 An Indigenous poetry reading featuring Linda LeGarde Grover, Kimberly Blaeser, Babette Sandman, and Rocky Makes Room for Them was hosted at AICHO this October, with music by Lyz Jaakola.
Organized by Duluth Poet Laureate Gary Boelhower, the event included an invitation for other Indigenous people to share a poem or two as part of the open mic portion of the event. For further information, please contact Gary Boelhower, gboelhower@msn.com The Duluth Poet Laureate Project was co-sponsored by the Friends of the Duluth Public Library, Lake Superior Writers, the English departments at UMD and CSS, and Lake Superior College. Please visit www.duluthpoetlaureate.org Check out this video clip: https://www.facebook.com/wdse.wrpt.pbs/videos/529720714241696/
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Powwow Highway is a 1989 comedy-drama road movie directed by Jonathan Wacks. Based on the novel Powwow Highway by David Seals, it features A Martinez, Gary Farmer, Joanelle Romero and Amanda Wyss. Wes Studi and Graham Greene, who were relatively unknown actors at the time, have small supporting roles. AICHO was happy to host actor Gary Farmer for a screening of the film and a meet-and-greet session with the community!
An incredible piece of activism and research was shared at our space, check out the description below of the Food Equity Timeline: Many of us concerned with food and health disparities in our communities want to talk about the role that we can play in creating more just systems and fair outcomes for us all. We need opportunities to come together to reflect on the roles that policy, racial oppression, and social justice movements have had on our communities and our food system in a deeper context. At this training participants will walk along a physical timeline and explore how systemic inequities were created and reflect on the legacy we would like to leave for the future. The present-day inequities in the food system are the result of hundreds of years of policy and action that favored white landowners’ interests over those of people of color and indigenous people. The brutal history of enslavement, divestment, and genocide - and the powerful stories of resistance to it - are obscured by today’s mainstream historical narratives. The Race, Policy and the U.S. Food System Timeline unearths these stories with the intention of informing present day actions to improve the food system for local communities. For this Session, participants were invited to walk along a physical timeline and spend some time learning about how policies, decisions, and attitudes have intentionally shaped the food landscape we find ourselves in, and to understand that there has always been resistance and resiliency throughout that history. With this information we can ask ourselves “What is the legacy we’d like to leave for the future?” Knowing what we know, how can we use systems thinking and policy to create a more just, equitable, and regenerative food system? We’ll invite participants to use the supplies provided to add entries to the timeline as well as to envision what a different legacy might look like.
 AICHO hosted a domestic violence awareness event this October in the Powless Center. The event included a community screenprinting sessions where folks could print MMIW designs as well as special screens created by Moira Villiard. The event featured other memorial activities.
  Current Art Exhibition on display now through December 2019:
Mniidoos and WiigwaasAbout the Artists: Rabbett Before Horses Strickland is an Anishinaabe member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of northern Wisconsin. Rabbett grew up in the San Francisco Bay area with art as his constant lifestyle. His work has been influenced by European Renaissance and Baroque masters, including Botticelli, Michelangelo, Titian, Velasquez, Rubens and Leonardo, as well as by Ojibwe mythology. Rabbett’s paintings each tell an individual story of Nanabozho that take the viewer to new and unexpected realms of personal relevance and universally meaningful content. He has been featured in the American Indian Review, San Francisco Chronicle, Santa Fe Trend Magazine, Tea Party Magazine, and in the TV series Native Report. Recent exhibitions include Bell Street Gallery, La Pointe, WI Madeline Island (2015), Contemporary Canvases of Native Nations, Wisconsin Historical Museum, Madison, WI (2015), Gimaajii Mino Bimaadizimin, Duluth, MN (2014), and Right to Consciousness, Madeline Island Museum, La Pointe, WI (2012). Pat Kruse was born in Oakland, California, is a member at Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and a descendent of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Onamia, Minnesota. An accomplished and awarding winning Ojibwe birchbark & quillwork artist & culture teacher. Pat has spent his life maintaining traditional Ojibwe basketry and teaching workshops to all people willing to learn. Pat's art is in collections and at various locations, which include: Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art: Kansas City, MO; Plains Art Museum-Fargo, ND; Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota-Duluth, MN; Minnesota Historical Society-St. Paul, MN; Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewas, Legendary Waters Resort and Casino-Red Cliff, WI; Grand Casino Mille Lacs, Onamia, MN; Mayo Clinic-Rochester, MN; and Science Museum of Minnesota-St Paul, MN. In 2015-2016 Pat was chosen for Native Artist In Residence, Minnesota Historical Society; St. Paul, MN; 2016 Native Arts and Culture Foundation Fellowship, Native Arts and Culture Foundation; Vancouver, WA In 2018, Pat was one of eight accomplished artists awarded the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Mentor Artist Fellowship. For more information, contact Moira Villiard at moirav@aicho.org. Originally scheduled for the outdoors, the Indigenous Foods Expo was moved to AICHO's main building due to weather constraints. The event brought together roughly 2,000 people from all parts of the world to explore Indigenous foods and support regional entrepreneurs. Check out the video coverage of some of the events highlights and miigwetch for making history with us! We were grateful to make national news.  For the first time the history of the award, the YWCA Women of Distinction Award went to all women of color / Indigenous women, including two of our staff, Moira Villiard and Ivy Vainio! YWCA Duluth’s Women of Distinction Luncheon recognizes and honors women who make significant contributions to our community. Hundreds come together each year to enjoy lunch, recognize the amazing contributions of these women, hear highlights of the YWCA’s community outreach, network with community colleagues, and contribute to YWCA programs. Indigenous artist Sarah Agaton Howes and entrepreneur ChaQuana McEntyre were also recipients.    Moananuiākea is an ambitious documentary film telling the story of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage of legendary canoe Hōkūleʻa, and is produced by Nāʻālehu Anthony, Bryson Hoe and Maui Tauotaha, respectively director, writer and editor, all of whom served as crew members on Hōkūleʻa. This voyage connected countless individuals and communities from around the globe. A team of community organizations was fortunate enough to bring this film to the Powless Center in an event that drew community members from far and wide to pack the room!  Above: Part of the production team for the “MOANANUIĀKEA: One Ocean One People One Canoe” stopped in at AICHO to prepare for their free screening of this film in the Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center.
 In honor of the recent Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) billboard that went up on Garfield Avenue and Superior Street here in Duluth, MN the community showed support for the cause by hosting a Prayer Vigil at the sight of the billboard on Sunday, September 15th, 2019 at 3:00PM. The Vigil began at the Billboard with a prayer and was followed by a brief walk to the Duluth Folk School / Dovetail Cafe for concluding remarks.
Speakers included Duluth Mayor Emily Larson, City Councillor Renee Van Nett, and Human Rights Commission member Carl Crawford, and in attendance were representatives who have conducted research and collected data on missing persons in Duluth, grassroots groups dedicated to MMIW, and agencies that serve MMIW survivors. The vigil, co-sponsored by AICHO, was organized by a group collectively known as the “MMIW Vigil and Billboard Committee”, whose aim is also to highlight the importance of supporting a bill brought forth by Representative Mary Kunesh-Podein’s (Bill H.F. 70), to create a state task force to address this epidemic (the Minnesota House unanimously approved in May 2019, and it is currently in the Minnesota Senate awaiting approval). The Prayer Vigil was an opportunity to not only support MMIW, but all missing persons in our state.
 Marcie Rendon and Vern Northrup sold copies of their latest books and shared excerpts from their writing in a family-friendly book release celebration. MARCIE R RENDON, author of the recently released Girl Gone Missing, is an enrolled member of the White Earth Anishinabe Nation. Her first novel Murder on the Red River won the Pinckley Prize for Debut Crime Fiction. In honoring Marcie, the Pinckley judges noted, "Rendon's sense of place and her creation of an unforgettable character who forges her own way in a challenging world." VERN NORTHRUP is a visual storyteller. Interpreter, educator, and learner are three words that describe the lens Northrup looks through when photographing the world. Akinomaage is the Ojibwe word for what Northrup seeks to do with his photography and is the title of the book he’s recently released. As an interpreter, educator, and learner, Northrup wants to gain knowledge from the earth. Using only the camera on his smartphone, Northrup captures the setting of where he grew up, creating a nostalgia for all those familiar with the area, and a curiosity for those who aren’t.
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Keep tabs on some of the exciting things happening at AICHO! Blog posts managed by volunteers as they are available. Archives
August 2020
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