This is a high school, a very special school in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Young Indian people from every corner of the United States have come here to the Institute of American Indian Art for the same reasons to help keep alive the magnificent traditions of Indian art and culture.

I was one of the first students to attend IAIA in 1962.

It was a high school program then.

So that was the 10th grade.

I've always been interested in the arts ever since I can remember, you know, like doing art and stuff, like coloring books and paint by numbers and all that.

My family always supported me that way, that, you know, even though with me and my sister and my brothers, we all got, they gave us all kind of the same kind of thing, like art supplies and stuff.

I guess I was the one that really, took to it.

And, so they started calling me the artist.

So and even though the whole family does something, you know, with the arts, they still call me the artist, I guess, because I went to art school We had art classes as well as the regular academic courses.

and during my last year of high school, my faculty advisor, Jim McGrath, said, I think with the way you're working with your art, you should try painting.

So I said, okay, you know, I started teaching, two years over at Cal State Sonoma, Rohnert Park, and then two years at UC Berkeley.

I was starting to recruit me to come back to teach, and that's how I ended up coming back.

So and when I came back, I said, okay, you know, I'll try and see how it goes.

And 40 years later... To me, IA has become like a, a community in itself, a growing family.

And that's what I always tell my students in class, that when you come to IA you become a part of this family and we all support each other.

As we were producing the work, they would take the work and say we're, we're keeping this for the honors collection.

So that's how the whole collection for the museum started And when Chuck Daly became the director of the museum, he started with a small museum on campus, and that's where all the Indian school campus, and then, then they started purchasing artwork from students, you know, and they had like a little, a little store that the students could sell their work to, as well as at the museum.

IAIA was founded in 1962 and the museum was founded in 1972.

And but in 1962 they started collecting works of the students.

at the time it was collecting staff, student, faculty, art.

But some of our best artists were from that time.

So our collection is really amazing.

We have set our legacy.

IAIA did in the sixties and the museum has continued to and to show the most progressive, important indigenous works from around the world.

It's important to really celebrate the significance of the impact that the Institute of American Indian Arts has had on contemporary native arts and museums across this country.

Here at the Institute of American Indian Arts, they were encouraged to really rely on their their traditions, their heritage, and the celebrated native arts and cultures and so that really impacted their work.

It's fine to start with the traditional art and what they've learned growing up in their tribe or their Pueblo they were encouraged to really experiment and go beyond what they'd been taught originally.

And there was no boundaries here.

So MoCNA is the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, it is so essential to the field.

I can't even stress enough.

Exposure, Native Art and Political Ecology is the exhibition that we're sitting in It's in our main gallery.

It's also in our north gallery and it's in our Helen Harden media gallery.

It's enormously important and it really it's really one of the biggest shows we've ever done So this exhibition started.

It's about three years or so ago It's looking at Indigenous communities and uranium mining around the world.

It includes works from Greenland, from Australia, from Canada, from Japan, from the United States, all indigenous peoples.

And the chief curator worked with curators from all these countries and they selected indigenous peoples.

So essentially what we do here and what we've become known for is showing what's happening in the indigenous world.

Everything we do is making history.

And I think that's one reason why people look to us and visit and they say it's one of the best museums in the country.

There's a lot of surgical work in curating.

One has to come up with an idea that's cohesive enough to explore, to build.

You cast a framework and hope that that is going to be strong enough to hold an exhibition together.

For me, those kinds of critical skills, the faith in my own vision, my willingness to take risks, were really cultivated and rooted in my experiences at IAIA as a student.

I found out about IAIA during a very difficult time in my life.

I was actually had dropped out of school at UC Irvine as a science student.

because my mother was sick and I had family responsibilities and we were homeless for quite a while I was looking for an opportunity to go back to school.

And it took me two years to get my family stabilized, but when we got stabilized, I started thinking about what I wanted to do, and I ran into Jerry Zollars, who was the recruiting recruiter and director of admissions at IAIA.

He told me about the creative writing program.

And when I felt like I was ready to jump back into school, I applied.

IAIA is the result of so many people who have believed that our native creatives have a value in a world that is driven by capitalism and commercialism.

It's a place where students are brought and encouraged to manifest their very best ideas and to see what they can potentially gain from that and contribute back.

and that kind of environment for me really fostered both my willingness to take risks and my willingness to think that bringing an Indigenous world perspective to museums, which have not historically been very friendly to Native people or Native ideas or even native knowledge, right, that that could happen and that that was worth doing.

And that for all of the difficulties that I have faced, both personally and professionally in the process, our indigenous worldviews are needed in the world broadly.

And I have taken the positions that I've had, including the one I've got now, with the sole intention that if I can hold space and bring our indigenous worldviews to an audience through a museum, museums which are absolutely products of colonialism and bring and create a space where our cultural people can come and feel affirmed, then whatever sacrifices are needed and whatever is required of me, that's what I'm going to do the reason why I decided to make this journey across the country to go to Iowa is that for me, it was a decision about not so much about getting an education.

For me, it really was about finding a safe place to be because my journey here was about escaping domestic violence.

My story, like many students, you know, there are different reasons why we come here.

This is a place where we're encouraged to look to our own history for inspiration for that information that, you know, isn't represented in mainstream, you know, educational environments.

Most of the work that I did at the time was very much about Native women as the center of culture, of family, of keepers of the sacred truths.

And I continued to do that kind of work.

So the the work that's here in my studio actually are examples of portraiture where there are strong women represented in the paintings.

I'm still as a 69 year old woman now, still looking to my own history for that inspiration, still looking for our birthright.

You know, those things that have been kept from us that we still are in different stages of reclaiming.

And so I went through the program and I got my Associate of Fine Arts.

I got my BFA was recruited for my MFA program, I was recruited along with two other native students, also came from IAIA.

And what we found when we got to this campus is a community deeply steeped in all of these caricatures and stereotypes that come from mainstream media.

the three of us who come from our community were going like, What the hell is this?

We thought, okay, they just don't know.

So we'll tell them.

But when we, you know, put words to what we were feeling in this community, we all became targeted by racial hatred in the community.

So that's where my work became politicized because they were using us in that way.

We had become kind of logoized and, you know, we were a fetish.

everything but full fledged human beings.

So I started to do these installation pieces that was really about trying to turn the tables on the power structure there.

and I was hoping through my installation I could begin to get them to see and feel what it was for us to be in this community.

my artwork was the way that I made my voice bigger.

You know, as a frontline activist, you're one person with the sign.

People kind of get used to seeing people with signs.

But, you know, I also use my art to make my voice bigger.

So I have this whole body of work that is about the front line activities.

So and it becomes a place for the continued debate about the issue.

And I have no problem with the debate because people, you know, have to struggle with the issues to have the debate.

So that I feel, is my contribution to the legacy of that struggle.

like getting ready for another It was with Lloyd Kiva New that I learned a lot about fashion and textiles.

And so he would come to my studio and he'd see how I was printing fabric and hand painting fabric.

And then I would go up to his house and we'd have these wonderful discussions and we would sit and we would brainstorm about how to possibly bring awareness for Native Americans and fashion and textile design.

to get Native American voice and imagery scene was extremely difficult.

Because at IAIA we celebrated and we got each other.

It wasn't we didn't have to explain what it meant to be native.

We just relished in one another's moments and celebrated that.

I start to go to New York and I would knock on the doors to try to get to to see what it meant to have a showroom or if I could, you know, have something in the showroom and and visit other ateliers.

And it just people just looked at me and said, well, you're not doing native design because I was using silk.

And then I had my own designs that weren’t screaming native, you know, it wasn't always just about beadwork and fringe.

one day during ceremonies at Taos Pueblo when I was living in the old village with no electricity and running water.

I was down to 40 bucks and I left ceremonies just so I got to go into town and library and see if I have any orders on on the Internet.

And there was an email from Project Runway We're like And then I got an email saying, You've been selected to do an audition, please show up in Dallas.

and they said, Patricia, we've never seen a Native American designer like this.

You're you've brought something completely new.

We had no idea when we saw that you're Native American.

We didn't think that we were going to see all this beautiful flowing silk.

And I had a parasol and it was just a celebrated experience to have them say this to me, to hear them say that they were happy to see me bring to the table something new and exciting, a 16th or something like that.

But they're really for me, this was the most important thing for me to be able to do because I didn't like what the industry was showing us as who we are as Native Americans.

And every single interview that we did on Project Runway, I would mention that I wasn't the only Native American designer out there.

There were other people who were up and coming, and there were people who were trying to learn the trade.

we can learn how to exist in the linear world.

But you can't teach a linear thinker how to be creative.

So all of us creative people we already have that don't fear it, celebrate it, have fun with it, And then you can see that fashion is about change, so I don't want to see the same look from last year going down the runway.

Give me something new.

That way we stay in the ballgame.

if we don't do this together, if we don't have Native American fashion designers together as a team, then we don't have an industry Wow.

And then this is digital Photoshop photography.

Well, I was going to Santa Fe High School, and I took an art class with Phil Carcious I just really fell in love with making pottery on the wheel and the arts in general.

And so he, along with Roxanne Swentzell and Rena Swentzell convinced me to enroll at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

I really just was following the ceramics path, and so most of what I got good at was three dimensional art.

Art history really was Probably the most important thing I could have done in terms of getting educated - be around all these artists from around Indian Country, here in the US and Canada, just being exposed to the different cultures and languages and perspectives having friends from across the country that were artists from all these different tribes really gave me probably the ability to understand diversity, but also to focus on Native people and also native issues.

Art history really was an important class for me because then I started seeing art throughout the world.

I eventually went and saw a lot of that art around the world in the museums and the art history thing really opened up my my mind and my eyes to travel.

Well, when I came back to the Pueblo from living in Europe in 1987, my goal was to do cultural center and start to bring back adobe construction and Pueblo style architecture.

Along with that came the need for business development in order to fund the social programs and some of the cultural programs that we're talking about.

There really wasn't a strong revenue source, so I got involved in the business side of it, and we created many businesses for Pojoaque, and I created a cultural center, a museum for my tribe, the Pueblo of Pojoaque.

And then I took the arts into the tribal business side and created the largest resort with the largest native collection in the area inside of Buffalo Thunder.

it was really about cultural preservation.

And when the cultural center started there was a need for classes in the traditional arts.

And then we went on to creating a museum and ongoing exhibit.

So really we became destination for the arts here in the Santa Fe area and the Pueblo area.

So I'm really glad that I put a lot of years into developing the sharing of the Pueblo and Native arts vision that we had.

And in sharing that many, many students have come out of the cultural programs that we've had.

you know, some have gone all the way to become international superstars in the art world.

But the whole time that I was working on these social issues, art was always part of what I was doing.

So I have my studio here.

I'll be making pieces late at night during the weekends, just always working and so I think that, you know, in terms of what I'll be remembered by is legacy.

If that's what legacy is just a workaholic in the art world.

Definitely a big contributor to many of the things that the Pueblo people have today in terms of economic development.

Okay, beasts.

The focus on community at IAIA.

and the ILS program I think is really important.

And I you know, if somebody was to ask me, well, you know, you're retired, you’re faculty emeritus, why, you know, what would you expect?

What would you hope for the program in the future?

I would say the most important thing is for it to maintain that community perspective.

our students are different.

our school is different as a whole, not just ILS.

And I would like to see more students in the program, but the reality is, is that right now, this is not it's not a question of quantity, but it's quality.

And students graduating from our program with the skills they have, I think that they're going to go on to be do continue to do great things.

That really is what ILS is all about.

We have people doing all kinds of things, going back to the community and giving back to the community.

And I think that that the structure of the Indigenous Liberal Studies program really helps push people back to their community with an understanding that a lot of people don't have.

And so they're tremendous asset to their community.

So because of the education that I received through the indigenous Liberal Studies Department at IA and through the mentorship of Steve Wall, I realized the power within my own voice.

As a native woman, I realized that I didn't need to just be a victim.

I didn't need to stay silent.

I didn't need to just try and stay away from troubles, stay away from offending people, upsetting people, creating, you know, stirring the pot.

My advocacy for the Native community is just one way in which I'm utilizing my education I'm also in law school.

I'm a third year law student.

I'm two months away from graduating with my J.D.

from the University of Arizona.

And after that, I will be moving on to the office of the Public Defender for the State of New Mexico.

Amber Morningstar Byars.

I commend this land And this land.

Honor, This land.

I was also afraid to go to college.

I was sure that there were like two types of people in the world, college type people and people like me.

I got to a place in life when I did want to pursue more.

I just felt there was something else that I needed to do.

but I felt a kind of familiarity or as if I would be welcome there.

And that's what gave me the courage to go to college, even though I was so afraid.

What was surprising - it surprised me.

I actually did really well.

I excelled at IAIA.

For the first time in my life, I got good grades.

And the faculty were really supportive.

So I will be forever grateful that I went there.

I think a lot of us as native artists there's a responsibility and there's an accountability that we have to our communities or to our families or what have you.

I'm always trying to remember I'm not speaking for all Lakota people, for Who I am.

my life experiences are, my perspectives are unique to me.

So I try to bring all of that into my work You know, as a writer, but once again, probably any in any medium that we would work in as artists, a lot of times when we're making something, even if it's a poem right, or a collection of poems, to me it sometimes feels like a message in a bottle, right?

Like I wrote, Whereas and it was thrown out there.

I had no idea how it would be received if I would just have my or my mom read it and that's it.

I had no idea how it would be received.

So it was surprising.

But there is something really interesting and really beautiful that I think I think about when I was sharing this work, you know, visiting different places.

So often there would be students or people from the local communities, native people, And to me, that's what I carried with me.

I was really amazed that, you know, as native people across the country, how strongly that spirit of generosity and connection still exists for one another.

But my father went to IAIA and he actually went to school at the same time that Joy Harjo went to school as well.

So they knew each other from way back then in the sixties.

and I'm mentioning Joy Harjo, because we have an event together tonight.

So it's a really nice kind of history that to share that history together.

I came to IA with everything I had and one of those green Army metal foot lockers.

My mother and stepfather drove me there.

And I remember telling my mother - they were staying over a day.

And I just said, “Bye.” And I turned and walked into my other life.

There I was for the first time in a community of all native students, and it was exciting.

They were from everywhere.

It was the late sixties so that, you know, there was a certain atmosphere going on that was exciting.

it was the first time, I think, that I talked in school.

I think I went to IAIA at a particular time, and maybe it's different for every generation.

I was there in the late sixties, and it was this time of really cultural explosion and questioning.

And I remember being kids who were kids, you know, lying around in the dorm in out in the dorm living area and listening to cool music and talking about aesthetics.

There was a constant, of ideas and creativity.

And I'm sure that still goes on.

I was in my studio, when I got a call, and it's he says, I'm putting you on speakerphone and I'm thinking speakerphone.

Next thing I know, he says, This is Dr. Carla Hayden, the librarian of Congress.

And then she asked if I would be the 23rd U.S. poet laureate.

It was what lightning would feel like.

She will continue to help all of us see the world anew and understand our past, connect us to who we are and where we are, and show us, hopefully, how we can move forward together.

So please join me in welcoming the 23rd poet Laureate Consultant in poetry, Joy Harjo.

It was almost like the time I got held up in L.A.. You know, it is funny because it's like suddenly I kind of split into reality.

There's like, okay, here I am.

And I realize now that there was a part of my mind started asking all these questions and it was like, my God, what do I do with this?

what do I say?

I mean, how do I.

Of course I said yes, because you know what?

It's a it's an honor.

Okay.

Every poet makes it their own.

And so it was very been very important to me to highlight the contributions of Native poets.

And that's what my laureate has primarily done.

But in the closing event will be late April and it will be highlighting a new native literary organization for writers, young writers called in IN-NA-PO.

Well, I think what the position did the poet laureate position put me suddenly in a national spotlight.

as the first Native American poet laureate.

And so what that did, was it really, it connected the public with native people in a way that was quite profound, in a way that I didn't quite expect.

It wasn't just me suddenly in the spotlight.

It was native people.

And that's what it was.

I think that was one of the best things to come out of it.

Well, I think to be an artist you come in it's I don't think of it as a career.

I think of it as almost a mission because, I mean, who would become a poet?

I mean, really.

And it's like any artist you talk to, it's something that compels you.

Most people don't sacrifice and sit and do artwork and and do what it takes to make art.

Whatever the art is, it takes a lot of, you know, hours.

Saxophone?

Hours.

You know.

And then working on a tune, revision, like anything, it takes a certain kind of dedication.

And then listening beyond what you know and listening and having the courage to step beyond what is known, you know.

So I would just say I feel good about it.

I watch these younger artists of all sorts coming up and it's very exciting.

We have a special job to do in this world.

And it's really about showing really who we are, providing the materials for dreaming and imagining to help our art really feed the minds and the spirits of the people.

My Yupik name is Qukailnguq, and I'm from Kasigluk, Alaska, which is located in the Southwest.

Yeah.

I didn't really know anyone around here.

I was really nervous to travel because it was my first thing going on out of state.

I didn't go out of state until I was at the age of 18, because, you know, like, financial situations are so hard back home.

When I first got here, to IAIA like I had to open up myself to communicate with everyone and get to know everyone.

I do a lot of mixed media that range from photography to textile work.

So my textile work focuses on my culture, and I do a lot of beadwork.

and within photography I mainly focus on Indigenous portraits.

More of bass based on Indigenous concepts of capturing like the identity behind the person.

So I started my sewing career back in high school - my freshman year.

One of my first projects were keychains, little objects that were easy to make.

And then I started to move down there.

Later I started to progress more.

Bigger item.

Bigger attire.

And then from there, it just kept going and going until I got to IAIA.

That's when I started to explore different formats and challenged myself to create something unique.

IAIA inspired me to regain my indigenous identity because back home it's really it's really westernized nowadays, many indigenous communities are assimilated to, you know, Christianity.

So for me, coming down here and seeing other indigenous tribes, it was really inspiring for me to pursue what indigenous really means to natives like me.

So then from there, like IAIA, it really inspired me to pursue my identity and started to explore different formats of attire.

especially those who are very assimilated through Western knowledge, Western culture.

I really want indigenous the space in order for the next generation, to inspire the further coming generations.

I really want to let majority of my generation, my next generations, to regain their identity and see native identity as an important aspect of today's society.

Once you really get into that world of indigeneity, it's really it's really unique.

I'm like revitalizing the majority of my ancestral work because no one back in my community creates creates them anymore.

No one explores what I do.

For me, like growing up, my grandmother use to tell me, even my mother, “Always share your knowledge with everyone,” you know, like, even when you're out of your village or when you're, like, out in the world.

Everyone's thirsty for knowledge and like seeing other, you know, environments and and how culturally different it is, you know?

As you keep traveling, as you keep going with life, you know, like life isn't meant to be in one spot.

Life is meant to explore the outer world, and like, make change, you know, and be part of the change, especially when it comes to indigenous communities.

I'm going to be in the photo and they're going to be pressing For me, you know, IAIA is that place where, you know, I just see such this whirlwind of creativity.

As soon as you start seeing the artwork, as soon as you start, you know, intermingling with the students and the faculty, there's that spirit there