Running Strong for American Indian Youth® Dreamstarter Creative Anpa’o Locke (Húŋkpapȟa Lakota & Ahtna Dené), 27, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a multi-hyphenate artist and her primary mediums are beading, filmmaking and photography, embroidery, and drawing.
“For me, my identity is built around Black and Indigenous art, which shapes my worldview as an emerging artist,” says Anpa’o, a 2023 Running Strong Dreamstarter who received a $20,000 grant to lead a seven-day Indigenous Leadership Conference “allowing me to uplift other Native youth to develop their own leadership skills, engage in strategic planning for their own advocacy work and campaigns, and foster a network of youth leaders that will offer each other critical support in their own environmental justice community work.”
Anpa’o, who has been working on her art for a decade, was born and raised in the Standing Rock community, but is enrolled in the Village of Tazlina.
“I am much more culturally and spiritually Lakota as I have gone to ceremonies and lived in South Dakota for multiple years,” she explained in her Dreamstarter Creative grant application.
Her project involves selling beaded earrings/textile designs, and using her other mediums to support and market the project to create a small business named Wahcazizi. Lakota definition is a Maximilian Sunflower, which is specific to South Dakota.
“I wanted to create a brand that reflects my Lakota roots, knowledge, and future (fashion-making and earring designs).
“I will use all three of these mediums: beading, drawing, and filmmaking/marketing to create flatstitch beaded earrings from pre-production (designing the earrings) through their creation (beading the earrings or embroidery textiles), and finally filmmaking/photography to promote the brand using my filmmaking and marketing experience.”
Anpa’o says her artistic influences include the French New Wave, Expressionism, the Black Arts Movement, and the AIM Movement.
“All of these influences affect my beading and fashion aspirations with this project.
“I want to create a project with designs and materials that honor my culture: Dakota Florals/Lakota geometrics, Alaskan florals, Dentalium, Deer, and Elk hide with designs that integrate my Black and Native studies philosophy and beliefs to create authentic, critical social thought with praxis-driven fashion.”
Anpa’o is using her $2,500 Dreamstarter Creative grant to purchase deer and elk hide, Pellon fabric, embroidery floss, turquoise stones, quills, horsehair, dentalium, tools and beads.
To promote the earrings and textiles, she plans to use 35mm photography to model her earrings and showcase the brand. Grant funds would be used to cover the cost of film, processing and scanning for brand shoots.
And to put her filmmaking skills and non-profit marketing to use, “I would create video ads, photography, and marketing strategies. The cost would come from purchasing Facebook and Instagram ads to make sure I can reach my target audience (Native and Black audiences).”
She explained that “the community impact is a huge focus for this brand, as the idea for the brand stemmed from a need for more Afro-Indigenous artists who honored the blend of cultures.
“I find myself empowered by both communities; however, beadwork and textiles provide a new venue to communicate our communities' interconnectedness and intertwining of culture and stories.
“Through this brand, I seek to create beadwork that is wholly unique to my understanding of what it means to be an Afro-Indigenous woman.”
She added that the Dreamstarter Creative grant will have a huge impact, allowing her to pursue her creative endeavors and support herself financially through the purchase of materials and small business needs, which would be hugely helpful with start-up costs.
Over the past few years, Anpa’o has been involved in numerous creative projects and was selected as a Sundance Institute Native Lab Fellow. The Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program aims to support the next generation of indigenous American storytellers through the Native Lab fellowship.
She also has written episodes for PBS Digital Studios: Sovereign Innovations, an Indigenous digital media show, and was curator of the Black Cinema Series for the Center For Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Regarding her Dreamstarter Creative project, Anpa’o says:
“As an artist myself, I love beading and Indigenous fashion because it's a way to connect with my grandma, especially since she passed away in 2023. She taught me how to bead and sew.
“I have been beading since I was in high school, but I did it for culture and connection with other people in my family or community who also bead or sew.
“I gave away all my beaded earrings at either ceremony as giveaways or to family and friends.
“So, I have always honored art as a way to stay spiritually and emotionally connected to myself.”
