Diné College (www.dinecollege.edu) hosted the second planning meeting for Dinétahdéé’ Iiná Baahané–Stories of Life from Navajoland—A Navajo Performing Arts Festival on September 4. Participants included Diné College President Ferlin Clark, Curtis Ray Benally, the Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Diné College (by speaker phone), Pax Harvey (Diné College), Walter Jensen (Diné College Museum), Wesley Thomas (Diné College), photographer Geri Henry, musicians Chucki Begay and Richi Anderson of the Mother Earth Blues Band, designer Tionne Linder and her husband Ray Linder, as well as Gordon Bronitsky (President, Bronitsky and Associates) and Suzy J. Baldwin. Bronitsky and Baldwin are partnering to coproduce the festival.
It was again agreed that the Festival will
- Take place annually on the Navajo Reservation
- Be partnered from the beginning with Diné College
- Showcase the diversity of Navajo performing arts and artists, focusing on theater and spoken word, film, music (traditional and contemporary), and fashion
- Train Navajo young people how to run the festival and, eventually, take it over completely
- Introduce Navajo performers to the business of the industry—what is an agent? What is a contract? Etc, and
- Serve as a performing arts marketplace for the best Navajo performing artists to regional, national and international booking agents and venues, and
- Feature an honored international Indigenous artist every year to perform and to meet with Navajo performers and students, conduct workshops, etc. At this meeting, Gordon Bronitsky suggested the following be invited:
- Australian Aboriginal playwright David Milroy, perhaps including an all-Navajo production of his play, Windmill Baby, with one performance possibly in the Navajo language
- Jill Milroy, Dean of Aboriginal Studies, University of Western Australia, and
- Terri Janke, Aboriginal Australian attorney specializing in Indigenous intellectual property rights
Suzy Baldwin and I agreed to draft a five year plan for the Festival for presentation at the next meeting, which will take place September 23 at 9 am at Diné College. What can I say but—ever onward!