Indigenous Peoples Day supports Native American people, culture, art
Idyllwild Arts presented its Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration Oct. 10 at its Idyllwild campus. This free event included public programming, which creatively and thoughtfully celebrated the many contributions Indigenous People make to humanity.
The morning’s events included AlterNATIVE, an “edu-tainment” overview of American History from an Indigenous perspective by renowned musician and educator Ed Kabotie (Tewa/Hopi) and an outdoor Indigenous Foods Luncheon with a concert by Kabotie’s band Tha 'Yoties and a collection of booths offering various cultural and advocacy activities.
In the afternoon and evening portion of the event, Idyllwild Arts debuted Erika Harrsch’s thought-provoking solo exhibition, "Moving in the Borderlands," with an opening reception and artist talk.
Harrsch is a celebrated contemporary Mexican visual artist based in New York with Indigenous roots in tribal communities in Mexico. Through a variety of mediums including installation, photography, projection, mixed-media and performance, the exhibition examines the concept of hospitality in the context of transnational movement, knowledge systems, cultural identity, community and separation through the intersection of civilizations.
The exhibition will be on view through Oct. 27 at the Parks Exhibition Center on the Idyllwild Arts campus.
Also on view for event attendees was a public art installation of four site-specific murals by Cheyenne Randall (Cheyenne River Sioux) entitled "Paste, Present, Future." Randall’s interdisciplinary practice blends iconographic and historic photographs of Indigenous people by non-native individuals (including Edward Curtis and Roland Reed), celebrities and landscape with tattoo elements, text and collage. The exhibition will be up through the life of the murals until natural elements deteriorate them, allowing the honesty of the material and medium of wheat paste to be fully articulated and explored by the viewer.
Both exhibitions were organized by independent curator and contemporary art scholar Erin Joyce, who says: “These are not just exhibitions but are interventions in that continuum of colonization that still sees itself played out in the ways Indigenous art is seen, exhibited, interpreted and experienced. Cheyenne Randall and Erika Harrsch make work that forces the viewer to consider their role in misrepresentation, appropriation and visibility.”
Idyllwild Arts is an institution rooted in respect, reverence and support for Native American people, culture and art, and is the only residential arts high school in the country to offer a Native American Arts program led by a Native American director, Shaliyah Ben (Diné). Idyllwild Arts respectfully acknowledges the Qawishpa Cahuillangnah (also known as Cahuilla Band of Indians) on whose land the Idyllwild Arts community dwell
The Idyllwild Arts Academy is located at 52-500 Temecula Road in Idyllwild-Pine Cove. For more information, visit idyllwildarts.org.
Emma Haber is the founder of EH PR Group and oversees publicity for Idyllwild Arts along with other notable arts and hospitality clients in Los Angeles and Palm Springs.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Indigenous Peoples Day supports Native American people, culture, art
