Native Arts Festival shares resilience through artistic celebration

Daijah Hinmon, Staff Writer

Alani Guillaume, Contributing Writer 

People of all ages gathered around the Grace Arents Garden to enjoy handmade delights like candles, jams and other artworks by Indigenous creators of all different tribes for the Kennanee Native Arts Festival on Sept. 14. 

The event was held by the Virginia Native Arts Alliance at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. 

“Kennanee” is the Powhatan-Algonquin word meaning friendship, according to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden website. The event uplifted Native traditions through art, storytelling, food and play. Visitors were able to enjoy short films by Indigenous creators, a live shinny game, art markets and more. 

The Kennanee Native Arts Festival is the biggest event the Virginia Native Arts Alliance has been a part of so far, according to Rebecca Hill, VNAA executive director and member of the Pamunkey Tribe. The focus is to bring Indigenous art and artists into non-Indigenous spaces.

Native art is not only the stereotypical mediums of pottery and jewelry making, Hill said. The VNAA wanted to showcase a variety of music performance mediums, and even brought in the Powhatan Shinny League to introduce games played by their ancestors.

“Anything made with Indigenous hands is Indigenous art,” Hill said. “We’re very proud of our heritage and very proud of our culture, but it doesn’t have to be always craft art.”

Desmond Ellsworth, a descendant of the Nottoway Tribe and one of the festival’s artists, hoped the event allowed attendees to see Native people for themselves, breaking stereotypes about what a Native American is “supposed” to look like, because multiple Indigenous communities live in Richmond.

“Richmond is a shared location of the Algonquin communities and Siouan communities,” 

Ellsworth said.

The VNAA seeks out locations willing to work with the organization and show that Native people are all around us, Ellsworth said — not just what people stereotypically imagine a Native event to look like.

“The only restriction is you have to come from a state or federally recognized tribe, and be willing to put yourself out there and show that Native people still exist in Virginia,” Ellsworth said.

Events like these are important because they let people know Virginia Natives are still present in our society, said vendor Tamsye Deanna Stover, a member of the Chickahominy Indian Tribe.

“They think we’re no longer here, but we are,” Stover said. 

The different dancers that performed and introduced themselves in the language of their tribes first was noteworthy, according to attendee Evon Dennis. They introduced a part of their culture with both their performances and descriptions in their Native languages. 

“These kinds of events are important to remind people that there is no one kind of person that is living here in this world, in this state,” Dennis said.