We started NAICA online back in 2005 with the silly notion there was an audience for Native Art and Cinema. Very silly, indeed.
We have come to realize, like most post-modern anti-colonial art practices, this endeavor was doomed to failure. Even the (above) average individual doesn’t want to be bothered with “art” made by people who are the ancestors of a holocaust. It’s a real downer. Or as one person recently said of Native artists, “They’re all so bitter.” Well, maybe, but more precisely they’re hung up on the notion of being “real” and “authentic” or “authentically anti-real.” This approach to art making has spawned drippy, schizophrenic, slip-shoddy, grant-money infused crap the likes of which any first year freshman art student could (and does) produce. I would name names but it’s never been my goal to disparage artists. My approach has always been to ignore bad art hoping it will go away and/or never get any press. Actually, I once let a fellow writer criticize a film programmer and that turned into a real albatross of an issue. For the record the film programmer in question was wholly deserving of the bitchy insults this writer levied at her.
At any rate, those of us who worked on NAICA online are proud of what little we accomplished, which was to create a visually stimulating, thoughtful, and well designed web-zine promoting works by artists we thought were deserving of an audience. Though we will not publish future editions the past is very much alive on the web. You can still check out the artists featured there and contact us at the info@thenaica.org if you’d like additional information or just to say ‘Hi!’.
{Bear in mind: we may be dormant but we are not dead. The logos, multi media content, and name is all trademarked and copyrighted material. Don’t even get cute thinking you can co-opt our designs and content. We still have lawyers}
So let’s go ahead and do it - let’s turn the page.
Yeah, I know, every moron with a shitty video camera has a channel on YouTube, but I assure you our videos are somewhat fun and educational. Besides, we are about to go on a very long hiatus that will preclude any new editions being published for the unforeseeable future. So Longviews and this YouTube channel will suffice for now until we return from travels and adventures.
There are some new video clips from the recent NMAI Film & Video Festival as well as some old shit from years past. Check it out, and if you have a channel of your own subscribe to ours and we will subscribe to yours.
Happy viewing and many blessings from the NAICA crew.
Video Still: Laura Ortman & Dust Dive Flash at NMAI Closing Night party. Courtesy Maria Colon 2009
While visiting a friend in Highlands Ranch, Colorado I discovered that Denver now has a restaurant that serves Indian style bread. No, not Naan. That bread is baked by dot heads from the Far East. It’s good too, but the bread I speak of is that sinfully greasy kind made by North American Indians who enjoy a good greasy piece of bread top with various, and equally greasy (or sugary & spicy) ingredients like honey and powdered sugar, choke cherry preserves, roasted buffalo meat, green chilies and pinto beans to name but a few. The Denver Westword had a lengthy review of the restaurant with a cultural over view of Indian style fry bread.
Reading this rhapsodic review (written by a white dude, of course) I had flash backs to my first piece of fry bread. It truly is one of those food experiences that sticks in your memory as much as it does to your ass or thighs. You never forget your first time. My first time occurred in 1998. I was visiting a friend who lived in Tempe, Arizona. We decided to drive down to Tuscon to visit her childhood friend and check out an old Catholic Mission that was built on one of the Indian Reservations. She knew I was really into Ecclesiastical Art, especially the baroque bloodiness of Catholic missions with all their crazy statuary and white candles.
When we arrived at the mission we were pretty much drunk. And hungry. Fortunately there was a taco stand set up just right of the mission gift shop (of course there was a gift shop!). I sauntered over thinking the old guy sitting under the awning was a Mexican who’d set me up with some Tacos Arabes drenched in sirrachi sauce. I was wrong. It was an ancient looking Indian guy who didn’t budge from his folding chair when I approached. In fact he didn’t even look at me. Instead a strikingly tall man/woman (I couldn’t figure which and still don’t know) popped out from behind a Ford truck parked behind the makeshift stand to ask me how I wanted my fry bread. It actually whispered the question. I had to ask several times to repeat his/her question.”How would you like your fry bread?”
“Fry Bread? What the hell is fry bread? I thought this was a taco stand?”
S/he didn’t respond to my query merely slapped the dough onto the hubcap/grill removing it once it had puffed into a golden halo of yumminess. Holding it aloft on a paper napkin s/he gestured to a shaker of powdered sugar. Not understanding I had options (the meats and chilies hidden from view behind the plywood counter) I nodded “yes.” She doused that fucker good. I gave her my buck fifty and walked off to see the gory alters inside the iglesia.
Holy fuck! That church was beautiful. A visual feast for the senses, but that fry bread was orgasmic. Literally my taste buds had multiple orgasms. I’m positive I was drooling. I had to have more. And, I did. I’m greedy like that. When something is that mind blowingly good one is never enough. So I had four more. One with chokecherry jelly. One with honey. One with pintos and green chillies and another with powered sugar. Then I started to feel sick. The Dude/Lady seemed amused by my fry bread fixation knowing full well too much of a good thing has it’s consequences, like diabetes, or diarrhea, but she did not refuse me service.
I actually went back for the fifth go round, but the Indians had vanished. I never had fry bread again - until recently. After a spring snowstorm kept me inside three of my seven days visit to the Denver area I ventured out to find this new American Indian eatery described in that Westword. My friends and I arrived ten minutes before it opened. We, and a growing group of other fry bread enthusiasts, hung around the front entrance impatiently. Once the door was opened we shuffled to the front counter set up cafeteria style where you select the freshly made ingredients to be added to your piece of fry bread.
As many of you know fry bread can be eaten in many different ways: as a dessert, as a main course a la pizza, as a sandwich, etc. I started with a traditional taco topped with black beans, buffalo meat, tomatoes and this excellent Osage style salsa. For those who have never had an “Indian Taco” it really is a hand and gullet full. I can’t imagine eating more than one but that didn’t stop me from ordering one as a dessert topped with honey and powdered sugar. Thankfully my companions helped me eat it; gone are the days when I could eat four at a time! Though no new experience is ever as good as the first the fry bread at Tocabe did not disappoint. So if you’re ever in the Denver Metro area stop in and support this Native owned establishment.
An exhibition of the moving image, including stop-motion, 3D and other animation techniques, Big Eye showcases Aboriginal animations from Australia and Canada in a unique cross-tribal exchange of ideas and world views.
Aboriginal Australian screen artists use digital storytelling techniques to bring cultural knowledge and contemporary exploration of country to the fore, with an original and distinctive voice.
Big Eye builds on its 2008 debut screening at 24HR Art (Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin) featuring prominent Aboriginal Australian artists to now include works by Aboriginal Canadian Animators and Artists.
Star Aboriginal Canadian artist Skawennati Tricia Fragnito’s new media practice uniquely centres on creating projects specifically for the internet, which she believes is ‘an extraordinary art delivery system’. Skawennati’s work responds to cultural misconceptions and generalisations about gender and race.
“First World” countries Australia and Canada are two of very few countries in the world who recognise their first people as Aboriginal. Philosophically, this exhibition explores a shared heritage by Aboriginal Canadians and Aboriginal Australians through the intersection of Aboriginal Aesthetics and Culture, with the endurance of a similar colonisation as a background.
Featuring Dark Thunder Productions, Raven Tales, Skawennati Tricia Fragnito & Abtech, Rabbit and Bear Foot, The Healthy Aboriginal Project and Anthony Wong, Frank Mcleod & Aboriginal Nations, Aroha Groves, Christine Peacock & Rebekah Pitt & John Graham, the Gunbalanya Community & Gozer Media, and artist/curator Jenny Fraser.
The exhibition opens at QUT Creative Industries Precint ‘the Block’ at Musk Ave, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, Australia - Tuesday April 28th, 2009 - 6 for 6.30pm
Baz Luhrmann deserves to be sucker-punched for making this commercial. Does he have any sense at all? That is a rhetorical question … plus anyone who has seen Australia knows he doesn’t. Actually, this commercial is part of a series of ads made for Australia’s Tourist Board. I’m sure whoever heads up the Aussie Tourist board had a part in the general direction of these commercials, so he or she deserves to be sucker-punched as well. You’re not alone, Bazzie. Taken from Australia.com:
“Sometimes we need to lose ourselves to find what matters most. Australia’s Aboriginal people know as much, going ‘walkabout’ to reconnect with the land and their traditional way of life. For most of us, ‘walkabout’ takes the form of a holiday - a time to re-balance and refresh. It lets us find ourselves when the pressures of daily life have made us lose touch.”
It goes on to say that while most of us have our ‘Walkabouts’ at the Four Seasons in Sydney, Aboriginals have to stick with the bush because it is cheaper. Hey, at least they’re keeping it real, right? I’m totally kidding! Ha! Australia would never admit to anything negative involving Aboriginals. The website actually goes on to describe all the great stuff there is to do in Oz - such as snorkel, go dirt-biking and look for Hugh Jackman. Oh, and listen to the “deep throb of the didgeridoo.” But maybe they were still talking about Hugh Jackman there.
There is not much of a point to this blog. I mainly wanted to say “COME THE FUCK ON AUSTRALIA!” You can pretty much gauge the climate of global awareness on any particular subject according to percentage of comments on a related YouTube page. About 90% of comments on the above video’s page went something like this, “This commercial is memorizing and beautiful. I tear up every time. Crazy!” About 5%: “This commercial is super creepy! I’m never going there!” About 3%: “I’m an Aussie and this ad is bloody shithouse!” And then of course the 1 or 2% shaming the irresponsible portrayal of the Australian Aboriginal as a proverb-whispering, loin-cloth sporting medicine manchild, sprinkling healing sand on your relationship problems and tracking mud through your living room.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian announces today that the opening night film for the 14th Native American Film and Video Festival (NAFVF) in its 30th running year, will be the world premiere of “We Shall Remain: Trail of Tears” directed by Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho), on Thursday, Mar. 26, 2009 at 7 p.m. The screening will be introduced by Chris Eyre, executive producer Sharon Grimberg, and lead actor Wes Studi (Cherokee). The festival will run from Thursday, Mar. 26 through Sunday, Mar. 29 at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the George Gustav Heye Center.
The screening is free and open to the public, but reservations are strongly suggested. For reservations, email fvc@si.edu or call (212) 514-3737.
As part of the acclaimed series from PBS, “We Shall Remain: Trail of Tears” is narrated by Benjamin Bratt (Quechua) and explores the resolve and resilience of the Cherokee Nation, who resisted removal from their homelands in the Southeast in every way they knew: assimilating, adopting a European-style government and legal system, accepting Christianity, and even taking their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite decades of struggle to keep their land, in 1838, thousands of Cherokee were forced from their homes in the Southeastern United States, driving them toward Indian Territory in Eastern Oklahoma. More than 4,000 died of disease and starvation along the way. “Trail of Tears” is the third episode in American Experience’s five-part miniseries, “We Shall Remain.”
This evening’s screening will be preceded by the New York Premiere of Courtney M. Leonard’s “Untitled.” Produced as part of ReelNative, a nation-wide community outreach video training project of the We Shall Remain series, this film presents how the death of a 60-foot finback whale on the shores of the Shinnecock Reservation in Long Island inspires a young artist to preserve the memory for future generations.
Support from the festival has come from The Academy Foundation, the New York State Council for the Arts, and federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.
Located in New York City and Washington, D.C, the Film and Video Center of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is an international leader in the presentation of indigenous film and video projects. National and international programs include the Native American Film and Video Festival, the annual Native Cinema Showcase in Santa Fe, and daily screenings for youth and general audiences. FVC produces the bilingual Native Networks Website with information and resources on indigenous film, video, and radio: www.nativenetworks.si.edu and www.redesindigenous.si.edu. Media information is provided through the website, by phone and E-mail; on-site research and video viewing are available by appointment.
The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center is located at One Bowling Green in New York City, across from Battery Park. The museum is free and open everyday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Thursdays until 8 p.m. Call (212) 514-3700 for general information and (212) 514-3888 for a recording about the museum’s public programs. By subway, the museum may be reached by the 1 to South Ferry, the 4 or 5 to Bowling Green or the R or W to Whitehall Street. The museum’s Web site is www.americanindian.si.edu.
It’s a new year with a new president and now a new edition of NAICA online. I know, I know, you’ve been waiting so long for us to put up something new, but we were waiting for the right time, and this week is probably one of the best so far. I mean, sure it’s only, like, the third week into the new year, and it could actually turn out to be crap, but we’re feeling hopeful! (Thanks Obama!).
It probably goes without saying, but in this edition we focus on national, local and personal politics.
Photo: Courtesy Official bro’Town Website
<
Following McCain’s example we have reached across the isles to introduce you to our most exciting Artists in Residence to date - the creators of bro’Town - a wicked smart and truly hilarious ‘adult cartoon’ from New Zealand. For those of you Stateside you can catch the first two seasons on Link T.V., but once you’re hooked, and you will be, you’ll have to purchase the succeeding seasons from the Official bro’Town website. Yes, they are NTSC format!
Photo: Courtesy Leonard Gath (pictured)
The Word features essays by Leonard Gath, our some times contributing correspondent from Colorado, and one by yours truly (that means me, Maria). I contemplate a country in which our first Native American President is Val Kilmer (why not?!), and Gath gives his 2 cents on 1% Politics.
Photo: Courtesy artist Jim Brown (pictured)
<
Photo: Courtesy author Sonny Grant (pictured)
<
In People, Places, Things we meet Jim Brown, an L.A. artist and musician with a heart of gold (He’s not a Fake Indian!), and we travel to San Carlos Apache Reservation to glimpse the inner working of Rez poltiics according to Sonny Grant.
Photo: Courtesy designer Victor Pascual (pictured)
<
Photo: Courtesy author/curator Paul Chaat Smith (pictured)
<
We focus the Spotlight on graphic/web designer Victor Pascual with an interview conducted by associate editor Torry Mendoza; we consider the importance of non Indian Indian painter Fritz Scholder in an in depth discussion with co-curator Paul Chaat Smith. You can bet your ass that discussion was quite political (though perhaps not overtly so).
The personal is political, and you know, that other stuff is too.
Check it out tonight, or tomorrow morning, or whenever.
Read Betty Ann Peltier Solano’s letter (scroll down for this letter) about her brother. Then let the Bureau of Prisons know that the public will hold them accountable for the safety and well being of Leonard Peltier.
Please include the following information in appeals for his safety:
Leonard Peltier #89637-132 USP-Canaan
U.S. Penitentiary
PO Box 300
Waymart, PA 18472
Express your outrage at the irresponsibility of BOP personnel in failing to provide for the safety of Leonard Peltier. (See the below letter from Leonard’s sister.)
Warden Ronnie R. Holt, Warden
USP-Canaan
U.S. Penitentiary
3057 Easton Turnpike
Waymart, PA 18472
Phone: 570-488-8000
Fax: 570-488-8130
E-mail address: CAA/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV
D. Scott Dodrill, Director
Northeast Regional Office
Federal Bureau of Prisons
2nd & Chesnut Streets., 7th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Phone: 215-521-7301
E-mail: NERO/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV
Harley G. Lappin, Director
Bureau of Prisons
U.S. Department of Justice
320 First Street, NW, Room 654
Washington, DC 20534
Phone: 202-307-3250
Fax: 202-514-6878
Ask President Obama to investigate. Also urge Obama to immediately grant clemency to Leonard Peltier. Write to the President:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
E-mail: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
► URGENT! Leonard Peltier’s Safety in Jeopardy!
(Forwarded on behalf of the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee)
Dear LP Supporters,
I am so OUTRAGED! My brother Leonard was severely beaten upon his arrival at the Canaan Federal Penitentiary. When he went into population after his transfer, some inmates assaulted him. The severity of his injuries is that he suffered numerous blows to his head and body, receiving a large bump on his head, possibly a concussion, and numerous bruises. Also, one of his fingers is swollen and discolored and he has pain in his chest and ribcage. There was blood everywhere from his injuries.
We feel that prison authorities at the prompting of the FBI orchestrated this attack and thus, we are greatly concerned about his safety. It may be that the attackers, whom Leonard did not even know, were offered reduced sentences for carrying out this heinous assault. Since Leonard is up for parole soon, this could be a conspiracy to discredit a model prisoner. He was placed in solitary confinement and only given one meal, this is generally done when you won’t name your attackers; incidentally being only given one meal seriously jeopardizes his health because of his diabetes. Prison officials refuse to release any info to the family, but they need to hear from his supporters to protect his safety, as does President Obama. His attorneys are trying to get calls into him now.
This attack on LP comes on the heels of the FBI’s recent letter, prompting this attack by FBI supporters as an attempt to discredit LP as a model prisoner. Anyone who has been in the prison system knows well that if you refuse to name your attackers or file charges against them, then you lose your status as a victim and/or given points against your possible parole and labeled as a perpetrator. It is not uncommon, in fact is quite common for the government to use Indian against Indian and they still operate under the old adage “it takes an Indian to catch an Indian”. In 1978, they made an attempt to assassinate him through another Indian man who was also at Marion prison with LP. But Standing Deer chose to reveal the plot to him instead of taking his life in exchange FOR A CHANCE AT FREEDOM. When Standing Deer was released in 2001, he joined the former Leonard Peltier Defense Committee as a board member. He also began to speak on Leonard’s behalf until his murder six years ago today. Prior to his murder, Standing Deer confided with close friends and associates that the same man who visited him in Marion to assassinate Peltier, had came to Houston, TX and told him that he had better stay away from Peltier and anything to do with him.
We are aware that currently, the FBI is actively seeking support for his continued imprisonment of Leonard Peltier and also also seeking support from Native People. So please be aware, and keep Leonard in your prayers. The FBI is apparently afraid of the impact we are having. If they will set him up to blemish his record just before a parole hearing, what will they do when it looks like his freedom will become a reality? We need to make sure that nothing happens to him again!
Please write the President, send it priority or registered mail. Email to Change.gov or email President Obama. Call your congressional representatives and write letters, not email, to them. Do what you can to get the word out to insure that LP is receiving adequate medical attention for his injuries.
I am asking you, supporters of Leonard and advocates of justice at this time to help. I don’t know what else to do. Please Help!
Thank you Betty Peltier-Solano Executive Coordinator Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
Also call and request Leonard be treated with dignity and respect. Canaan Federal Prison 570-488-8000
—–
Time to set him free… Because it is the RIGHT thing to do.
Native American Television was granted official press passes to cover everything from the Swearing In ceremony to Indigenous oriented parties, meetings and more that will coincide along all the D.C. insider balls and hoohaw. A wonderful turn for Natives in America! Here is the official NATV press release and link to their new website.
BREAKING NEWS: As you know, this year’s Presidential Inauguration is a historic event, especially for our Native American community and the world.
NATV has the honor and privilege of being the first and only Native American news media source that is covering the Presidential Inauguration including the Swearing in Ceremony directly alongside the major networks.
Many other one time events that also require the press credentials provided by the Senate Radio/TV Gallery and the Presidential Inaugural Committee will be covered by NATV from a Native American perspective now confirmed to include the biggest of the officially sanctioned Inaugural Balls where the President of the United States will be in attendance. Just as important is the coverage of Indigenous events that will be NATV exclusives.
The Inaugural events begin in days, and this year NATV will showcase Native America as an active community and relevant voice in the National media, as well as worldwide via the web.
New Website
Native American Television is also pleased to announce that we have another new website www.natvonline.org. This website has been created to showcase content and current events and as of today it is under construction, but up and running with major changes slated for the very near future; especially the coverage of the Inaugural events!
NATV is a Federally Trademarked nonprofit, multimedia organization. All information associated with NATV is proprietary and copyright protected.
