Contemporary Culture: Equity and Access in the Arts for Native American Communities

American Artscape | 2022 No. 1
Cover of American Artscape magazine with a photo of a Native American woman in a red and black outfit and her hands painted red.

Fashion Designer Korina Emmerich (Puyallup) in her studio. Photo by Korina Emmerich, courtesy of EMME Studio

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About this Issue

“We are here together to carry the creative and thoughtful spirit of the people forward, to assist in feeding the imagination, the heart and soul of the people.”

U.S. Poet Laureate (and NEA Literature Fellow) Joy Harjo (Muscogee/Creek) spoke of the power of the arts in her keynote address at Native Arts and Culture: Resilience, Reclamation, and Relevance, a first-of-its-kind national convening that was hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Native Arts & Cultures Foundation in February 2020. Members from more than 40 tribal nations participated in the convening, as well as the heads of several federal agencies, and important nation-to-nation work in the arts was accomplished. But there remains much to be done to support Native arts and culture, and one of the ways is to share information on what Native artists are doing today and how the various Native cultures interact with and enhance American culture. In this issue, we look at artists and arts organizations who, in their own words, share how they are moving their culture and their people forward through their creativity.

Included in this Issue

Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson
Changing the Story
An Introduction by NEA Chair Jackson
Woman with hair pulled back wearing a sleeveless yellow dress posing in front of a studio full of clothing.
Haute and Handmade
A Conversation with Fashion Designer Korina Emmerich (Puyallup)
Man in blue shirt standing in front of painting in museum and gesturing while talking.
Telling American History through a Native Lens
A Talk with Educator Chris Newell (Passamaquoddy)
Woman in blue lacy dress posing outdoors.
Carrying Our Culture Forward
Kim Blaeser (Anishinaabe) of Indigenous Nations Poets
Black and white photo of man with a goatee wearing wool hat and a heavy coat standing in doorway.
On the Front Lines
Tim Keenan Burgess (Paiute/Shoshone) of Wisdom of the Elders
Portrait of woman with short dark hair, her hand to her face, wearing a nose ring and earings, with facial tattoos near her eyes and chin and down her neck.
Finding Their Way Back
Traditional Tattoo Artist Sarah Whalen-Lunn (Iñupiaq)
Two women in front of artwork, one dressed in black with long black hair and not smiling, the other dressed in purple and laughing.
Arts as a Healing Element
Tash Terry (Diné [Navajo])/Elena Higgins (Maori/Samoan) of IndigenousWays
Woman with black hair wearing a dark long-sleeved shirt smiling and posing outdoors.
The Ties That Bind
A Talk with Author and NEA Literature Fellow Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee)
Audio Available
An Asian man in black shirt playing a cello next to a Native man in a purple shirt playing a drum.
A Gift and a Responsibility
Chris Newell (Passamaquoddy) on the Importance of Music in His Life
Video Available