Saturday, December 1, 2007 3:00 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Curated by Elizabeth Weatherford, Director of Film and Video and Margaret Sagan, Program Coordinator, at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center.

Apples and Indians (2006, 5 min.) Canada
Director: Lorne Olson (Ojibwe). First Stories: Manitoba
Produced by: the National Film Board of Canada

Gesture Down (I Don't Sing) (2006, 10 min.) United States
Director: Cedar Sherbert (Kumeyaay)

Sun, Moon & Feather (1989, 26 min.) United States
Directors: Bob Rosen and Jane Zipp

Vis à Vis: Native Tongues (2003, 58 min.) United States
Director: Steve Lawrence and Phil Lucas (Choctaw), with Nick Torrens, Australia.
Produced in association with Native American Public Telecommunications

Daughters of the Pacific (2007, Short Film)
Starring Louise Tu'u (Saleaula-Upolu/Asau-Sava’ii)/Samoa

Indian Summer 2007

Tuesday, June 19 at 8PM
Braided Lives, staged reading directed by Jennifer Rice (Tuscarora)
Poignant story of the Dakota conflict in Minnesota seen through the eyes of two defiant yet resilient women, one White, one Native American.

Post-show discussions with the playwright and reception to follow

Saturday, June 16 at 8pm
Cochise headlines INDIAN SUMMER bringing his powerful spoken word poetry over Native American flute, blending Hip Hop flava and traditional beats.

Venue: American Indian Community House at 11 Broadway
Subway: Take 4, 5 to Bowling Green or R, W to Whitehall St.
Performances are FREE with suggested $10 contribution
Reservations: call 212.533.0889, or email koughtred@aol.com or contact us
Additional reservations can be made through AICH at 212.598.0100 

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New Indigenous Voices 2007

Ephemera: The Reconciliation Monologues
Conceived by Liza-Mare Syron (Biripi) and the students at Eora College of Aboriginal Studies, Centre For Visual and Performing Arts, Sydney, Australia featuring Sonny-Dallas Law (Wakka Wakka) and directed by Kaipo Schwab (Native Hawaiian). Sonny-Dallas, from the original Sydney production will perform with Native American actors.

Ephemera: The Reconciliation Monologues is a multi-media production incorporating the performance of monologues, movement and dance with video presenting people's experiences of what "being Aboriginal", and what "reconciliation", means, both to indigenous and non-indigenous communities. Ephemera won Syron the 2005 Philip Parsons Prize for Performance as Research.

There will be two staged readings and post-show discussions of Ephemera with Liza-Marie Syron, Sonny-Dallas Law and invited Indigenous speakers.

Date: Tuesday, May 22 at 8pm with reception following
Venue: The Club at La MaMa E.T.C., E. 4th St. (betw. 2nd Ave & Bowery)
Reservations: Call 212.533.0889 or email koughtred@aol.com or contact us. Performance is FREE with suggested donation.

Date: Wednesday, May 23 at 1:15pm
Venue: Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium at the United Nations Building during the Annual Forum On Indigenous Issues, UN HQ East 46th St. at 1st Avenue. Reservations are required for this event and close May 11. Please call 212.533.0889 or koughtred@aol.com or contact us.
Performance is FREE with suggested donation.

Biographies

Liza-Mare Syron (Biripi) (Playwright) is a theatre educator and director and a descendent from the Biripi people of Tuncurry NSW. A graduate of the Victorian College of Arts 1990 (VCA), she has completed her Masters in Creative Arts Research at Wollongong University (UOW) focusing her research on Australian Indigenous acting processes. Her teaching qualifications include a Masters in Adult Education (UTS) and a Graduate Diploma in Adult Education. Other training qualifications include a Certificate in Playwriting (NIDA), Certificate in Small Theatre Production (NIDA) and the Integrated Theatre Management Program (DEET) and has just received a scholarship to study for a Doctoral degree at the University of Sydney. She is a recipient of an Australia Day Award in 1998 for Community Event of the Year (South Sydney Council) and winner of the 2005 Teaching Excellence award from the NSW Department of Education and Training, 2005 Mentor Award Sydney Institute TAFE NSW, and the 2005 ADS Philip Parsons award for Performance as Research. Liza-Mare is the current coordinator for the Theatre Performance and Practice Course at the Eora College of Aboriginal Studies, Centre for Visual and Performing Arts Redfern.

Sonny-Dallas Law (Wakka Wakka) Actor/Playwright/Director/Film maker. Awards: 2006 Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander student of the year. Sydney Institute, 2005 Acting Scholarship (Pact Youth Theatre Erskineville Sydney). In 2006, Sonny was the Drama Facilitator at Marrickville State High School (Mission Australia). Director/Writer/Actor in Sub Urban Tracking.  (Pact Youth Theatre, Erskinevill, Sydney), Actor/Writer in Constellations (Performance Space, Surry Hills), Before the Lights Go Out (The Studio, Sydney Opera House), Zing (Pact Youth Theatre), Actor/Writer Ephemera: The Reconciliation Monologues (Parade Studio National Institute of Dramatic Art), Actor/Writer Sweetest Taboo (Eora College of Aboriginal Studies, Centre for Visual and Performing Arts), Actor/Writer Ephemera: The Reconciliation Monologues (Eora College). Film: Director/Actor/Writer: Boys Don't Wear Dresses (Short Film), Games of Innocence (Short Film), Director/Writer: In a Pool of Blood (Short Film).

Cochise Anderson (Chickasaw/Choctaw) – musician, actor, poet, spoken word performance artist, playwright, storyteller, and educator - studied at Portland (OR) State University and at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC. Cochise received the Jerome Fellowship for playwriting (“The Education of Benjamin Franklin”) and the Bush Artist Fellowship for Storytelling/ Performance Art (“The Only Good Poet is a Read Poet”). He has performed at The National Museum of the American Indian twice and The Open House Arts Festival at the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He has also been a repeat performer at the Lincoln Center Outdoors Series in New York City. As an award-winning playwright he has extended his craft by initiating a creative writing/spoken word theater for young Native students in the Twin Cities area. Cochise has been the instructor for The Penumbra Theatre's Summer Youth Institute (’05) and he has worked as a Native American cultural arts educator for the past seventeen years throughout the country. Most recently Cochise directed a two-week theatre, spoken word performance residency at Choctaw Central High School with the Mississippi Band of Choctaws in Choctaw, MS. From elementary schools to colleges and national cultural institutions, he has developed a variety of curriculums and programs to entertain and educate all people about the beauty and struggle of Native America.

Maryanne Sam (Erub) is a founding member of Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-operative in 1991. Maryanne's plays include: Oh My God I’m Black devised with Patricia Cornelius and Irini Vela (Melbourne Workers Theatre 1995), (St.Kilda Indigenous Arts Festival 2003), (Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2004), Casting Doubts (Playbox/Ilbijerri Theatre 2002), (New York,"New Indigenous Voices 2005" ), Lessons in Flight (Ilbijerri Theatre 2003/04), (The Australian National Playwrights Conference in Newcastle, Sydney 2005.) As well as a background in theatre administration, Maryanne has performed in numerous professional theatre productions. Recipient of the 'Uncle Bob Maza' Award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Victorian Theatre' 2002 , The Centenary Medal for Services to Indigenous Arts 2004, and 2007 recipient of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board Fellowship of the Australia Council for The Arts.

Louise Tu'u (Saleaula-Upolu/Asau-Sava’ii), the second daughter of Sale Tu'u (Asau, Savai'i) and Lafitaga Matua (Saleaula-i-Upolu), is an independent Samoan playwright, actress and filmmaker. She is an emerging artist in Auckland and interested in exploring new layers to the questions of identity, location and relevance that have been generated amongst New Zealand and Pacific Island communities. Her first play, Le Tauvaga (The Competition) premiered in Three Auckland community centres in March 2004, directly targeting Pacific Island teenagers and shunning the traditional installation of a theatrical performance in a theatrical setting. In 2005 Louise was selected for a Royal Court International Theatre Residency in London, where she had a play workshopped and presented in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Louise is the only New Zealand or Pacific Island playwright to have ever been awarded this residency in its 19 year history.

Albert Alexander Amahou Belz (Ngati Porou, Nga Puhi, Ngati Pokai/New Zealand) born 1973, has been a professional writer for television, film and theatre since 2001. Te Maunga was his first script for theatre performed in 2001 to much critical acclaim. Awhi Tapu followed in 2003, produced by New Zealand's leading Maori theatre company, Taki Rua. Awhi Tapu toured New Zealand and was also nominated for Best New, New Zealand play at New Zealand's premiere theatre awards The Chapmann Tripps. Since then Awhi Tapu has been published by Playpress. His most recent theatre achievements include winning the Best New, New Zealand Play Award for Yours Truly at the 2006 Chapmann Tripp awards and also the Bruce Mason Award, as New Zealand's Best New, New Zealand Playwright. Belz is currently juggling three theatre commissions, for three very different plays, along with various freelance writing for Maori Television and Televsion New Zealand.

Susana Lei'ataua (Samoan) is an actor and a writer. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, she is from generations of orators and story-tellers. She is part of the Lei'ataua and Taupa'u families of Manono, Samoa and her mother's family has been in the Pacific for two hundred years. In her earlier New York days, Lei'ataua studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Over the years she has also been a journalist, radio newsreader, talk show host, television presenter, producer and editor. She was the communications specialist for the Royal New Zealand Ballet and recently the project leader of the Ngai Tahu Leadership Programme for the indigenous Maori iwi (tribe) Ngai Tahu. Lei'ataua was a founding actor in the devised visual theatre work Vula that performs on a stage of water, exploring the stories of Pacific women. Lei’atua is the recipient of the New Zealand Fulbright Senior Scholar Award 2008 and the NYU Asian/Pacific/ American Institute 2007-2008 Artist-In-Residence.         

Marcie Rendon (White Earth Anishinaabe) is an author, playwright, poet, and performance artist. A 1998/99 recipient of the St. Paul Company's LIN Grant to "create a viable Native presence in the Twin Cities theatre community,” she is also a previous Playwright Center Jerome Fellow. Six of her plays were produced in the last eight years, with numerous one-acts and collaborations also staged. In August 2007, as Raving Native Productions producer, she curated Return of the Native Rave at Manna Fest (a fringe fest in Minneapolis focusing on the spiritual). Her second non-fiction children's book, Farmer's Market: Families Working Together was published by CarolRhoda, Inc. in 2001. 

Dawn Dumont (Cree) has written for television, radio, and the stage. Three of her plays: The Red Moon (Love Medicine) (2007), Visiting Elliot (2006), and The Trickster vs. Jesus Christ (2005) were produced by CBC Radio. In June of 2007, her play, Fancy Dancer, was workshopped at Native Voices at the Autry. Dawn has worked as a story editor for television projects and was a comedy writer for APTN's Buffalo Tracks and Roger's Mixed Nuts TV. She has toured the U.S. and Canada as a stand-up comedian. Dawn is the recipient of: Best Romantic Comedy, LIFT Screenplay Series, 2005; Screenplay Audience Award, Female Eye Film Festival, 2005; and was the 2004 Playwright-in-Residence at Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto. Born and raised on the Okanese First Nation Dawn is of Cree and Metis descent.

Randy Reinholz (Choctaw, Moderator) is co-creator and artistic director of Native Voices. Reinholz has co-sponsored showcases and Native American diversity workshops for ABC and NBC and is an annual guest artist for the FOX American Indian Summer Institute. He received his MFA from Cornell Univ. (SDSU) and is a tenured professor of Theatre, Television, and Film at San Diego State Univ. in addition to being on faculty in the Program of American Indian Studies. He was named Interim Director of the School of Theatre, Television, and Film at SDSU in August 2007. He has directed close to fifty plays across the US and Canada.

These performances are made possible in part by LMCC’s Fund for Creative Communities/NYSCA and Manhattan Community Arts Fund/DCA. Additional funding and support provided by Australian Consul General, Australia Council, American Australian Association, ADVANCE, Hotel Chandler, and Creative New Zealand.