Indigenous Arts

The Blanket Exercise, led by Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP), is "a participatory simulation that teaches about Native people, the colonization of their land, and its consequences, and how oppression continues today," as Jen Bokoff, director of Stakeholder Engagement at Candid, reflected in an article published in Alliance Magazine, after participating in one session. The blankets, as she describes, represent Turtle Island (North America), while a time lapse of stolen land loops on screen.

Recently, five emerging Native filmmakers from tribal nations of the Pacific Northwest recorded Native elders, scientists, educators, and cultural leaders addressing climate change and how it was affecting their specific tribes. Ken Wilbur, elder with the Wasco Tribe, explained that climate is changing all over this great earth; the “Salmon People” are not coming back to the rivers. When he was a boy, it was common to catch a hundred salmon a day before 8:00 a.m.; now he fishes all day and is lucky to get five or six.

Joy Harjo has been named the United States' 23rd Poet Laureate for 2019-2020, the Library of Congress announced.

The Zuni Youth Enrichment Project (ZYEP) is a nonprofit organization committed to providing healthy summers and futures for Zuni children in New Mexico. In a three-part series of articles, Indian Giver tells the story of ZYEP "and how it has fostered relationships and leveraged funding to grow from hosting one small camp to becoming an artistic landmark and a formal hub for the Zuni artist community."

A publicly-owned space, ARTS at King Street Station, a combination gallery and offices for the Seattle Office of Art and Culture, as Next City points out, is the house for a new exhibit, yəhaw̓, that features 280 indigenous artworks.

A new research center the Institute of American Indian Arts, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, seeks to create will get support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, reported The Associated Press.

Starting as a three-year pilot program and with partners in Australia, Canada, and the US, the Global First Nations Performance Network was recently launched during the First Nations Dialogues Lenapehoking/New York, a series of events that took place January 5-12 highlighting Indigenous performers.

A new book, "Decolonizing Wealth," challenges colonial dynamics in philanthropy and finance, philanthropy's white supremacist legacy, and the little investment and support of POC-led efforts in communities as result of those dynamics.

The Field Museum and Native American community partners are working together to renovate the museum's Native North American Hall, which has displays that have stood largely unchanged since the 1950s, announced the museum. The renovated hall, to open in late 2021, represents the museum’s engagement with Chicago’s Native community and better represent their stories.

Two indigenous poets, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner and Aka Niviâna, and a small film crew traveled to southern Greenland’s ice sheet to recite a poem they wrote together, “Rise,” on top of a melting glacier, emphasizing climate change's effects.