IllumiNative Founder Talks Native Representation at SXSW: ‘We’ve Never Had Justice’
variety.comJulia MacCary editor “There’s nowhere you can walk in this country that is not Native land,” said IllumiNative founder and executive director Crystal Echo Hawk at Rising Native Voices, the Variety and IllumiNative event in partnership with SXSW on Saturday.
IllumiNative, which is a Native woman-run social justice organization, DIGA Studios and Madica Productions recently announced their documentary-style podcast “American Genocide: The Crimes of Native American Boarding Schools.” The six-episode podcast examines the human rights violations against Indigenous children at Native American boarding schools, looking for answers specifically at Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, S.D.
Variety‘s co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton moderated the conversation with Echo Hawk, Lashay Wesley, IllumiNative’s director of communications and storytelling, and Patrick Smith, DIGA’s executive director at the event, talking about Native representation in media and the new podcast. “This story is an entry point into understanding how big and sweeping this was,” Echo Hawk said about the Red Cloud Indian School and how it correlates to Native land being taken away more broadly. “The reason you own a house and you’re going here and going shopping, is because somebody was removed from there.
And these schools were one of the primary ways. Go for the kids, break up the families, break these communities in half by taking their kids.” Echo Hawk and Wesley lead the podcast, which premieres its first two episodes on April 12.
Read more on variety.com