Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT
Filling a void left by organizations to bring together climate issues, democracy, fighting racism and the arts, IllumiNative burst onto the scene five years ago with projects and partnerships.
Headed up by founder and executive director Crystal Echo Hawk, Pawnee, the organization’s next phase of ambitious growth and expansion includes podcasts, gatherings at major cultural events, and new organizations.
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“It’s hard to believe,” Echo Hawk told ICT recently. “But we just celebrated our fifth anniversary since I founded IllumiNative and we published our seminal research Native Truth project. It’s exceeded all my wildest dreams. It was me and one other person when we started and now, we have almost 25 staff members. It’s incredible to look back on all the work that we’ve been able to be a part of and some really big moments, I think, for Indian Country.”
Among the plans in the year ahead are creation of a new nonprofit to expand the organization’s reach by looking at the realm of media entertainment and how they can make a difference in popular culture, she said.
“We see the positive impact that shows like ‘Reservation Dogs,’ ‘Rutherford Falls’ and the film ‘Prey’ have,” Echo Hawk said. “We’ll be starting this new entity called IllumiNative Media later this year. We’ve been a fiscally sponsored project for the last five years, but now we’re splitting off to form our own nonprofit. So, we’ll have IllumiNative and IllumiNative Media.”
Echo Hawk said she will become chief executive officer over both entities, while IllumiNative hires a new managing director.
“They’ll work in partnership with me and our amazing leadership team,” she said. “We think constantly about the challenge of, how are we scaling up impact? How are we getting more creative with storytelling? Because so many key issues are on the table for Indian Country, especially as we come into the 2024 election and beyond.”
Highlights over the years
IllumiNative describes itself on its website as a Native woman-led “racial and social justice organization dedicated to increasing the visibility of — and challenging the narrative about — Native peoples.”
Social media, podcasts, and TV streaming shows have played a big part in the organization’s reach.
Echo Hawk served as a Pawnee advisor on the historical Prime Video drama, “The English,’” which drew rave reviews for the storyline and the Indigenous accuracy.
IllumiNative also produced a high-profile podcast, “American Genocide,” on the Red Cloud Indian School.
“That was a journey to bring listeners in to learn more about the boarding school, an investigation with a focus on Pine Ridge following what was going on with the Red Cloud Indian School and their Truth and Healing initiative,” Echo Hawk said. “It was an entry point to follow one community’s journey and to really understand the complexities around the boarding school issue and what does justice look like, what does healing and accountability look like?”
The organization has continued to expand its reach.
“One of the biggest things, as we’ve looked back at five years in terms of our impact, on average we reached more than 3 million people a month,” Echo Hawk said. “Last year, we reached more than 61 million people via our social media and digital outreach campaigns to [about] one billion views. We’re really working hard to shift the minds of non-Natives in this country about Native peoples and the key issues.”
She points to the recent Supreme Court ruling against diversity that may open the door to more rulings and debates.
“If we are going to have a really transformative narrative change and big shift in how people are viewing Native peoples,” she said, “you could see from the justices in some of the comments, they do not understand federal Indian law.”
She continued, “You still see how stereotypes and misinformation and false narratives really shape the way that very influential and powerful institutions think about us, so we know that we have a lot more work to do. It’s really looking at in terms of illuminating, how are we scaling up our impact?”
Echo Hawk said IllumiNative aims to reach hundreds of millions of people, and the best way is through starting the new social enterprise.
Challenges ahead
In the realm of the arts, IllumiNative has been hosting gatherings at hotels they call the Indigenous House at Sundance Film Festival and the Santa Fe Indian Market last year, bringing together influential members of the arts including filmmaker Jhane Myers, visual artists such as Cara Romero, and established actors who include Oscar winner Wes Studi, Gary Farmer, and newcomer Amber Midthunder.
During Indigenous House, they screen films, present art shows, and host panels.
“There’s been such an amazing reception for the Indigenous House series,” Echo Hawk said. “We’re not going back to Indian Market this year, but we will be moving Indigenous House to Los Angeles on Oct. 13 in Hollywood. That’s going to be an incredible celebration of contemporary Indigenous representation and not only entertainment and media, but art, culture, politics, that all work on changing the narrative about Native peoples. We plan to be back to Sundance in January. I’m really looking forward to that.”
Much of the arts overlap into politics as an informative and entertaining way to present issues.
“Absolutely,” Crystal said. “Right now, when we think about politics and politicians, it feels polarized, is anything really getting done? But when we look at when we can intersect, it’s a really powerful combination, we’ve just loved the response to these Indigenous House events. And we love to see those grow in 2024, where we might be able to bring them to more cities.”
IllumiNative is also expanding, looking for employees in every time zone including Alaska and Hawaii to bring the indigenous connections from those states.
“I’m proud of the big things that we’ve been a part of, from the Washington football name change to our Native vote campaigns, to the work that we’ve done in Hollywood,” she said. “We’ve heard more and more executives saying that diversity doesn’t pay when it comes to television shows and films, which is just not the case. We do all this work in partnership with incredible folks and organizations across Indian Country, but also with allies. And we really believe in that kind of approach of relational organizing, it’s just not all about us.
“As we look at the next five years and beyond, there’s so many exciting things happening,” she said. “But I think also we, as a country and as Indian Country, we’re facing real challenges.”
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