Read the Artsy editorial, “North America’s Most Important Indigenous Performance Artists Convene in Santa Fe” on their website. A snippet of Lucas Iberia Lozada’s editorial is posted below.

“My understanding of performance is not really related to that Fluxus stuff in any way,” Rebecca Belmore told me over iced tea during a break at “Acting Out: A Symposium of Indigenous Performance Art.” Belmore, a Canadian First Nations artist who was the second-ever indigenous person to represent her country at the Venice Biennale in 2005, was one of 15 North American indigenous performance artists who had gathered for the event. Held on December 3rd and 4th in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the symposium consisted of workshops, discussions, and screenings reflecting on past and future work.

“Performance has always been integral in contemporary as well as traditional native arts,” said Andrea R. Hanley, membership and program manager for the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), one of the event’s lead organizers. A member of the Navajo nation, Hanley remarked that indigenous artists oftentimes find themselves alone at workshops and events. “We wanted to support the vision and creativity of indigenous performance artists so they could engage each other.”