Love Language: Collaboration as Practice

Why It Matters

Highlighting collaborative Indigenous art demonstrates how cultural authenticity and community partnerships can enrich mainstream institutions, driving both artistic innovation and broader societal understanding.

Key Takeaways

• Collaboration centralizes Lakota philosophy in contemporary art projects
• Artists rely on trusted relationships to expand performance into installations
• Community music programs empower Indigenous youth through mentorship and recording
• Digital contributions enable remote participation despite geographic barriers
• Panel discussions reveal collaborative processes as essential to artistic success

Summary

The Walker Art Center hosted a Thursday night event titled “Love Language: Collaboration as Practice,” featuring artist Dyani White Hawk and a panel of Indigenous creators. The gathering highlighted how collaborative relationships shape the exhibition’s core works, from video pieces like “Relative” to large‑scale installations, and underscored the importance of platforming Native voices within mainstream art spaces.

White Hawk explained that the “I Am Your Relative” project emerged from a performance that she expanded through photography with UW‑Madison professor Tom Jones and video contributions from South Dakota‑based Talon Bazille. By partnering with longtime friends such as Emmy‑winning filmmaker Leya Hale, she leveraged shared Lakota worldviews to avoid lengthy briefings, allowing the art to evolve organically. The panel also showcased Bazille’s “38” song, a lyrical reckoning of the Dakota 38 massacre, and described the Al Lakota Art Space’s Wicha Music Program, which provides recording resources and mentorship to Indigenous youth.

Memorable moments included Bazille’s description of “righteous anger” echoing Dr. King, Jones’s vivid recollection of a childhood spirit ceremony in Minneapolis, and the collective drum circle that symbolized intergenerational healing. These anecdotes illustrated how personal histories and cultural rituals become integral to the collaborative process, turning individual expression into communal narrative.

The event signals a shift toward more inclusive curatorial practices, where institutions recognize that Indigenous art thrives on relational networks rather than solitary authorship. By foregrounding trust, shared values, and community‑based programming, the Walker model offers a blueprint for other venues seeking authentic engagement with Native artists and audiences.

Original Description

Rooted in trust and shared practice, artists Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota), Talon Bazille Ducheneaux (Crow Creek Dakota/Cheyenne River Lakota), Leya Hale (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota/Diné), and Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk) come together for an in-depth conversation on collaboration and the role of Indigenous perspectives in contemporary art. Friends and artistic partners, they reflect on their individual expertise and collective practices, exploring how abstraction, experimentation, and shared cultural lineages shape their work and enrich the broader discourse of contemporary art.