Among the elements of a Heard Museum dialogue will be the screening of a short documentary about Gregg Deal and his performance piece 'The Last American Indian on Earth.'

Among the elements of a Heard Museum dialogue will be the screening of a short documentary about Gregg Deal and his performance piece ‘The Last American Indian on Earth.’

This Sunday, October 9, the Heard Museum in Phoenix hosts an event that examines important intersections. “A Conversation at the Intersection of Art, Law and Indian Identity” will include a panel discussion of attorneys and American Indian artists. Some of the questions addressed will be, How does an artist’s vision implicate such identity? And what are the consequences, both legally and in the wider community?

For the event, the Heard is partnering with the Native American Rights Fund and the Indian Legal Program at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

Admission is free, but RSVP here is required. A reception begins at 3:30 p.m., and the program begins at 4 p.m.

Kevin Gover will moderate the panel discussion. He is the director of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Panelists will include:

  • Brett Shelton (Oglala Sioux Tribe), artist and staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund
  • Gregg Deal (Pyramid Lake Paiute), contemporary artist/activist
  • Matika Wilbur (Swinomish/Tulalip), artist and social documentarian in Indian Country. She is founder of Project 562 which explores Native identity and experience through a dedication to photographing contemporary Native America.

Organizers say:

“The program will include the screening of a short documentary The Last American Indian On Earth, about contemporary artist Gregg Deal’s first performance piece ‘The Last American Indian On Earth’ (TLAIOE), a piece he carried for a year. TLAIOE explores the romantic, misunderstood and often racist interactions average Americans have when encountering an Indigenous person. The performance allows Deal to explore this strange American interaction, the problems with it and the critical thinking that goes in to asserting identity and enacting change.”

For more background, here is a great video with Gregg Deal speaking in Washington DC. (at Creative Mornings in July 2014):

More information including a link to the free tickets is on the event’s Facebook page.

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