Courtesy Illuminative / Povi Romero / Samantha Tracy
From left: Illuminative Executive Director Crystal Echo Hawk, photographer/curator Cara Romero and artist Terran Last Gun, all of whom will appear at upcoming events during Indian Market.
If you’ve not yet realized how Native content makes up some of the best TV and film stuff going down right now, we’re not sure what you’re even doing. Shows like Rutherford Falls on the Peacock streaming service and Reservation Dogs on Hulu, plus films like Prey, are dominating pop culture spaces and conversations—and with good reason. As writer/actor/incredibly funny talent Dallas Goldtooth (who plays pivotal roles on both of the aforementioned TV programs; Mdewakanton Dakota and Dińe) recently said on Twitter, “The lesson of the moment: Invest in Indigenous stories by Indigenous directors, producers, writers, actors, etc.—and you will get amazing results.”
“But it didn’t happen by accident,” says Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee), executive director of the organization IllumiNative. “You’ve had Natives in the industry for decades who have been pushing and pushing for this moment—actually, not just a moment, it’s really a movement.”
Echo Hawk’s org is a Native woman-run outfit that seeks to elicit racial and social change and justice for all Native people, pursuing such work across four main platforms: grassroots organization, tangible action, storytelling/advocacy and pop culture/media representation. Illuminative was founded in 2018 in response to the Reclaiming Native Truth project, an ongoing operation that dispels myths and misconceptions revolving around Indigenous people. For example, how many Americans somehow assume there are no living Indigenous folks (which is honestly absurd).
“It’s not enough to think that almost 80% of Americans don’t know anything about Native Americans, but most schools don’t teach about us post-1900,” Echo Hawk continues. “It’s a form of racism that perpetuates bias and discrimination. We become less human, and what little content people are exposed to is either racist mascots or racist Halloween costumes; we’re romanticized and fetishized, so it’s so powerful to think about what’s happening in film and television and art and fashion.”
At present, the tide seems to be shifting, and IllumiNative will partner with the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts for the first time this year to host a two-day series of events at the 100th Santa Fe Indian Market dubbed Indigenous Futures: Envisioning the Next 100 Years. And the partnerships don’t end at SWAIA.
IllumiNative is also working with celebrated Chemehuevi photographer Cara Romero for a curated gallery space (more on that in a moment) and with Indigenous fashion brand Urban Native Era founder Joey Montoya (Lipan Apahce) for an arts and culture panel. Rutherford Falls creator Sierra Teller Ornelas (Navajo) and stars Jana Schmieding (Mniconjou/Sicangu Lakota and easily one of the funniest people on TV right now) and Bobby Wilson (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) will also participate. Other events include a panel on gender and leadership with SWAIA Executive Director Kim Peone (Colville Confederated Tribes), a film panel with Prey producer Jhane Myers (Comanche and Blackfeet) and star Amber Midthunder (Fort Peck), plus a talk about the future of Native power through voting and organization with Native Organizers’ Alliance’s Judith LeBlanc (Caddo) and NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilsen (Oglala Lakota).
There’s more, too, we just can’t fit it all.
Think of it like a celebration, think of it like a homecoming, think of it like a means of shouting about the value of Native lives and their impact on the broader worlds of art, film, activism, etc.—just think of it as much as you can, because while it’s important to realize the ways in which Native identities continue to be erased, it’s also important to engage with the good things.
“What I understand about the long history of art is that, in times of social change, it’s society’s tendency to turn to the arts for hope, for feeling better about the state of the world,” says Romero, who was tapped by IllumiNative to curate a gallery space during the org’s Indian Market appearance. “I’ve seen more people consuming and buying art in these last several years than I’ve ever seen during my career, and there’s a big push to de-colonize institutions, industry and art.”
Romero’s art show roster of more than 20 artists reads like a dream lineup, and includes the likes of ceramicist Diego Romero (also Cara’s husband) and his brother, the painter Mateo Romero (both Cochiti Pueblo), multi-media Diné artist Tony Abeyta (Diné), mixed-media superstar Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo), painter Daniel McCoy Jr. (Mvskoke/Citizen Band Potawatomi and a perennial SFR favorite) and printmaker/ledger artist Terran Last Gun (Piikani Nation).There are numerous others, of course (looking at you, Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara-Lakota champion Cannupa Hanska Luger and Diné muralist Nani Chacon), but again—fitting it all in feels like an impossibility. Still, too many amazing artists seems like a high-class problem.
“I was really happy that Cara thought of me, and to be involved with this group of artists,” Last Gun tells SFR. “When I was invited and I saw the concept is the next 100 years—my work is always thinking about that. I’m pulling from the past, but I’m always thinking about the future and using new ways to visually express myself.”
Last Gun created numerous new pieces for both the IllumiNative gallery space and his booth at Indian Market. We can expect new serigraphs (a printing technique) and ink/colored pencil ledger drawings (in short, for those not in the know, illustrations that are completed on antique ledger paper). He says part of the thrill of the IllumiNative events is seeing everything happening in one town, under one umbrella.
“We’re finally getting more mainstream,” he says of Indigenous representation across a variety of arenas. “It’s so great to finally see it in film and television, but also the artists who are above me, already along in their careers, who are showing at the Whitney, at MoMA, at The Met. Being an artist, there’s so much autonomy and so many ways to express yourself, and it’s nice to see other Native nations from the states and Canada; a show where you get to see all that, have it all in one room. We share a common history and I very much enjoy seeing what everyone is working on.”
Echo Hawk and Romero, meanwhile, are understandably eager to share their results with the incoming Indian Market throngs.
“The way we’re showing that Native people are funny, we’re smart, we’re all the things...for people to really see that, that’s what we’re going to celebrate,” Echo Hawk says.
“I think there’s an audience, and I think the landscape is changing,” Romero adds. “I think of arts and culture like a river through time. We’re all moving along around obstacles and boulders and innovations.”
IllumiNative @Indian Market: Various times Saturday, Aug. 21 and Sunday, Aug. 22. $150-$250. La Fonda on the Plaza, 100 E San Francisco St., illuminative.org
