Since 2021, high-school aged Native American youth from Oregon and beyond gather for a week at a performing arts camp with their peers. The program, Arts Learning Project for Native Youth or ALP4NY, run by Bag & Baggage Productions, gives students instructions in acting and writing with additional electives depending on their interests. It exposes them to a wide variety of skills in the performing arts, provides them with training, and facilitates relationships with professionals working in the arts. This is a unique opportunity for these students. One 2019 study found that 25% of Indigenous students don’t have any arts instruction at all, a number that’s worsened since the pandemic and the closure of many arts programs.
OPB's Think Out Loud: Dave Miller interviews Jeanette Harrison and two students, Niyla Willow and Gia Fisher, about NPAN's annual summer camp. Miller: Jeanette, first. Why did you decide to help start this camp? Harrison: Well, the thing that we all keep saying is, we are building the program that we wish that we had had as students. We had to fight so hard to find our way to other Native theater artists, to Native storytelling, and it wasn’t something that was supported in most institutions. So I think one of the great joys, now, at this moment in time, is being able to build the program of our dreams. Miller: Well, Jeanette, just to stick with you for a second – what did that mean for you? I mean, when you were a young person interested in theater, what was the terrain like for you? Harrison: It was very western-centric. I went to school at a top research university with one of the best libraries in the entire country, and it wasn’t until after I graduated from college that I found my way to Spiderwoman Theater collective, and Bill Yellow Robe, and all these plays by Native writers. Nobody in college could point out a single Native play and – not to date myself – this was really before Google was a thing. So it was actually really hard to find work. I think that one of the joys now is that there is so much work being created, and our communities are so incredibly talented, and just finding more ways for that work to get out into the world. Miller: Gia, why did you want to go to this camp? As I mentioned, this is now your third year. Gia Fisher: I initially wanted to join this camp because it’s simply amazing that Natives are running this, and that I can meet other Native kids my age and create these amazing pieces of art. It’s just amazing, the family I’ve built here and I’m very grateful.