Convening Tracks
This work of FNPA is distinct in our national landscape. We are not a producing or presenting organization, nor a funder or professional development organization. Rather, FNPA came into existence because there is an urgent need to address specific gaps and a historic lack of support for Indigenous performing artists in what is called the US.
Network Track
The Network Track collectively determines the work FNPA will do. It is a cohort of First Nations and Indigenous performing artists and Elders who gather in a series of 8-month collaborations. Our discussions reflect the true needs of the sector and each Network Track cohort determines their own areas of focus.
The 2022 Network Track cohort decided to focus on:
Building kinships and opportunities for mentorship and gathering
Justice issues regarding food sovereignty and land and intersections in performing arts
Gathering data on what Indigenous artists need,, Assessing institutions, Creating and promoting access to opportunities in the field for Indigenous artists
2022 Network Track:
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Ximena Balmori
Nahua Mexika
Ximena is a Nahua Mexika autonomous activist and artist. She is a member of Semillas Collective and Sexta Grietas del Norte. Her frontline work entails investigative journalism and community organizing work. She facilitates knowledge exchange spaces for food sovereignty, political discourse, and Indigenous culture. Advocating for Indigenous Sovereignty and environmental justice informs her art practice and vision for the future of our planet. -
Oz Bartosek
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Kunu Bearchum
Northern Cheyenne & Ho-Chunk Nation (he/him)
Kunu Bearchum (Northern Cheyenne & Ho-Chunk Nation). Based in Oregon, recently producing award-winning documentaries for native-owned non-profit Wisdom of the Elders and releasing his debut Hip-Hop Album titled "Through The Battle Smoke" with local & regional mainstays in the music scene. Kunu creates his work as a tribute to traditional Native American storytelling but with a contemporary lens and toolkit.
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Dakota Camacho
Matao / CHamoru (Guiya / yo'ña)
Born and Raised throughout Coast Salish Territory, Dakota Camacho’s work activates a Matao/CHamoru worldview to make offerings towards inafa’maolek (Balance and harmony with all of life). Weaving through languages of altar-making, movement, film, music, and prayer, guiya (they) generate moments of encounter with self, each other, spirit, and the natural world.
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Autumn Chacon
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Demian DinéYazhi
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Timothy White Eagle
Unenrolled Mohave, Shasta (he/they)
Timothy White Eagle is a mixed race artist. The roots of his work rise from a 30 year exploration of traditional ritual and embodiment practices. He creates experiences, installed spaces and objects in service to community and global healing. He has toured internationally with Macarthur “Genius” Taylor Mac on his Pulitzer Prize finalist “ A 24 Decade History…”. His work has been displayed in the ruins of an ancient Roman bath, a palace in Vienna and on a fence in the park.
He is a 2018 WAA/AIP Launch Pad Fellow.
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Maura García
Non-enrolled Cherokee / Mattamuskeet (she/her)
Maura García is a dancer, choreographer and erotic artist. Her vibrant creations channel the sensual rhythms of the natural world and inspire people to liberate themselves. She makes original work and collaborates with other creatives and clients to produce: new dance works, music videos, theatre productions, fashion shows, sex shows, live music shows, private performances and erotic print art. At the root, Maura's luscious work is powered by a desire to bring ancestral wisdom to life, to respect the living earth and to bring happiness to people.
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Kevin Holden
Diné, mixed (any/name)
Kevin Holden is an artist, composer, and Administrative Steward for Emily Johnson / Catalyst. They are based on the traditional lands of the Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Clackamas, Cowlitz, Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde, and Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. -
Thea Hopkins
Aquinnah Wampanoag
Performing songwriter Thea Hopkins calls her music - Red Roots Americana. A member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard, her EP, “Love Come Down” was nominated for a 2019 Indigenous Music Award. Her program, “In The Roundhouse”, celebrates traditional and contemporary Indigenous music. The Washington Post has described her as a “standout writer”. www.theahopkins.com -
Anthony Hudson
Enrolled Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Confederated Tribes of Siletz descendant (they/them)
ANTHONY HUDSON (Confederated Tribes Grand Ronde, Siletz) is multidisciplinary artist perhaps best known as Portland’s premier drag clown Carla Rossi. Together they’ve performed in Looking for Tiger Lily, Clown Down, and Queer Horror—the only LGBTQ+ horror film screening series in the United States, presented at Portland’s historic Hollywood Theatre.
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Joseph Pierce
Citizen of the Cherokee Nation (he/him)
Joseph M. Pierce (Cherokee Nation) is Associate Professor at Stony Brook University and co-curator (with SJ Norman) of the performance series Knowledge of Wounds.
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Qacung (Stephen Blanchett)
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Carlee Smith
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Delanna Studi
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Quita Sullivan
Quita Sullivan, JD (she/her/they/them) (Montaukett/Shinnecock) is the Senior Program Director for Theater at New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) where she leads the National Theater Project, supporting the creation and touring of devised, ensemble-based theater. She is a Board Member of Grantmakers in the Arts and a frequent speaker on supporting Indigenous Artists.
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Chloe Alexandra Thompson
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Monique Verdin
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Allison Warden
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Tanaya Winder
Duckwater Shoshone, Pyramid Lake Paiute, Southern Ute (she/her)
Tanaya Winder is an author, singer/songwriter, and motivational speaker. She comes from an intertribal lineage of Southern Ute, Pyramid Lake Paiute, and Duckwater Shoshone Nations where she is an enrolled citizen. Tanaya blends storytelling, singing, and spoken word to teach about different expressions of love. Her specialties include youth empowerment and healing trauma through art.
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Rhiana Yazzie
Navajo Nation Dine' (she/her)
Rhiana Yazzie is a 2021 Lanford Wilson and 2020 Steinberg Award winning playwright, a director, a filmmaker, and the Artistic Director of New Native Theatre (Mpls/St. Paul). She’s seen her plays on stages from Alaska to Mexico including in Carnegie Hall’s collaboration with American Indian Community House & Eagle Project. Her first feature film, A Winter Love, (writer/dir/prod/actor) will premiere at festivals in 2021/22.
Decolonization Track
The Decolonization Track is an eight-month learning/unlearning cohort facilitated by Emily Johnson and Ronee Penoi. This effort is for individuals who represent and work in presenting organizations across what is called the United States. Participants engage in a rigorous syllabus, specific tasks, and sessions focused on Kinship Budgets (thank you Joseph M. Pierce for this term) and backing institutional moves with funding and priority timelines; Institutional Land Acknowledgement Assessments; Supporting Local Land Back and Land and Water Protection Efforts and knowing what is being asked of allies and accomplices; Liberation, Sovereignty and the Politics of Indigenous Resistance; Settler Colonial Violence and Decolonization is Not a Metaphor (Eve Tuck); The Harms of Appropriation; Decolonization and Systems Change, Time and Radical Care; Intellectual Property and Indigenous Data Sovereignty.
Emily Johnson and Ronee Penoi developed the syllabus for the Decolonization Track, which may be found by clicking here: Decolonization Track Syllabus
All participants engage in a post-Decolonization Track assessment survey, guided by Emily Johnson / Catalyst’s Decolonization Rider and Assessment, which offers data and helps identify perceived challenges and successes toward decolonization.
Participants in the 2022 Decolonization Track:
Abrons Arts Center: Ali Rosa-Salas, Jon Harper, Tyler Diaz, Craig Peterson / Bates Dance Festival: Shoni Currier / Bunnell Street Arts Center: Asia Freeman and Adele Person / Chocolate Factory: Brian Rogers / Creative Time: Diya Vij and Alex Winters / Dance/NYC: Alejandra Duque Cifuentes and Candace Thompson-Zachery / Field Hall: Steve Raider-Ginsburg / Five Colleges: Alex Ripp / Independent: Vallejo Ganter / JACK: Alec Duffy and Jordana De La Cruz / Jacob’s Pillow: Pam Tatge / Links Hall: Stephanie Pacheco / MANCC: Carla Petersen and Ansje Burdick / New York Live Arts: Kyle Maude and Janet Wong / National Performance Network: Caitlin Strokosch and Stanlyn Brevé / The Perelman Center: Meiyin Wang and Bill Rauch / Performance Space New York: Jenny Schlenzka and Pati Herling / Portland Institute for Contemporary Art: Erin Boberg Doughton
Kinship Track
How do our identified kin networks best support and amplify the intended impacts of our related projects and growing networks?
Working in collaboration with powerful artist led projects we will imagine and activate new ways of exchange and collaboration that resist the traps of capitalistic and transaction-based organizational partnerships.