United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues April 17-28
April is National Poetry Month (US)
May is Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month (US) 

Native American Poetry and Culture

A selection of poets, poems, and articles exploring the Native American experience.

Poetry Foundation editors have curated this collection of Native American poets, both established and widely read ones along with voices of a new generation, from some of the many US tribes. Their poems bear historical witness, demonstrate the strength of the Native American spirit, argue crucial political and social issues, while illuminating a vibrant cultural heritage. This collection is intended to be inclusive, in order to introduce new readers to a broad range of poets.

FILMS and FESTIVALS
Hybrid

30th Dreamspeakers International Indigenous Film Festival

April 19-23. Tickets, passes. In-person in Edmonton, Alberta.
Now thru May 1. Tickets, passes. Scheduled livestreams. See website for exact times.
Now thru April 30, 11 am PT. Tickets, passes. On Demand

Dreamspeakers’ live presentations have passed, but both scheduled livestreams and on demand films are still available. See the website for descriptions of these and other films featured.

Livestream Features.
Many excellent short works will also be livestreamed. See website for information about exact time of the livestream and descriptions and credits.

Fri, April 28

  • Rehab (also On Demand) A father drives his daughter to the city from the Reserve to a dinner with her idol that she’s won in a contest. But the evening goes differently when the father discovers the young man is on heroin, kidnaps him, and takes him back to the reserve to clean up his body and his life.
  • Gift of Fear (also On Demand in Canada). Mili’s mother was murdered 11 years ago, becoming another Missing and Murdered Indigenous statistic. When Mili’s former crew kidnaps her girlfriend after Mili chooses her over the gang. Mili must go after justice.

Sat, April 29

  • Spirit Bear Series by First Nations Child & Family Caring Society (one episode also On Demand). Spirit Bear tells the tragic story of abused child Jordan River Anderson, and explores ways to obtain fair treatment for Indigenous kids.
  • ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak) (also On Demand in North America). With fewer than 2,000 fluent speakers left, a small group of Cherokee activists race to save their language from extinction. Synopsis: The Cherokee language is deeply tied to Cherokee identity; yet generations of assimilation efforts by the U.S. government and anti-Indigenous stigmas have forced the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes to declare a State of Emergency for the language in 2019. Preceded by Enaanzowaad Awesiinyag.

Sun, April 30

  • SEDNA, EMPRESS OF THE SEA preceded by Māui Adventures: Capturing The Sun (also On Demand in Canada). An animated, action-adventure, feature film about one of the most compelling indigenous legends of all time. It’s the story of Sedna, a courageous young Inuit girl, who kidnapped by an evil raven escapes by kayak only to end up at the bottom of the sea where she magically transforms into a mermaid/Empress of the Sea.
  • Ablaze (also On Demand). Opera singer Tiriki Onus sets out to uncover the mystery surrounding an untitled 75-year-old silent movie discovered inside a vault that has compelling links to his larger-than-life Indigenous grandfather William Bill Onus:

Mon. May 1

  • Hill Agency: PURITYdecay (Demo and Interview with Creators). Murdered sisters, mind wiping drugs and flying palaces, this case goes way farther than the banks of this one detective’s little slum in this indigenous cybernoir. A narrative detective game in the spirit of Oxenfree and The Shiva that lets you solve who did it.

On Demand Features and Mid-length Films. 
Many excellent short works are also on demand, see website for information – * see above for description.

  • *Ablaze
  • Above Boy (North America only) The story of Godfrey Benjamin Chipps, a fourth-generation descendant of Horn Chipp – the Medicine Man for legendary Indian chief Crazy Horse–and the legacy he leaves behind for his family.
  • Bill Reid Remembers A beautiful tribute from Alanis Obomsawin to her friend’s remarkable life and rich legacyin this celebration of renowned Haida artist Bill Reid.
  • Cara Romero: Following the Light A documentary on contemporary fine art photographer Cara Romero. An enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Romero was raised between contrasting settings: the rural Chemehuevi reservation in Mojave Desert, CA and the urban sprawl of Houston, TX.
  • Ever Deadly (Canada only) This documentary explores the avant-garde Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq’s transformation of sound with an eye to colonial fallout, natural freedom and Canadian history.
  • *Gift Of Fear (Canada only)
  • Imalirijit (Canada only). The inspired journey of a young Inuit community researcher.
  • Older Than The Crown Through telling of the trial of Sinixt tribal member Rick Desautel charged with hunting as a nonresident, the story of the Sinixt and their termination as a First Nation by the Canadian government explores Aboriginal rights.
  • purple crab A group of people who have been through addiction and homelessness now get together to feed the less fortunate once a week.
  • *Rehab
  • *SEDNA, EMPRESS OF THE SEA (Canada only)
  • *Spirit Bear: Fishing for Knowledge, Catching Dreams
  • Taste of the Indigenous Two Indigenous chefs take turns hosting a culinary experience allowing us to rediscover the tradition and culture behind their tribe’s ancestral food.
  • The Suitcase of A Persian-Navajo Activist Sahar Khadjenoury is a Persian-Navajo actor and TV producer living in the Navajo Nation. In this profiling documentary, she shares the experience of growing up with the only Iranian in the Navajo territory as her father. She expresses the interplay between her two cultures, highlighting some of their commonalities.
  • Unborn Biru A pregnant widow steals silver from a dead body, in order to survive and feed her daughter. But the silver is cursed, and it has consequences for all of them, including the unborn.
  • Walking Two Worlds 19 year-old Quannah Chasinghorse, and her mother, Jody Potts-Joseph, take a stand to defend their sacred homelands and way of life while breaking barriers in Indigenous representation.
  • *ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak) (North America only)
  • ᓂᒧᓲᒼ Nimosôm – my grandfather Two 14 year old boys, Layne Youngchief & Dylan John, friends since birth, talk of Nimosôm (my grandfather), why they love him, how important he is in their lives – teaching language, traditional beliefs. A gem in this film is that 10 years after the initial filming, the filmmakers went back and with their Mosôm gone, the boys, now men, tell of what lasting impact they still carry from White Buffalo.

First Nations Film and Video Festival

May 1-10. Tickets. In-person in Chicago and online.

One ongoing online program and, in-person, five feature films and numerous shorts shown in various venues in Chicago. FNFVF presents two festivals every year on May 1-10 and on Nov 1-10.

Online Program: Fri, Sat, Sun

I’m Modern, I’m Indigenous In two-hour parts each screening. Brazil. Carlos Eduardo Magalhães (Tapajowara). An indigenous vision of modernity. Far from wild or lazy, indolent and disinterested, the characters that make up the dramaturgical fabric of the series are highly linked to technology, active participants in the most different forms of urban everyday life, at the same time that they are intimately linked to their peoples and their culture.

Feature films in-person

  • Slash/BackNarrative feature. Canada. Nyla Innuksuk (Inuk) Pangnirtung, Nunavut: A sleepy hamlet, nestled in the majestic mountains of Baffin Island in the Arctic Ocean, wakes up to a typical summer day.  But for Maika (Tasiana Shirley) and her ragtag friends, the usual summer is suddenly not in the cards when they discover an alien invasion threatening their hometown, and they go into action.
  • Rehab Narrative feature. Canada. Andrew Genaille (Sto:lo). The first nations father kidnaps his youngest daughter, celebrity crush and brings him back to the reserve to clean them up.
  • Gift Of Fear Narrative feature. US. Katy Dore, Jack Kohler (Hoopa). Mili watched in horror as her mother was murdered 11 years ago, becoming another Missing and Murdered Indigenous statistic. Now 17, Mili’s former crew kidnaps her girlfriend after Mili chooses her MMA team over the gang. 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.
  • Oaklands Totem Documentary feature. Canada. Carey Newman, Cody Graham (Kwakwak’awakw/Coast Salish). Indigenous Master Carver Carey Newman is carving a totem with students of Oaklands Elementary school when Covid-19 shuts down the program. The totem is completed when school resumes with new restrictions.
  • Beans Narrative feature. Canada. Tracey Deer (Mohawk). Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and reckless adolescence; forced to grow up fast and become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Oka Crisis, the turbulent Indigenous uprising that tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990.

San Luis Obispo International Film Festival

April 25-30. In-person in San Luis Obispo, CA
April 30-May 7. Encore Week Online

Both in-person and available during Encore Week

  • Vicuna Salvation Feature documentary. US. Luis Ara. With vicuna producing the finest wool fiber in the world, poachers and the black market led to the near-extinction of the species. This film documents the struggle and empowerment of one Indigenous community in the Peruvian mountains as the fight to conserve their animals and to gain national attention to what they have been facing.
  • Inalirijit Documentary short. Canada. Vincent L’Hérault, Tim Anaviapik Soucie. Following in his grandfather’s footsteps, Tim wants to start his own research to study water quality to benefit his Inuit community, Pond Inlet in Nunavut. He embarks on an inspiring journey that will lead to empowerment, change and adaptation for the community that’s challenging the modern reality of the Canadian Arctic. Part of Shorts 3: Power in Community.
  • We Are Still Here Feature composite. Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, South Pacific. Beck Cole, Dena Curtis, Tracey Rigney, Danielle MacLean, Tim Worrall, Renae Maihi, Miki Magasiva, Mario Gaoa, Richard Curtis, Chantelle Burgoyne A unique Indigenous film that weaves together eight powerful tales to tell a sweeping story of hope and survival. Through the eyes of these protagonists, the film traverses 1,000 years (past, present, and future) to explore kinship, loss, grief, and resilience. Only available virtually in California.

Hot Docs Festival

April 27-May 7. Tickets. In-person in Toronto.
May 5-9. Tickets. Streaming online in Canada.

  • Twice Colonized Feature documentary. Denmark, Canada, Greenland. Lin Alluna. In English, Danish, Inuktitut, Kalaallisut. Renowned Greenlandic Inuk lawyer Aaju Peter is a force of nature in her quest to bring her two colonizers, Canada and Denmark, to justice. Can she change the world and mend her own wounds at the same time? Opening Night and additional screenings.
  • Altamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun Feature documentary. US. Banchi Hanuse. Follows the story of Logan Red Crow as she prepares to make history by joining the men’s competition in Indian relay at the Calgary Stampede, and demonstrates the closeness of family and their supportive world view. Preceded by The Scissors.
  • The Rebellion of the Flowers A group fo women from different Indigenous nations in Argentina march to Buenos Aires to occupy the entrance of the Ministry of the Interior building to claim justice in their territories and end the imposition of government and corporate decisions over their lands and the fate of their peoples. The building together of this community in its waiting, and the frustration of a minister who does not show up, are all part of the story.
  • We Are Guardians Feature documentary. Brazil. Edivan Guajajara, Chelsea Greene, Rob Grobman. In the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, a kaleidoscope of characters and perspectives intersect, including those of Indigenous forest guardians, scientists and illegal loggers, to provide a fulsome portrait of the causes and harms of deforestation. The stakes are high as Marçal Guajajara, from Arariboia territory, and activist Puyr Tembé, from the Alto Rio Guamá region, lead the fight to protect their forests.
  • You Can Go Now Feature documentary. Australia. Larissa Berendt. Celebrated Aboriginal artist and provocateur Richard Bell, who describes himself as an activist masquerading as an artist, is known for his confrontational and humorous work, a reputation that has propelled him to the forefront of Australia’s contemporary art movement. You Can Go Now offers a vital primer, not only on the work of Bell, but also on the significance of Aboriginal Australian currents of 20th- and 21st-century art.

Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival

May 4-7. Tickets. In-person in Bellingham, WA
May 11-21. Tickets. Online

  • Bones of Crows Narrative feature. Canada. Marie Clements. In English, French, Cree. Featuring Grace Dove, Graham Greene, Angus Macfadyen A sweeping epic film told through the eyes of Cree Matriarch Aline Spears as she 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. She uses her uncanny ability to understand and translate codes into working for a special division of the Canadian Air Force as a Cree code talker in World War II. The story unfolds over 100 years with a cumulative force that propels us into the future.
  • MisTik Narrative short. Canada. Jules Arita Koostachin. In English, Cree. Feauring Tapwewin Sol Koostachin-Chakasim, Pawaken Jacob Koostachin-Chakasim, Asivak Abraham Koostachin. The story of Cree twins NiiPii (Water) and SiiPii (River), in a post-apocalyptic world, who carry the last of the healthy trees on their backs, with the hope of saving what is left of the world they once knew–but where will they plant them?

FILMS, ROUNDTABLES, FESTIVALS
In-person in New York City

CLACPI and NYU CLACS
“Miradas Desde el Origen de la Madre Tierra – Cine Para la Resistencia”

April 27-28. Free. In-person at King Juan Carlos Center, NYU

Screenings of numerous Indigenous shorts and a major feature film, roundtable discussions, a book launch, gala receptions are part of a program organized and presented by the prominent Latin American Indigenous film organization, CLACPI (Coordinator Latinoamericana de Cine y Comunicación de los Pueblos Indígenas). Go to the website for specific information about the program and times of the presentations.

Thurs, April 27

12:30-3 Short Films: Resistencia con identidad/Resistance with Identity Depicts the lives of people, the impact of ancestral knowledge, the loss of language, living in two worlds–Indigenous and not, surviving violence in various films from Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Guatemala depicts

3-5 pm Roundtable : Living Archives and Strategies for Sovereignty. A discussion about radical film and video distribution networks and the minor archives that serve as repositories of film and media collections in the Americas by women, Indigenous, LGBTQ2, and Afro-descendant peoples. Moderator: Juana Suarez, Director of NYU Tisch Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program (MIAP)

5:15-7 pm Short Films: Cuidado y defense territorial/Care and Territorial Defense. Stories of community organizing, resistance, the cautionary storytelling of the Indigenous spirit Kaapor, surviving cruel conflict in Colombia, preservation of culture, surviving massacre and dispossession of territory in Guatemala, defending Mapuche ancestral territory that lies on the border between Chile and Argentina.

April 27, 7-9 pm Book Launch: Nación Anti by Odi Gonzales

Fri, April 28

10:30 – 11:30 Indigenous Youth & World-building: Best Practices for Regenerating Indigeneity in Higher Education A group of Harvard students of different Indigenous backgrounds will share best practices for envisioning, designing and implementing initiatives for Indigenous youth identity. Moderator: Charlie Uruchima (Kichwa Hatari)

12:15 – 1:15 pm Roundtable: The Right to Communication – Supporting Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Communities in Latin America Presenter: Mariano Estrada Aguilar. In May 2020, CLACPI released their book: La situación del derecho a la comunicación: con énfasis en las y los comunicadores indígenas y afrodescendientes de América Latina. This presentation will focus on themes covered in the book. 

1:15 – 3:00 pm Short Films: Expresión, visión y reivindicación de las mujeres/Expression, Vision, and Reclamations of Women. Women of various walks–Mayan midwives in Guatemala, lineage of Wayuu women, Purhepecha families, running as a form of prayer, lives of urban Indigenous people in Ecuador, “brave women” of the Shipibo Konibo in Peru confront sexual violence.

3:00 – 5:00 pm ROC Raymi hosts a reception celebrating Andean culture and languages with performances from the Ayazamana Dance Company and Ecuadorian American Cultural Center.

5:00 – 7:00 pm Short films: Presencia de infancias y juventudes/The Presence of Infants and Youth  Films from Wayuu of Venezuela, Nasa of Colombia, Ashaninka of Bolivia and of Peru.

7:00 – 8:30 pm Feature: Hua Hua Narrative film in documentary format. Ecuador. Joshi Espinosa, Citlalli Cadena. A young Indigenous couple who live in the city of Quito are going to be parents. This news arouses a complexity of issues as they contemplate their life and work in the city vs. moving to raise their child, their Hua Hua, within the environment of their own culture and community. The filmmaker (off-screen) interviews them and they interview other Kichwa young adults and their own parents who live by choice in their Kichwa communities, and more. A lovely film. Followed by Q&A with David Hernández Palmar, CLACPI, moderated by Amalia Cordova, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

“(Re) Exist in the Present, Imagine the Future – Indigenous Cinemas in Brazil and North America in Times of Extreme Violence”

Wed, May 3, 2:30-8:30 pm EDT. Free. In-person at Brooklyn College in NY.

A multidisciplinary event in two sections with a reception, that features Indigenous films from Brazil and Native North America, directed and co-directed by women, followed by discussions with scholars and filmmakers about Indigenous cinema, its correlations with the environment and the films’ unique aesthetic and inventive modes of creation. Organized by Brooklyn College Film Department. Coordinators: Fernanda Faya and Julia Miras.

3:30-5 Short works: “Imagine the Future” by Anailson Flores (Guarani Kaiowá), Melissa Henry (Navajo), Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Gwich’in), Shawara Maxakali (Maxakali), Amanda Strong (Michif), Carolina Conguçu (Maxakali)

5:30-8 pm Feature film: Nũhũ Yãg Mũ Yõg Hãm: This Land Is Our Land! (2021, 70min), Sueli Maxacali, Isael Maxakali (Maxakali), Carolina Canguçu (Maxakali) and Roberto Romero

Panelists:

  • Faye Ginsburg, professor of anthropology and director of Center for Media, Culture, History at NYU
  • Sueli Maxacali, filmmaker
  • Carolina Caangucu, filmmaker
  • Dijana Jelača, film studies, Brooklyn College
  • Marina Bedran, Latin American studies, Johns Hopkins University
  • Juana Suráez, film studies, NYU, and director of Moving Image Archiving Program, NYU

Native New York Film Festival

Fri May 5 – Sun May 7. Free. In-person in NYC.

The Native New York Film Festival, in conjunction with the Native New York exhibition, spotlights filmmakers, new films, fan favorites, and filmmaker discussions reflecting on what makes New York a Native place.

Fri, May 5

Little Caughnawaga: To Brooklyn and Back Feature documentary. Canada. Reaghan Tarbell (Mohawk). The filmmaker explores her roots in the once legendary Mohawk community in the North Gowanus section of Brooklyn. For more than 50 years, the Kahnawake Mohawks of Quebec, Canada, occupied this 10-square-block hub which became known as Little Caughnawaga. The men, skilled ironworkers, came to New York in search of work and brought their wives, children, and often extended families with them. Preceded by Rotinonhsión:ni Ironworkers Carlee Kawinehta Loft (Mohawk), Allan Downey (Dakelh/Nak’azdli Whut’en).

In person:Reaghan Tarbell (Mohawk)

Sat, May 6

Made in New York: Short Films Retrospective Smoke Break Sally Kewayosh (Cree/Ojibwe) A whimsical look at Native American identity and public perception. First Voices Amalia Córdova the story of Tiokasin Ghosthorse’s (Cheyenne River Lakota) art and life dedicated to creating change through Indigenous radio broadcast from the heart of New York City to the world. I Lost My Shadow Nanobah Becker (Diné) This music video from Laura Ortman’s (White Mountain Apache) second solo album, Someday We’ll Be Together, tells the stories of encounters on the New York subway and features former principal dancer for the New York City Ballet Jock Soto (Navajo).Kinnaq Nigaqtuqtuaq (The Snarling Madman) Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Iñupia Inspired by traditional folklore, Kinnaq Nigaqtuqtuaq (The Snarling Madman) is the story of a hungry Inuit cannibal who hunts a young woman through the streets of downtown Manhattan as she, in turn, stalks her estranged lover. Inyanka Sni (Don’t Run) Razelle Benally (Oglala Lakota/(Diné) After being emotionally traumatized, a young woman must choose to stand her ground or flee. Nimkii ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians) A six-year-old Indigenous girl discovers she has superhuman powers. Urban Indians: Episode 2 Robert Cangiano (Maya) A documentary web series that presents a glimpse into the lives of Indigenous men and women residing in metropolitan areas.Soup for My Brother (Director: Terry Jones (Seneca) We learn about brotherly love, tradition, and loss as Jimmy prepares a batch of soup for his brother Danny’s birthday.

In person: Terry Jones (Seneca)

Keepers of the Game Feature documentary. US. Judd Ehrlich. Lacrosse is a sacred game in Akwesasne Mohawk Territory and is traditionally reserved for men. However, at a school in Covington, NY, an all-Native girl’s lacrosse team seeks to become the first Native women’s team to bring home a championship. The team faces tension from their community and must prove that the game of lacrosse is also their inheritance. While honoring their traditions, the girls get set to win as well as blaze a new path for the next generation of Native women.

Sun, May 7

Native New York Shorts Program Ma’s House Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock). Ma’s House was once the heart of a community. As Ma’s grandson, artist and photographer Jeremy Dennis is on a quest to restore the family home to its significant role as a community gathering place for a new generation of diverse artists. Savage/Future Terry Jones (Seneca) Personal and historic still images, edited to the soundscape of shaking Iroquois white corn and tapping, to link his family and the American Indian boarding school experience. A Heart Free Raven Two Feathers (Seneca/Cherokee/Cayuga/Comanche) A microcosm of a home garden provides a poetic contemplation on what is needed for self-love. Tsi Tiotonhontsatáhsawe: Tsi Nihotirihò:ten Ne Ratironhia Kehró:non (When the Earth Began: The Way of the Skydwellers) Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center and Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace. Narrated completely in Kanien’kéha (Mohawk), with English subtitles, this is an animated version of the first part of the epic Haudenosaunee Creation Story, which tells the origins of Skywoman and the forces at play leading up to her fall to earth. Onyota’a:ka khale Tsi’tkalù:to Judith Kanatahawi Schuyler (Oneida) A personal journey of moving from home to Tsi’tkalù:to (Toronto).Classique ZsaZsa K. (Seneca) Utilizing her classic car as a think tank, Edie wrestles with the complexities of love, family secrets, and self-care. The Roots of Lacrosse (Shelby Adams (Mohawk) and Joanne Storkan The game of lacrosse was originally played for the Creator. This short documentary provides a brief history of the sacred and cultural aspects of lacrosse, as well as its benefits for the health and welfare of the people. Seed Mother: Coming Home (Directors: Rowen White (Mohawk) and Mateo Hinojosa (Mestizo/Quechua). This collaborative short film shares the powerful healing work of the seed rematriation movement’s cross-cultural reconciliation to bring Indigenous seeds home to their communities of origin.

In person: Terry Jones (Seneca) and Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock)

Conscience Point Feature documentary. US. Treva Wurmfeld, Producers: Treva Wurmfeld, Julianna Brannum (Comanche), Alli Hunter Joseph (Shinnecock). In the Hamptons, one of the wealthiest zip codes in the U.S., hedge funders sell compounds for millions. However, before the rise of multimillion-dollar homes, golf courses, and lavish parties, lies the history of the area’s original inhabitants—the Shinnecock Indian Nation. Shinnecock activist Rebecca Hill-Genia, along with other tribal members and allies, makes it her mission to protect the land and fight for the tribe’s community, heritage, and home.

THEATER, PERFORMANCE

Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program
New Native Play Festival and Awards

May 3-4. In-person at Yale Off Broadway Theater in New Haven, CT

Wed, May 3, 7 pm EDT. Staged reading of Uktena’s Shedding by Truman Pipestem. Directed by Margaret Sayet (Mohican)

Wed, May 3, 8:30 pm EDT. YIPAP Awards Ceremony

  • Yale Young Native Playwrights Award: Truman Pipestem (Eastern Band Cherokee, Osage, Otoe-Missouria)
  • Guest Playwright: Vickie Ramirez (Tuscarora)
  • Misty Upham Award for Young Native Actor: Sophia Madrigal (Cahuilla, Turtle Mountain Chippewa descent)
  • Special Youth Prize for Native Actors under 18: Fiyero Barehand (Gila River, Navajo)

Thurs, May 4, 7 pm EDT. Staged reading of Yuchewahkenh (Bitter) by Vickie Ramirez. Directed by Daniel Leeman Smith (Choctaw)

Roundhouse Theatre
On The Far End: A Native American Activist’s True Story

LAST DAY! May 7. Tickets. In-person in Bethesda, MD

On the Far End: A Native American Activist’s True Story World Premiere. Written and performed by Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee). Directed by Margot Bordelon.

Muscogee leader Jean Hill Chaudhuri traces her family’s history from the Trail of Tears to her grandfather’s allotment in central Oklahoma. In an astonishing one-woman play, she shares her story—the Native boarding school she fled on foot, her marriage to a young Bengali scholar, and the advocacy that became her life’s work. One of America’s leading playwrights (Sovereignty; Manahatta) weaves a deeply personal account of one family—her own mother-in-law’s—and a legacy of broken promises between nations.

Bard College – OSUN Center for Human Rights and the Arts
Common Ground Festival: “Agúyabskuyela”

May 4-7. Tickets. In-person in the Hudson Valley in Red Hook, NY.

This four-day festival with four commissioned works concerned with the politics of land and food includes “Agúyabskuyela,” a live performance by Lakota artist Kite reflecting on a common Lakota practice of sharing cakes at funeral wakes. She prepares cakes while speaking with friends, relatives, and elders about traditions, kin, land and species they have lost. Participants with the artist are Corey Stover, Lou Cornum, Jolene K. Rickard and Alisha Wormsley.

TALKING ABOUT

NDN Collective
“LANDBACK for the People” Podcast Series

NDN Collective has launched a new monthly podcast, LANDBACK For the People, getting into the origins of the LANDBACK movement, digging deep into history, while looking towards the future. The host is NDN Collective president and CEO Nick Tilsen, and civil rights pioneer Madonna Thunder Hawk is the podcast’s first guest. The first episode is available with video on YouTube, as well as on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, SoundCloud and Audible.

National Museum of the American Indian
Youth in Action: “Ho’olale I Ka’ai A Ka U’i”

Mon, May 1, 1-2 pm EDT. Free. Livestream with registration.
Online: May 2-31

“Ho‘olale i ka ‘ai a ka u‘i” is a Hawaiian proverb that roughly translates to “what the youth can do.” This special Youth in Action program was filmed in Hawai‘i and showcases what Native Hawaiian youth are doing to protect their traditions. The program has four segments: voyaging and wayfinding, hula as resistance, heiau (sacred space) restoration, and food sovereignty. The Indigenous student filmmakers from Hawai‘i Tech Academy who filmed the program—Emma Morita, Mia Bella Platkin, Anica Brewer, Kiara Haid, and Andrew Twelker—will share their experiences at the end of the program.

This program is part of the “Youth in Action: Conversations about Our Future” series, which features young Native activists and changemakers from across the Western Hemisphere who are working towards equity and social justice for Indigenous peoples. Past episodes of this series are on demand on NMAI’s website.

AWARDS

Cannes Film Festival

The New Boy by Australian film director Warwick Thornton (Kaytetye) is an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard, one of the Festival’s two competition sections, where it will be screened on May 20. Martin Scorcese’s Killers of the Flower Moon will also be screened at Cannes, out of competition.

Sundance Institute
2023 Native Lab Fellows and Projects

  • Director/writer Eva Grant (St’at’imc Indigenous, Asian, and European heritage) with Degrees of Separation. In this smart and stylish ensemble comedy, Indigenous PhD student Delphine plans a daring heist to return Ancestral remains to her tribe. 
  • Writer Quinne Larsen (Chinook) with Trouble (U.S.A.): Five people living in an abandoned desert motel try to put their world (and their giant robot) together from scraps. 
  • Writer Anpa’o Lock (Hunkpapha Lakota, Ahntna Dené) with Growing Pains. Kawá, an urban Native teen, and her mother, Elizabeth, a relocated rezzer, return to their hometown in South Dakota. Kawá navigates friendship, queerness, and belonging on the reservation.
  • Writer/producer/actor Jana Schmieding (Lakota) with Auntie Chuck. A rezzy spinster must find her inner auntie when she’s tasked with taking care of her siblings for two weeks. 
  • Writer/director Cian Elyse White (Te Arawa, Ngāti Pikiao/ Ngāti Te Tākinga, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa, Tainui) with Te Puhi. Aotearoa, 1962. 19-year-old Te Puhi claims international fame overnight when she is crowned Miss New Zealand – the first Māori to win the title but is torn between duty and her dreams,

Sundance Institute Director’s Lab

Director/writer/producer Masami Kawai (Ryukyuan descent) with Valley of the Tall Grass (U.S.A.): A TV/VCR combo set is thrown out, but it survives and circulates through the lives of various working class Indigenous characters of color in an Oregon town. They find forgotten memories, love, and connection through this seemingly obsolete object.

Guggenheim Fellowship

Margaret Wickens Pearce (Citizen Potawatomi), has been selected for a 2023 Guggenheim. Pearce is a cartographer and specialist to seeing how cartographic language is a way of writing about and recording relationality, numbers, simultaneity of differing time, and Indigenous ways of being. Her recent work includes Coming Home to Indigenous Place Names in Canada. In 2020 she collaborated with the Land-Grab Universities team to map land-grant university accountability to Indian Country. In 2022 she collaborated with the Ho-Chunk Nation and Miami Tribe to map their Removals for the Field Museum.

National Book Critics Circle Award (US)
John Leonard Prize

The 2023 John Leonard Prize (for best first book of any category) has been awarded to Morgan Talty for Night of the Living Rez. Set in a Native community in Maine, these 12 “striking, luminescent stories” are a “riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy…”

President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities

Scholar and author Philip J. Deloria has been appointed by President Biden to this Committee, which was re-established in 2022, to advise the President on the cultural vitality of the US. Other committee members include Jon Batiste, George Clooney, Shonda Rhimes, Kerry Washington, and co-chairs Bruce Cohen and Lady Gaga.

National Native Hall of Fame

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

The 2023 inductees are

  • Joe DeLaCruz, President, Quinault Indian Nation
  • Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), novelist, poet
  • Will Sampson (Muscogee Creek), actor
  • Mark Trahant (Shoshone-Bannock), editor at large, ICT (formerly Indian Country Today)
  • Richard Trudell (Santee Dakota), American Indian Lawyer Training program founder,
  • LaNada Means War Jack (Shoshone-Bannock), Native rights advocate