Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Braiding Our Voices

Mar Parrilla, Olivia Moon Photography.

Taíno Afroborikua and award-winning choreographer Mar Parrilla is the founding artistic director of Danza Orgánica (DO). She is a proud mother, an interdisciplinary movement artist, an educator, and a community organizer. After attaining a BA in Languages (Italian, French) from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mar crossed the ocean to Nueva York, where she completed a Master's degree in Dance Education at New York University. Now a Boston resident, Parrilla is a recipient of several awards from the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Boston Foundation, and Barr foundation among others. She is the recipient of the Brother Thomas Fellowship Award from the Boston Foundation, and the Outstanding Community Arts Collaboration Award in Dance from the Arts/Learning Organization. Mar is also the founder of the acclaimed program Dance for Social Justice™, as well as the founding producer of the Boston-based annual festival: We Create!. Parrilla is also a luminary artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where she has been commissioned to create artistic work, and continues to work with in several capacities. In 2018, Mar Parrilla/ Danza Orgánica received a Creative Development Residency at Jacob's Pillow, where they also performed at the Inside/Out Festival. Currently, she is still in partnership with Jacob's Pillow through DO's signature program: Dance for Social Justice™. In addition, Mar and DO are working in close collaboration with members of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe, through a multiyear partnership between Danza Orgánica, the Aquinnah Cultural Center, and The Yard. She is also collaborating with Puerto Rico-based artists on an ongoing cultural exchange towards the continued development of Melaza: a project that explores the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States of North America. Most recently (2021), Danza Orgánica was awarded the Powering Cultural Futures Multiyear Partnership with the BARR foundation. Since 1998, Mar has also been an educator based in NYC and Boston. She has been a dance educator in public schools across both states, as well as higher ed institutions such as: Boston University, New York State University at Stony Brook, Wesleyan University, Roxbury Community College, and Emerson College. Her focus lies on Decolonizing Practices, which she embeds in her Dance for Social Justice™ curriculum. Mar's production history includes company concerts since 2007, as well as the acclaimed and award-winning annual festival: We Create! (est. 2014).

Danza Orgánica, Photographer: Jamie Kraus, courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow Dance.

Danza Orgánica, founded in 2007 by Afrotaíno artist Mar Parrilla, is a Boston based dance theater company whose work is centered around equity, social justice, and decolonization. With dancers from Borikén (so-called Puerto Rico), Mexico, República Dominicana, and España- Danza Orgánica brings forth a multiplicity of experiences with the common themes of migration, antiracism, and decolonization, towards the embodiment of a liberated future. Danza Orgánica is currently in collaboration with members of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe, through the project s Nupumukômun (We Still Dance). They are also in collaboration with a group of Puerto Rican artists based in Puerto Rico through the collective Proyecto Melaza, founded by Mar Parrilla. Danza Orgánica’s programming includes performance, education (Dance for Social Justice™), and our annual festival We Create. We honor our right to express our BIPOC experience, joyfully reimagine ourselves in liberated BIPOC bodies, and leave a legacy that sheds light upon an untold side of history.

Elizabeth Solomon, Photo Courtesy of the Artist.

Elizabeth Solomon is an enrolled member of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag and a longterm partner with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Elizabeth speaks frequently about local Indigenous issues and has a long-standing commitment to human rights, diversity, inclusion, and community building that she brings to both her paid and volunteer work. Elizabeth serves on multiple advisory and management boards. Elizabeth holds a master’s degree in museum studies and she has a commitment to work with native communities and others that are currently underrepresented in museum exhibits and public history programs to assist them with bringing their voices and stories to the forefront.

Erin Genia, Photo Courtesy of the Artist.

Erin Genia Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate (she/her), is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and community organizer specializing in Indigenous arts and culture. Genia’s work in these areas is focused on amplifying the powerful presence of Indigenous peoples on the occupied lands of America in the arts, sciences and public realm to invoke an evolution of thought and practice that is aligned with the cycles of the natural world and the potential of humanity. Genia’s artistic practice merges Dakota cultural imperatives, pure expression, and exploration of materiality with the conceptual. Erin is fluent in multiple modes of expression: sculpture, fiber, sound, performance, digital media, painting, printmaking, jewelry and ceramics. Her work has received attention from diverse audiences, and has been exhibited nationally and internationally, at the Urbano Project in Boston, the Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica, the Museum of Northwest Art and the International Space Station.

Rosalba Solis, Photo Courtesy of the Artist.

Rosalba Solis (Mexica) is a Mexica descendent who follows her traditions from Xalisco, Mexico. For the past 30 years she has been supporting and participating in the National Day of Mourning in Plymouth Mass,MA.as well as Indigenous People's Day both organized by the United United American Indians of New England (@mahtowin1). Over the past 15 years Rosalba has organized the community Tzompantli, traditional Day of the Dead ceremony, in Jamaica Plain a yearly event on the first Saturday in November, inviting all peoplefrom the 4 directions to come and build community altars to loved ones. Rosalba is passionate about keeping alive indigenous traditions and sharing those traditions with the next generation.

Khury Petersen-Smith, Photo Courtesy of the Artist.

Khury Petersen-Smith works as a researcher and activist strategist for demilitarization. He is the Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Khury studied geography at Clark University, where he focused on US military bases in the Pacific. At IPS, he acts as a resource for activists seeking to challenge US foreign policy. He is especially interested in Black internationalism, and in building relationships among resistance movements across borders to demilitarize and decolonize the world—first and foremost, the United States.

Jannette Vanderhoop, Photo Courtesy of the Artist.

Jannette Vanderhoop is a Wampanoag entrepreneur from Martha's Vineyard. The first of her family to ever go to college as a Gates Millennium Scholar through AIGC (American Indian Graduate Center), Jannette holds a bachelors degree from Pitzer College in Environmental Studies and Art. Her modus operandi is “to teach people to appreciate nature through art.” She has a gardening business (NV Gardens) and has sold her unique jewelry, doing business as “Island Naturals”, for the past 17 years. As a culture bearer, professional artist, published author/illustrator and educator of Wampanoag history, culture and arts, she has dedicated her life to preserving her heritage. As a community member she has run the wampanoag tribes children’s programs, got the humble museum (the Aquinnah Cultural Center “ACC”) up and running when it initially opened and now sits on its board of directors. She has visited countless museums and schools working with children, adults and educators of all ages. The book “cranberry day” is not just a children’s story. It is an important teaching tool that she uses to fight stereotypes as they pertain to native people.