Northern Arizona museum features culture fest

By Stan Bindell
For the Independent

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Navajo filmmaker Benny Klain will be center stage at the 58th annual Navajo Festival of Arts and Culture at the Museum of Northern Arizona Aug. 4-5.

MNA included Klain as well as a professor of philosophy and an author in order to expand the understanding of Navajo arts, cosmology and history at this year's festival.

Dr. Robert Breuning, an MNA spokesman, said Navajos and non-Navajos come together during this festival to share perspectives, customs and artwork.

"The museum brings experts with new insights about our neighbors, the Din," he said.

Anna Doyle, MNA's Heritage Program coordinator, said innovation meets tradition at this year's Navajo festival. She noted that 75 artists will join performers and speakers as they each serve as the cultural interpreters of today's Navajo world for both the traditional and modern.

"We highlight language and film this year as tools of communication to illuminate and celebrate the Navajo experience.

Cultural assumptions
Klain uses his documentaries and fictional films to challenge cultural assumptions and focus on the struggle of indigenous artists to maintain their cultural identity.

His newest film, "Weaving Worlds," explores personal stories of Navajo weavers and their complex relationship with reservation traders. In the film, the weavers maintain a delicate balance between cultural survival, economic independence and motivation. Klain will show his film and talk at 10:45 a.m. Saturday and noon Sunday.

Klain's films don't provide answers, but provoke viewers into examining some of the cultural challenges in America today. He combines mainstream and Navajo storytelling techniques and incorporates his language into his work.

About 80 percent of the dialogue in "Weaving Worlds" is in Navajo. He speaks fluent Navajo.

Klain co-produced and worked as a translator for the film "The Return of Navajo Boy," which was shown at more than 60 festivals and received several awards. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and his production company, Trickster Films, is based there.

His short film "Yada Yada" won second prize at Montreal's First People's Festival in 2003. Weaving Worlds was recently a featured film at a South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

Klain has made several short films, but is working on his first feature film called "Relocation." The main character Henry graduates from college. His mother and grandmother hop on a train from the reservation to see him graduate.

"It's a coming-of-age story," he said. "Henry has lifestyle issues. He needs to learn more about life than he's learned from the textbooks."

Klain recently completed a short film called "Share the Wealth." This is about a homeless woman. The government has passed a homeless tax and the woman has to spend the day trying to come up with $1.

Klain has been able to obtain grants for the films he has made.

"I haven't had to get a day job yet. I'm fortunate because that's rare," he said.

Born in Tuba City, he was raised in Tonalea and graduated from Tuba City High School. He studied communications at NAU. He interned at KGHR at Greyhills High School before reading news at KTNN in Window Rock.

That is where he learned about "Return of Navajo Boy," which is about a famous family in Monument Valley that have been photographed often, but nobody knew their story. Klain became friends with Director Jeff Spitz who hired Klain to be the producer for that film.

Philosophy
Richard Wiebe, a professor of philosophy and history at Fresno Pacific University, is a research associate at MNA and studies Navajo philosophy.

His presentation and accompanying visuals, titled Navajo Conceptual Metaphors and Pattern Languages, will be at 9:30 a.m. both days. It is an investigation into the power of language.

He traces the significance of repeated metaphorical descriptions of the world in the Navajo language and explores the character of this culture's cosmology and ceremonies to better understand Navajo life ways.

Linguist Larry King joins in with his humorous reflections of Din culture, walking the audience along a path of history and legend showing the resilience of the Navajo language in today's world. King speaks at 2:15 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

Author Carolyn Niethammer will speak about "America's Native Women: The Ordinary and Extraordinary," followed by a book signing of her book Keeping the Rope Straight. Niethammer focuses on Annie Dodge Wauneka, the daughter of the great Navajo leader Chee Dodge who played an important role in bringing white doctors and tribal medicine healers together to control tuberculosis.

Blackfire, the Flagstaff-based Dine rock band, will showcase songs from their CD Silence is a Weapon. This CD leaves no doubt about the anger and hopelessness many Navajos face. However, there is hope in their music as it demands personal respect, environmental and cultural justice, and a healthy, sustainable world.

Blackfire has toured the world, sharing their music and traditional culture. Medicine man Jones Benally added stories and dance to the program.

Aaron White, a Native American Music Award winner and Grammy-nominee, plays the flute from his Navajo and Ute background. He blends it with guitar and his singing from his early years in urban California. He's played concerts from a presidential inaugural ball to a benefit concert. White has played with a long list of internationally famous musicians.

Clarence Clearwater uses his enchanting voice and acoustic guitar as he entertains rail passengers traveling between Williams and the Grand Canyon. He sings traditional songs in Navajo and contemporary songs in English about his spirituality and the oppression of native people.

Information:(928) 774-5213 or log onto www.musnaz.org.