The annual gathering in Sioux Falls features Native American artists on Saturday, Aug. 29, at Levitt at the Falls
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – A free, day-long event celebrating Native American culture through creativity, engaging performances and family-friendly activities returns to Levitt at the Falls this month.
The fourth annual Mitakuye Owas'iƞ *All My Relatives* Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ Festival will be held Saturday, Aug. 29.
"It's all about Native excellence and shining a spotlight on that," said president and CEO Nancy Levitt of Levitt at the Falls.
To do so, the event includes live concert performances, a fashion show, guest speakers and cultural presentations, a visual arts exhibition at Rehfeld's Art & Framing, local artisan vendors, food trucks and family-friendly activities.
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Rose Ann Hofland, vice president of programming of Levitt at the Falls, said the inspiration behind the festival grew out of earlier collaborations focused on creativity, Indigenous culture and youth engagement.
One of these events was Innoskate, a one-time event organized by the Levitt, the Smithsonian, USA Skateboarding and the Wokini Initiative of South Dakota State University. The purpose of the event was to celebrate creativity, skateboarding culture and create meaningful connections with certain tribal communities that do grassroots work in skateboarding.
The Wokini Initiative, dedicated to enhancing educational and cultural opportunities for Native American students, supported their work, allowing them to work with youth living on the Pine Ridge Reservation through an organization called Ground Control.
After seeing the positive impact of that event, Levitt and Wokini wanted to continue fostering these relationships through featuring Native artists.
"From that, we said we really want to keep these relationships going and continue to build out this work, and so that's sort of where we said, 'What can we do here in Sioux Falls to really put a spotlight on Native artists and continue to grow these partnerships,'" Hofland said.
Funding for this year's event comes from the Smithsonian-wide initiative, 'Our Shared Future: 250,' that aims to commemorate the nation's 250th anniversary and advance the Smithsonian vision for the next 250 years.
According to Hofland, this event emphasizes the importance of celebrating and honoring Native culture in South Dakota.
"I think it's important for us to be continuing to shine a light on those folks who have contributed so much to what is the fabric of our cultural heritage here," Hofland said.
Native American art on display highlights native community
At Rehfeld's Modern fine art and framing, a wide variety of Indigenous artists are on display until Aug. 28, with a closing reception that day from 5 p.m.-8 p.m.
Alix Kyrie, gallery director at Rehfeld's, said she selects artists that speak to and reflect the native community. Each piece has a meaning that ties back to native artists.
This year, there are a mixture of artists from many different places – from as far as Montana, to as local as downtown Sioux Falls.
Current artists on display include: Holly Young (ledger), John Pepion (ledger), Amanda Provost (photography) and Jane Williams (oil).
Kyrie said having an intimate display of the artist's works helps foster connections between artists and viewers.
"There's always a little bit of a deeper meaning than just like, 'Oh, that looks cool.' And again, that's the nice thing about having a smaller group of artists is I can pick up the phone and be like, 'Hey, you brought in this cool piece, but what does it mean?'" Kyrie said.
Creative expression through music
Paintings, drawing, sculptures and pottery are not the only art forms featured at the upcoming festival.
Mato Wayuhi, an Oglala Lakota actor and musician from Sioux Falls, will be coming back for a second year to the All My Relatives festival.
Growing up, Wayuhi said he did not know art was a viable career path. He has always been interested in being creative, saying creativity is a part of Lakota culture. But it was not until he saw young artists online making music that he realized he could pursue this full-time.
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For Wayuhi, hip-hop music resonates with him the most. He draws influence from artists such as former hip-hop collective Odd Future, core members notably being Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt.
"I became more myself when I fell in love with hip-hop," Wayuhi said. "It's kind of always within me, and I think that a lot of natives gravitate to Black culture and hip-hop culture in general because there's just that shared feeling of history and disenfranchisement and all these kind of things."
Wayuhi said he likes when his fans can relate to him.
"I have had a lot of people find relatability in it, and I'm always striving for more of that ... without compromising any sort of spiritual vision that I have," Wayuhi said. "I got messages from people that were, you know, saying, 'I'm half white, half Palestinian,' 'I'm half, you know, Mexican and Black.' And it was cool because they were like, 'Thank you for writing something like that because I could relate to it.'"
South Dakota News Watch is an independent nonprofit. Read, subscribe for free and donate at sdnewswatch.org. Elena Tittel's internship was funded with support from the Nonprofit Newsroom Internship Program created by The Scripps Howard Fund and the Institute for Nonprofit News. Contact: elena.tittel@sdnewswatch.org.
