Rising Voices Grantee Update

Greetings to all! This past month has been very busy with annual ceremonies, and the coming of the new school year for our youth. This year marked the 210th year of our harvest celebration, Hedewachi. It is the oldest of this type of gathering amongst Native Americans and this year we were blessed with a rainbow right after our last dance in the arena this year.

As a kick off to the new school year our media-focused youth leadership group gathered for the first time. Guided by a group of talented mentors (a graphic artist, visual street artists, creative writers, and filmmakers) our youth created a movie by following it through from pre-production all the way through post. Another group of youth painted a colorful wall of magic on 150-ft wall located at our school (see above). The youth involved not only had a good time, but through a unique opportunity they were exposed to a world that just might inspire something great within them. Some of these youth will continue in the Fall to take part in the Umoⁿhoⁿ language revitalization project through the creation of video clips shot around the community.

I look forward to continuing doing work with these youth throughout the year on our language clips project. They are all eager to create and work with media and technology. We will meet for a second-time by mid-September.