5 Plain Questions

Ann-erika White Bird is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, Rosebud Sioux Tribe. She has a bachelor’s degree in English, Creative Writing from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has published poetry in various online platforms and anthologies. Her artwork is part of the permanent collection at the Denver Art Museum; one of her pieces travels in the permanent collection with the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies (CAIRNS) in an exhibition called “Emergence”. She believes her most valuable contributions to the beauty of this world are her two children, Josh and Osina. Ann-erika is from St. Francis, South Dakota originally but sets up her tipi in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she resides with her two children and a four-legged, barking addition named Brownie Bear.

Emily Arthur (Eastern Band Cherokee descent) is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and serves as Chair of the Printmaking Area within the Art Department where they will host (SGCI) Southern Graphics Council Conference in March 16 – 19 2022 titled Our Shared Future.

Arthur received an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and has served as a Fellow at the Barnes Foundation for Advanced Theoretical and Critical Research, Pennsylvania. Additional education includes the Rhode Island School of Design, University of Georgia and the Tamarind Institute of Lithography at the University of New Mexico.

Arthur is awarded to the Notable Women in the Arts, National Museum of Women in the Arts and has been nominated for a Joan Mitchell Foundation, Painters and Sculptors Grant. She is the recipient of a Florida Artist Enhancement Grant provided by the State of Florida and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum, Chazen Museum of Art, Minneapolis Museum of American Art, Tweed Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Autry National Center of the American West and the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM.

Arthur’s work is included in the recent 2020 book, Knowing Native Arts (Lincoln): University of Nebraska Press, by Nancy Marie Mithlo as well as Dr. Mithlo’s forthcoming book titled Visualizing Genocide co-authored with Yve Chavez, Ph.D. Arthur is also a co-curator and co-author of Re-Riding History: From the Southern Plains to the Matanzas Bay, edited by Phillip Earenfight, PhD. (The Trout Gallery: Carlisle, PA, Fall 2018).

Arthur has served as an International Artist in Residence in France and Japan with artists from the Diné/Navajo Nation and as part of the 2011 Venice International Print Studios where she exhibited at the University of Ca” Foscari on Occasion of the Venice Biennale 54th International. International permanent collections include the nations of Iceland, Russia, Estonia, Ireland, France, Italy United Kingdom, India, Argentina, New Zealand, and Japan.

Arik Williams is a Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ Dakota living on the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota.

Arik is gaming field agent with the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. But this seemingly dedicated civil servant has a a back story and creative side that is so fascinating. He was the youngest DJ at KSWS 89.3 FM radio station in the late 1990s and early 2000s and later KXWS 89.9 FM, a tribal radio station at the Sisseton Wabpeton Oyate. His music knowledge, his cultural respect is so on par with any radio personality you’ll see in films today. He was a combination of John Trudell’s Randy Peone in Smoke Signal or Northern Exposure’s Chris Stevens portrayed by John Corbett. An Encyclopedia of music and pop culture yet thoughtful and well read, Arik was one of the most brilliant radio DJs ever to come out of South Dakota.

An internationally exhibited artist, Marwin Begaye examines the issues of cultural identity through the intersection of American Indian and popular cultures. His ongoing research investigates the technical processes related to printmaking and construction of mixed-media art. He has received numerous awards as an Artist in Residence and through juried exhibitions, often negotiating the cultivation of his own skills and opening doors for his students. His work has been featured in numerous publications and he maintains an active exhibition schedule, featured in exhibitions in New Zealand, England, Argentina, Paraguay, Italy, Siberia and Estonia.

Website: https://marwinbegaye.com/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/printmakingpapa/

Cameron Ulrich is a Cherokee Professional Theater Artist and Educator. Cameron has over 40 years of theater experience acting, directing, fight choreographing and producing theater. Cameron Holds a M.F.A. in Theater Direction from the University of South Dakota. He has worked as an educator for 28 years as a secondary teacher and adjunct professor. He is a Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Muddy Water Theater in St Louis, Missouri. Currently he teaches Theater at McCluer High School in Florissant Missouri.

https://www.hybridpress.net/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/hybridpress/

https://watermarkartcenter.org/bury-the-hatchet-prayer-for-my-pah-be-john-hitchcock/

John Hitchcock, born in Lawton Oklahoma, he is of Kiowa and Comanche decent. He’s a printmaker, musician, an educator, his CV is as long and adventurous as they come. He has been an artist in residence in Shanghai, China, Belgium, Italy, South Africa, and Argentina, and has exhibitions across this country. He received his BFA from Cameron University in Lawton Oklahoma, his MFA in printmaking and photography at Texas Tech University, and is currently the Associate of Arts at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

But what makes John so interesting is his ability to collaborate. He’s got his disarming manner to him that draws you to him. Almost everyone I know has interacted with him, and vice versa.

Kaitlyn Jones is a Diné artist from New Mexico. Now attending the Institute of American Indian Arts, she is entering her junior year and is excited to continue her studies as a BFA major with a focus on painting.

She just completed her first year as a counselor at the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute after attending the program three years previously as a student.

After graduating, Kaitlyn plans to pursue her MFA so she can begin teaching a younger generation of artists on her reservation and create more community art. Her own work focuses on combing aspects of her contemporary Indigenous identity with the past in hopes of better representing her peers.

Tylar Larsen is Bdewakantunwan Dakota from Cansayapi (Lower Sioux Indian Community, MN). He attended the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute for two years as a student, and just completed his first year as a counselor. The OHSAI led him to the University of South Dakota, where he is an honors student currently studying psychology and public health. He plans to return to his community after obtaining his degrees to work combating the effects of historical or inter-generational trauma. Being 19 years old, he looks to the future and hopes to be a good relative for all the relations he has made so far, and all of those to come.

Join host Joe Williams as he sits down with Gerald Cournoyer and Inkpa Mani as they discuss Indigenous art education, the future, importance, and relevancy of Indigenous art education. It's an hour of shared stories and an insightful conversation you don't want to miss.

Let's listen to the story of Oscar Howe through the voice of John Day. Recorded in June 2002. We apologize for the recording quality, not the best recording from 2002, but the quality of the content is what this is about.