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Jim Denomie, R. Vincent Moniz Jr and Heid Erdrich were part of a panel discussion held at Minnesota Public Radio on August 8, 2012

Recently I had the pleasure of sitting down with author and fiber artist Gwen Westerman, painter and sculptor Jim Denomie, actor and spoken word artist R. Vincent Moniz, Jr. and poet Heid Erdrich. We talked about many things, including what it means to be a contemporary Native artist working in a world that still has stereotypical notions of what it means to be an American Indian.

The conversation is part of a series of listening sessions in which MPR staff members engage with artists from diverse communities to find out more about what issues are most important to them. You can find 

Gwen Westerman says that right now is actually a great time to be a Native artist, in part because of the Legacy Amendment, which has helped to fund artistic projects and cultural intitiatives.

Visual artist Jim Denomie agrees that now is a great time to be an artist - he says that attitudes toward his work have changed dramatically over the years, for the better.

Actor and spoken word artist R. Vincent Moniz

While the audience for Native art has improved over the years, actor and spoken word artist Vincent Moniz  says there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to teach people to respect Native cultures. He gave the example of a 

Tumblr site called "Hipsters in Headdresses" 

which calls out non-Indians, predominantly young white women, who pose for photos wearing headdresses as a sort of fashion statement.

Read commentary: If Native-themed goods are used to make a profit, Native people should benefit

Poet Heid Erdrich says these stereotypes are still ever-present in the publishing world.

Many thanks to Heid Erdrich, R. Vincent Moniz Jr., Jim Denomie and Gwen Westerman for participating in this series.

Arts and Culture

State of the Arts Blog

Marianne Combs

Author

The conversation is part of a series of listening sessions, in which MPR staff members engage with artists from diverse communities to find out more about what issues are most important to them.

Contemporary native artists discuss their work, stereotypes and ‘hipster racism’

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