, 2023. 

“Correction, or the willingness to re-evaluate time-trusted protocols, is often demanded, yet rarely applied in the nuanced, considered, humane way necessary to foster social justice, equity, and inclusion. The Vera List Center has just concluded the first year of its biennial research Focus Theme Correction*. The asterisk in Correction*speaks to the complexities of correction, the necessity to consider subtexts and invisible histories as we navigate our current historic moment as a community of progressive, diverse, and creative people from all over the world. 

“This year, we turn toward artistic modes that precisely center the “we” to respond to these complexities, prompted by artists and collectives working in community to advance social justice around the world through collaborative practices on a global scale.” The catalogue includes a dialogue held at the event between members of the proppaNOW artistic collective in Brisbane, Australia—and the Turtle Island-based collective New Red Order—Jackson Polys and Zack Khalil—in which both groups reflect on their respective connections to land and country, to language and identity, to the political and the polemical..

AWARDS AND HONORS

Firelight/Hulu Kindling Fund Fellow

Receiving one of the three inaugural awards from Hulu and Firelight to develop original documentary features is Julianna Brannum for Now I Lay Me Down, concerned with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. The award which provides funds and production support is for mid-career filmmakers who are alums of Firelight’s artists programs

Vision Maker Media Creative Shorts Awards

  • Dave Swallow (Lakota) for Ghost Dance
  • Alana Tiikpuu Walker (Nez Perce) for Goat Song
  • Steven H Tallas (Navajo) for Stolen Home

2023 Eiteljorg Artist Awards

The Eiteljorg Award has been awarded to Native contemporary artists from US and Canada every other year since 1999. Each Fellowship artist receives an unrestricted grant, now for $50,000, and a purchase of artwork by the museum.

  • Ruth Cuthand (Plains Cree)
  • Natalie Ball (Klamath/Modoc)
  • Sean Chandler (Aanith)
  • Mercedes Dorane (Gabrielino Tongva)
  • Raven Halfmoon (Caddo, Choctaw, Delaware

DGC/ Directors Guild of Canada – Awards and Nominations

  • 2023 DGC Impact Award for Inclusion & Leadership: Marie Clements
  • Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers & Team for Little Bird, Love is all Around

Others short-listed for the DGC’s prestigious awards include Zoe Hopkins, Tracey Deer, Jules Koostachin, Chloé Leriche, Cody Lightning.

Critics Circle Documentary Awards – Nominations (US)

Best First Documentary Feature
Bad Press (Oklafilm)

Best Historical Documentary and Best Political Documentary
Lakota Nation vs. United States (IFC Films)