Nativescape: Recent Episodes
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Nativescape is a monthly radio program featuring a collection of narratives from the Native American creative world, focusing on contemporary Native American arts, culture and issues. Presented by the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, the program aims to document voice, inspiration, thoughts and ideas of modern day Indian Country.
This month Nativescape interviews Sherwin Bitsui, who is (Diné) and the author of Dissolve and Flood Song (Copper Canyon Press) which won an American Book Award and Shapeshift (University of Arizona Press). He is from White Cone, Arizona which is on the Navajo Nation. On top of the American Book Award, his honors also include the 2011 Lannan Literary Fellowship, a Native Arts & Culture Foundation Fellowship for Literature, a PEN Open Book Award, and a Whiting Writers Award, and a Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship. Bitsui also just received tenure as an Associate professor in the English Department at Northern Arizona University.
Nativescape welcomes Kim Begay (Navajo) and David Clapp who are recently hired staff for the collections management team at Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. David Clapp is the new Collections Manager and Kim Begay is the Assistant Collections Manager. Collections management is fundamental to what museums do, and in general describes how museums manage and care for their collections to meet both museum standards and legislation. During this interview we ask Kim and David what collection management means in the context of the Wheelwright Museum.
Nativescape welcomes Jhane Myers (Comanche Nation) who is the Producer of 20th Century Studios new movie, Preywhich is the latest entry in the Predator franchise, the fifth installment and prequel to the first four films. This film started streaming in August as a Hulu Original in the United States. Prey is a American science fiction action horror set in the Northern Great Plains in North America in 1719.
Jhane is an acclaimed arts administrator and filmmaker. She established herself as a vital cultural and community resource for Native-content projects produced which over the years have included: “1883” (Paramount); “Wind River” (Weinstein Co.); “The Lone Ranger” (Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Films); and “Apocalypto” (Icon Ent./Touchstone). She was a Sundance Native American and Indigenous Program Fellow through her work on the 2019 project “Words from a Bear,” a documentary on the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday on PBS’ American Masters. In 2018 she was as Time Warner Storyteller Fellow, and served as Executive Producer on the opera “Sweet Land 2020,” which the Music Critics Association of North America cited best new opera award of 2021. She was an Associate Producer on the documentary film “LaDonna Harris Indian 101,” about acclaimed Comanche activist LaDonna Harris, which aired on PBS in 2014.
Nativescape interviews Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation), the producer of SWAIA’s 9th Indian Market Haute Couture Fashion Show. Since 1922, the Santa Fe Indian Market has been drawing visitors to New Mexico’s cultural hub every August, to see and buy work, including sculpture and paintings, jewelry, and beadwork, from Indigenous artists representing more than 200-plus federally recognized tribes. SWAIA’s Indian Market Haute Couture Fashion Show is one of the premier showcases for North American indigenous fashion designers in the world. Progressive in the way it presents fashion, it also reflects the style and thoughts of contemporary Indigenous people and is one of the most important cultural moments of the year.
Host Andrea Hanley calls Debora Iyall for a fun, personal discussion of Debora's post-punk influences and her own cultural impact as a songwriter and performer. They delve into her career in education and her new chapter of life in Santa Fe.
In this episode, Nativescape welcomes Shaun Conway, Navajo artist Pablita Abeyta’s widower/partner for over 25 years to talk about Pablita’s life and art practice. Pablita is currently featured in Abeyta | To’Hajiilee K’é. The exhibition opened at the the Wheelwright Museum on February 12th, 2022. Abeyta | To’Hajiilee K’é brings together for the first time the art of four members and two generations of the Abeyta family ̶ father Narciso Abeyta (1918-1998), daughters Elizabeth (1955-2006) and Pablita (1953-2017), and son Tony (b. 1965). Each is a recognized master in their field, and the exhibition presents their works in dialog with each other and the broader Native American arts movement.
This episode, Nativescape welcomes Navajo multi-disciplinary artist Tony Abeyta who is featured in Abeyta | To’Hajiilee K’é. The exhibition is opening at the the Wheelwright Museum on February 12th, 2022. Abeyta | To’Hajiilee K’é brings together for the first time the art of four members and two generations of the Abeyta family ̶ father Narciso Abeyta (1918-1998), daughters Elizabeth (1955-2006) and Pablita (1953-2017), and son Tony (b. 1965). Each a recognized master in their field, the exhibition presents their works in dialog with each other and the broader Native American arts movement. The exhibition title uses the Navajo word K’é, meaning family, love, connection, and compassion, as it deepens understanding and appreciation of this family’s legacy. Though each artist has a distinct style and works in diverse media including painting, sculpture, and silversmithing, all interweave common autobiographical narratives, complex Navajo beliefs and imagery, rich cultural histories, and explorations of art practice and storytelling, often with a keen sense of humor and intimacy. The works investigate intersections of culture and concept as they examine life on the Navajo Nation as well as the world outside of Navajo’s four sacred mountains, probing tribal and Indigenous memory associated with the land and contemporary life.
This month on Nativescape, we are listening to a previously recorded Wheelwright Museum public program featuring Ann Hillerman, New York Times best-selling author and daughter of novelist Tony Hillerman. Ann Hillerman has continued her father’s series of Navajo based novels featuring Detective Jim Chee and Lt. Joe Leaphorn. Ann’s books feature Police Officer Bernie Manuelito following her father’s passing. Today she is speaking on her new book, Star Gazer.
Nativescape host Andrea Hanley discusses the Ucross Foundation Native American Visual Artists and Writers Fellowship with Tracey Kikut, the Program Director for the Ucross Foundation which is an artist residency in Wyoming. The mission of Ucross Foundation is to foster the creative spirit of deeply committed artists and groups by providing uninterrupted time, studio space, living accommodations, and the experience of the majestic High Plains while serving as a responsible steward of its historic 20,000-acre ranch.
Nativescape presents multi-disciplinary artist, Nathan Young (Delaware/Kiowa/Pawnee), who researched the Wheelwright Museum collection and through exploration and selection created a site-specific installation utilizing his findings. The installation, Activation/Transformation will be on display from November 6, 2021, through April 3, 2022. Nativescape host and chief curator Andrea Hanley invited Nathan Young to utilize objects in the Wheelwright Museum to create his own interpretation of the collection. The installation includes objects drawn from the museum’s extensive collection of silver jewelry and metalwork. Young’s visual selection of items and arrangement create a single abstract composition. The objects speak for themselves, allowing both Young and the public to find new ways to contemplate and understand the objects. Young states, “I engage in the re-imagined. Using the Wheelwright collection as a point of departure is exciting and looks to the very experimental way of my practice. I am telling a complicated story of the Southwest mystic and looking for different narratives in contemporary Native art.” The Wheelwright Museum acts as a creative catalyst for the installation and Young is creating a space that reflects the museum’s history, celebrates current artistic endeavors, and experiments with future methodologies of emerging Native art. The installation explores how contemporary artists can employ existing art and materials as a tool in making new work, and how activating a museum collection in this way, can give it new meaning and interpretation.
Shonto Begay joins Nativescape for a special reading of his 1995 book, "Navajo: Visions and Voices Across the Mesa."
Guest Devorah Romanek discusses her book: "Hardship, Greed, and Sorrow: An Officer’s Photo Album of 1866 New Mexico Territory"
Guest Kim Peone, Director of SWAIA, discusses the Santa Fe Indian Market coming up on the weekend of August 20 – 21st.
Guests Amber-Dawn Bear Robe and Orlando Dugi discuss the 2021 Santa Fe Indian Market Gala Fashion Show with host Andrea Hanley.