Colgate University’s annual Native American Arts & Culture Festival will take place on Saturday, Oct. 22 from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The festival celebrates Native American culture with live music and dance, craft demonstrations, handmade Native American items for sale, children’s activities, and more.
The festival is free, open to the public, and fun for all ages. It will take place indoors, rain or shine, at the Sanford Field House on Rte. 12B in Hamilton.
Music and dance acts take place all day, with plenty of seating provided. Dan Hill (Cayuga) will start the festival off with traditional flute music. Haudenosaunee Singers and Dancers include many young dancers who perform fast-paced smoke dances as well as traditional Iroquois social dances in which the audience is invited to participate.
Ayazamana, an exciting troupe of musicians and dancers, will perform traditional dances and masquerades of Ecuador. An exciting new act will take place this year – three members of the music collective Red Ride Tour (redridetour.com) will perform contemporary Native American music.
The group includes Jennifer Kreisberg, a Tuscarora singer and guitarist who also performs with Ulali; the singer-songwriter Kristi Lane Sinclair (Haida/Cree) who exemplifies new wave indigenous Canadian music; and White Mountain Apache musician and composer Laura Ortman.
The festival includes a Native American craft market, in which vendors from various indigenous cultures and communities offer a wide array of unique items for sale including exquisite jewelry, pottery, baskets, leatherwork, weavings, and other crafts. Artists also offer sculpture in stone, antler, and clay, as well as prints and paintings.
Craft demonstrations will take place during the day, including silver-working, stone sculpture, pottery, and fancy beadwork. A presentation of Iroquois cultural artifacts by Mohawk educator Mike Tarbell and a display and explanation of lacrosse stick making by Onondaga educator Alf Jacques will take place all day.
Visitors may also sample traditional Iroquois corn soup, chili, fry bread, as well as strawberry drink, made-to-order Indian tacos, and other foods, which will be available for purchase throughout the day.
All are welcome. Young children will especially enjoy activities in the festive “Children’s Corner” just inside the entrance, including coloring, maze puzzles, and making traditional cornhusk dolls, paper canoes, ornaments, and bead bracelets with the help of Colgate students. Visitors may register at the welcome table to win a Native American craft item, which will be given away as door prizes during the day.
The Native American Arts and Culture Festival is organized by Colgate’s Native American Studies Program in cooperation with the Native American Student Association, and generously supported by the Upstate Institute, Core Communities and Identities, Sociology and Anthropology Department, ALANA Cultural Center, Colgate Arts Council and Longyear Museum of Anthropology.
For more information contact Carol Ann Lorenz (315) 228-7184, orclorenz@colgate.edu.