Bunky Echo-Hawk takes the stage with live painting
Robin Steele
Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: Arts & Culture
The Native American Heritage Series kicked off Tuesday evening in List Art Center 120 with a series of speakers and the creation of a "live painting" by artist Bunky Echo-Hawk.
The event, "Artistic Expression: Modern Perspectives on a Modern People," opened with a series of speeches from members of the organization Native Americans at Brown, including an introduction from Mikel Brown '08 and Delphina Thomas '08, Native American Series programmers for the Third World Center.
Thomas and Loyola Rankin '11 then each spoke briefly about their experiences with NAB. Rankin described her initial reservations about coming to Brown and the comfort and security she has found through NAB in only the first weeks of her freshman year. Thomas reflected on the first heritage series event she attended as a freshman and recalled watching the senior speakers on that occasion with admiration. "We were all looking for that sense of community - and we found it," she said. "NAB is not only a community - they're my family."
Elizabeth Hoover MA'03 GS, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology, introduced Echo-Hawk, a 32-year-old Colorado-based visual artist and poet who graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Echo-Hawk, a member of the Yakama and Pawnee tribes, expressed his appreciation for the turnout of both Native American and non-Native students and community members. He stressed the significance of keeping Native American cultures alive and sharing them with the world, showing the audience his page on MySpace.com - through which, he said, he conducts 80 percent of his business as an artist.
"In my culture, in my language, there's no word for artist, there's no word for religion - it's a way of life," he said.
He also spoke about NVision, a non-profit group he co-founded in 2006 that conducts Native American youth outreach through multimedia arts. "We want to empower Indian kids," he said of NVision, for which he currently serves as executive director.
The event, "Artistic Expression: Modern Perspectives on a Modern People," opened with a series of speeches from members of the organization Native Americans at Brown, including an introduction from Mikel Brown '08 and Delphina Thomas '08, Native American Series programmers for the Third World Center.
Thomas and Loyola Rankin '11 then each spoke briefly about their experiences with NAB. Rankin described her initial reservations about coming to Brown and the comfort and security she has found through NAB in only the first weeks of her freshman year. Thomas reflected on the first heritage series event she attended as a freshman and recalled watching the senior speakers on that occasion with admiration. "We were all looking for that sense of community - and we found it," she said. "NAB is not only a community - they're my family."
Elizabeth Hoover MA'03 GS, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology, introduced Echo-Hawk, a 32-year-old Colorado-based visual artist and poet who graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Echo-Hawk, a member of the Yakama and Pawnee tribes, expressed his appreciation for the turnout of both Native American and non-Native students and community members. He stressed the significance of keeping Native American cultures alive and sharing them with the world, showing the audience his page on MySpace.com - through which, he said, he conducts 80 percent of his business as an artist.
"In my culture, in my language, there's no word for artist, there's no word for religion - it's a way of life," he said.
He also spoke about NVision, a non-profit group he co-founded in 2006 that conducts Native American youth outreach through multimedia arts. "We want to empower Indian kids," he said of NVision, for which he currently serves as executive director.