Stardust: Indigenous Apprentice Artists Retreat

Signal Fire is leading an Indigenous artist retreat at Caldera, utilizing the arts center as a basecamp to explore the Cascade Mountain range of central Oregon. This residency offers the first group of Native Artist & Culture Foundation Apprentices the opportunity to connect with residency programs and reflect on a year long mentorship program with accomplished Native artists. Signal Fire will provide meals, reading content, and guided backcountry trips. This trip will begin by visiting with artists in the ancestral homelands of the Warm Springs Tribe to learn about the history of Indigenous life along the Nich’i Wana (Columbia River) and the impacts of dams and the energy industry.

While utilizing Caldera’s studios, this group will have the opportunity to hike trails along the McKenzie River, visit the turquoise Blue Pool in an old growth Douglas fir forest, and walk dry river beds in old lava flows. This retreat is offered to inspire Indigenous artists from diverse cultural regions of North America to connect with land, place, and tribal culture in Oregon. This partnership program brings a dynamic group together to reflect on their apprenticeship and to foster camaraderie and intertribal connections.

This program is supported with thanks to funds from the Oregon Community Foundation.

Participants: Matthew Yatsayte, Leah Rose, Sonja Morgan, Carrie Durr, Lawrence John Mann, Jennie Kappenman, Kunu