Indigenous art communities emerged from the pandemic more resilient

During the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Native Americans in the United States and First Nations peoples in Canada experienced some of the highest death rates in every country. Especially in cultures that revolve around community, concepts such as closure and isolation conflict with the ways in which many artists work—particularly those who have long relied on indoor galleries and outdoor markets to display and sell their work. From the spring of 2020 onwards, nearly all of the jubilant, sprawling fairs across the American Southwest and other regions have either been canceled or are being held at dramatically reduced capacity.

“The pandemic caused a lot of artists to turn inward, and they didn’t have the normal outlets to share their work,” he says. Douglas Miles, one of many Apache artists living in a multi-generational home in the San Carlos Apache Nation in Arizona. “But it didn’t stop me at all,” he adds, “it changed the direction of my art.” For Miles, that meant stepping back from taking on tangible projects (he’s best known for his murals and his trademark skateboarding, Apache skateboards) and focus on digital work such as photography, short videos and film projects in collaboration with other Indigenous artists. He even set up an online “quarantine” studio, in response to Covid-19 in the form of an online viewing room with Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho artist Hawkeye in Edgar’s Pile Bird.

“Native people will always be in tune with society….