Shayna Hobbs is a Stockbridge-Muncie Mohican musician who grew up in Nashville when her father, musician Bill Miller, moved their family here to pursue his own musical journey. Hobbs said she had the vision for IndigeNash for what felt like years. She connected with some other Native artists and musicians and found out they shared a similar vision. The more she talked to Natives, the more she saw something like IndigeNash was a need.
“With Nashville being Music City, the deeper roots that are here, even the musical roots, come from Indigenous people,” she said. “It just felt like maybe we need to create something ourselves.”
IndigeNash says they are dedicated to the rich heritage and bold, contemporary contributions of Indigenous artists. Their second annual Indigenous Arts Festival features events happening tonight (November 19) through Sunday (November 23) taking place at various locations from The Forge, Frist Arts Museum and The OG Basement. The festival honors Native voices that shape culture today featuring visual art, music, film, comedy and storytelling.
“The curation is not even the hard part because there are so many Indigenous people, not just in Tennessee, but all over the country and the world that want to participate,” Hobbs said. “I think that’s why it’s blowing up because we are filling a need that’s not just for Nashville, but it’s bigger than that. It’s for Indigenous people and that is powerful. The biggest thing that we want to do was financially support indigenous people. So many Natives have constantly been just expected to do things for free. As far as Native talent and Native creators there are hundreds and thousands everywhere, and we wish we could feature all of them. We’re seeing this is the growth. We have a vision for maybe making this year-round, where we can constantly be doing stuff every month.”
Dhalton Horsman — part Shawnee on my mother’s side and Cahuilla and Serrano on my father’s side, plays guitar for the band A Tribe of Horsman — is playing the IndigeNash showcase at The Basement on Saturday (November 22) . He said Hobbs reached out to him last year to see if he wanted to help out any way he could.
“Last year with it being at The Forge, I remember we were getting excited for it and that we were already starting a plan for this year,” he said. “It just felt really good, the community, the family of the people working in IndigeNash and the people that came to play, cook, the fashion, and now comedy this year, that’s a beautiful thing. I’m from Oklahoma originally, so moving to a different state and trying to find more Indigenous people to hang out and bounce ideas off and talk about the future of our race and everything is really touching just to be part of it. Being able to go across all of Nashville now in such a way is amazing, I got goosebumps thinking about it.”
Additional event opportunities in the next week:
Thursday (Nov 20) Margo Price performs at the Ryman, GZA is at Skydeck on Fifth and Broadway and The Criticals and VEAUX are at Exit/In. On Friday night (Nov 21) WNXP Presents Twen at the Blue Room and Saturday night (Nov 22) Tristen performs at Soft Junk. On Saturday and Sunday (Nov 23) The Blue Room hosts two-nights with Die Spitz. Also Sunday you might attend No Small Endeavor featuring Allison Russell and Ruby Amanfu at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
