Celebrating for a cause

SWAIA AUCTION AND GALA HONOR THE RESILIENCE OF NATIVE WOMEN

Those attending this year’s Indian Market fundraising gala and auction are asked to wear red to show solidarity with missing and murdered Indigenous women. The glamorous and popular event takes place at a new venue this year, and the guest of honor is New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo).

Reinforcing this year’s Indian Market theme — “Rise and Remember: Honoring the Resilience of Native Women” — 26 Native women artists will decorate 26 drums made by the Taos Drum Company. Twentyfive of the drums will be auctioned off during the gala reception/silent auction, while the drum painted by Haaland will be held for the live auction during the gala dinner. SWAIA will share 25 percent of the proceeds with the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women in Albuquerque, says Amanda Crocker, SWAIA marketing director.

In a major shift, this year’s gala and auction will be held at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center instead of La Fonda on the Plaza. “It was a difficult decision to move the venue, but we needed more space,” said Elizabeth Kirk (Taos Pueblo), chair of the SWAIA board of directors. She thanked Jennifer Lea Kimball, chair of the board of La Fonda, for her long-standing support. “Her kindness and love for SWAIA and Indian Market allowed us to host the gala and auction at La Fonda,” Kirk said.

International concern about missing and murdered Native women prompted SWAIA to focus on Native women this year. “We’re taught to take care of one another. We won’t stop searching for those who’ve gone missing,” Kirk said. At the same time, SWAIA wants to point to the powerful roles Native women play today. “Native women are also artists, doctors, lawyers, tribal leaders and more,” Kirk said. “We are offering hope that we will overcome whatever comes in our direction.”

Representative Haaland, one of the first two Native women ever elected to Congress, has already introduced five bills that take a comprehensive approach to the crisis.

How artists choose to decorate their drums is “wide open,” Crocker said. Kathleen Wall (Jemez Pueblo) is one of the artists painting a drum. Her design honors her 14-year-old daughter, and her focus will be acceptance. “My strength as a mother is accepting my daughter’s life choices, the path she chooses,” she said. A drum is “a great way to express how I feel about strength and resilience.”

Other artists painting drums include Catherine Black Horse (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma) and Shondinii Walters (Diné). Haaland, a longtime supporter of Indian Market, will also paint a drum, as will Maxine Toya (Jemez), a potter renowned for her storyteller figures.

Dolores Purdy (Caddo/Winnebago) plans to employ her distinctive ledger art style on her drum, which will also feature two pieces of ledger art alongside the drum, according to Kirk.

Also carrying out the theme of Native women’s experience is IM: EDGE, the fifth annual exhibition of Native art at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. Curated by Institute of American Indian Arts faculty, IM: EDGE features artists exploring new media and pushing the boundaries of their work.

Music and poetry round out the gala experience. Special guest Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache), a violinist, will perform during the reception. Ortman’s video My Soul Remainer is included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial.

During the gala dinner, U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (Muscogee Creek/Cherokee, along with teen poet Maiyah King (Diné/Acoma) and other young poets from the Native American Community Academy, a charter school in Albuquerque, will read from their work. “There’s a power in hearing the work aloud,” Kirk said.

The gala and auction event “is our largest fundraiser for the organization and to keep Indian Market going,” Kirk said. The auctioneer will be Shannon Mays of El Dorado Springs, Missouri. Mays, who has 30 years of experience, won the 1995 International Auctioneer Championship in the women’s division. She will auction off works donated by Indian Market artists in a range of media. The live auction dinner will feature Native cuisine, including seared elk tenderloin and squash soup. The chef for the gala dinner will be Raymond Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo/Odawa/Crow), the executive chef at the Kessler Collection.

Ramona Gault is a fiction writer and editor. In a former life, she was SWAIA public relations director.

Details 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17

Santa Fe Community Convention Center 201 W. Marcy St. $225 per individual; $2,500 or $5,000 for a table $100 for reception and silent auction only

Drums

Artists donating hand-painted hand drums to auction

Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) Joy Harjo (Muscogee Creek/Cherokee) Traci Rabbit (Cherokee Nation) Dolores Purdy (Caddo/Winnebago) Glendora Fragua (Jemez Pueblo) Rezmo “Rezzie” McFly (Navajo/MexicanAmerican) Sheridan MacKnight (Lakota/Chippewa) Elle Claw (San Carlos Apache/Navajo) Jody Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo) Maxine Toya (Jemez Pueblo) Addie Roanhorse (Osage) Bah Yazhi Bahe (Navajo) Kaitlyn Jones (Navajo) Maiyah King (Navajo/Acoma Pueblo) Micqaela Jones (Western Shoshone) Melissa Lewis-Barnes (Navajo) Laketa Pratt (Cheyenne/Arapaho) Christie Tiger (Muscogee Creek/Cherokee) Joyce Nevaquaya Harris (Comanche) Catherine Blackhorse (Seminole Nation) Povi Romero (Cochiti/Pojoaque Pueblos) Kandis Quam (Zuni/Navajo) Kathleen Wall (Jemez Pueblo) Shondinii Walters (Navajo) Michelle Lowden (Acoma) Felicia Gabaldon (Choctaw Nation)