Rise & Remember
The 2019 Santa Fe Indian Market Live Auction Gala and Reception honors the strength and resilience of Native women.
SANTA FE, NM
The Southwestern Association for Indian Arts has announced that its 98th annual Santa Fe Indian Market will pay tribute to the courage and strength of Native American women. This year’s Live Auction Gala and Reception, happening August 17 from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., is titled Rise and Remember: Honoring the Resilience of Native Women. The evening’s guest of honor will be New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland of Laguna Pueblo.
“The focus was selected because the movement of missing and murdered Indigenous women has grown in strength, but the media only shows one facet of who Native women are,” says SWAIA board chair Elizabeth Kirk (Isleta/navajo). “We know from our teachings of what those before us overcame, how it was instilled in us to push for better days, to stand our ground and care for one another. We will not stop searching for those who have been found murdered, but we will not be defined by what others are shown, we are more than what the media portrays.
“Those with us still are artists, doctors, lawyers, nurses, caregivers, construction workers, homemakers, welders, congresswomen, tribal leaders and so much more,” she continues. “In a system that was designed to see us fade away, we stand strong for our next generation of women, offering hope for the future, knowing the blood of our ancestors pulsating in our veins gives us reason to push forward.”
This year’s auction and reception moves to a new venue, the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, where the IM: EDGE contemporary curated exhibition will also take place. The show, sponsored by Joann and Bob Balzer, and curated by IAIA’S Angelica Gallegos, shares the focus of the gala as will the Indian Market’s Native Cinema Showcase where several female-centric films will be shown.
Highlighting the gala are the live and silent auctions, with auctioneer Shannon Mays leading this year’s live sale. Available at the gala will be around two dozen hand drums painted or decorated by female artists. Twentyfive percent of the proceeds from the drums will go to the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women in Albuquerque. Among those who created pieces are Haaland, United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (who will also do a poetry reading at the event), Dolores Purdy, Jody Naranjo, Maxine Toya, Micqaela Jones, Christie Tiger, Kandis Quam, Kathleen Wall and Felicia Gabaldon, to name a few. Haaland’s drum will be available in the live sale, while the others are in the silent auction.
Another item hitting the auction block is a collaborative basket by weaver Kelly Church titled Looking out for future generations. The strawberry basket will include a number of “berries” created by other artists—such as Emil Her Many Horses, Summer Peters, Avis Charley and more—that Church will attach to the work. Glendora Fragua is offering a wine decanter and four glasses called Fruit of Mother Nature. Nocona Burgess’ acrylic Hopi Snake Priest is also available as is Peterson Yazzie’s wooden sculpture Water is life.
Attendees of this year’s ticketed gala are encouraged to wear red in a show of “solidarity with missing and murdered Indigenous women.”