S2E9: April Matson (Sicangu Lakota, Athabascan)

2023 Cultural Capital Fellow April Matson (Sicangu Lakota, Athabascan) takes us on a melodic journey that harmonizes the power of music with the vibrancy of LGBTQ and gender-diverse youth. She unravels her own story of rediscovery, embracing her Lakota and Atabascan roots and intertwining them with the cultural tapestry of the two-spirit identity. April’s conviction resonates in her work, where leadership is not just taught but is a melody passed through generations and where each chord struck is a reminder of the strength found in tradition and identity.

Chapters

• 0:03 Inspiring Youth Through Art and Music
• 9:32 Inspiring Indigenous Artists' Collaboration and Connections

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Being inspired by the youth and the way that they are able to tell stories through music or through their art and share what the future looks like for them, what they want to see in their communities. It's so inspirational. I have no fear. When I watch the kids learn and come up with these ideas. I feel like the world is in very good hands, as long as we keep cultivating their talent.

Speaker 2: 0:40

First People's Fund presents the Collective Spirit podcast. The Collective Spirit moves each of us to stand up and make a difference, to pass on ancestral knowledge and simply extend a hand of generosity. The Collective Spirit podcast features Native artists and culture bearers who discuss the power of Indigenous art and culture.

Speaker 1: 1:06

My name is Amberlle Madsen, april, m-e-t-n-o-n. I use A-D-M pronouns. I am from the Patangu, lakota-layate and the Tanana, atabascan, chattel-lasca. I am the executive director of the nonprofit called Rock the Red. We are a five-cate summer camp that takes place in the Pyreneesian Information and the Roosevelt Reservation. We ask Tuesday at LGBTQ, gender diverse girls they just wait until 17 to come to our camp and they'll learn an instrument and then by the end of the week they will form a band, they'll name their band and then they'll perform for the community. A big piece of what I do is I bring the communities together to meet one another, to create more of the community, so they can see leaders within their own community that are close to buying and what they're doing, and so we'll bring artists into lead, a workshop where writers, songwriters, culture keepers, and so the campers will be able to see themselves in those leadership positions and hoping to give the youth some understanding and recognition of what they could be doing, where they could end up as adults, as musicians, but also as artists or professionals or just leaders. I don't have any particular artistic medium, and so what I really am leading into is this piece of my identity that's able to bring communities together that's able to create connections with community leaders, but also youth and their families and their parents. I really love to have events, to throw events and to also educate the youth and pass it on music, knowledge and cultural knowledge and even if I'm not the one that is able to do that, I am able to find people to bring in to facilitate that, and so that's kind of what I think of as my artistic medium is bringing people together in community.

Speaker 1: 3:34

I am actually Satom Dulu Kota and I grew up in Rapid Cities out in Dakota. After that I went to school and graduated from high school, and growing up in Rapid Cities is not easy. It's pretty, I call it race of city and so I wasn't very in touch with a lot of my identity either. My mom was adopted into the White family and so just as an adult since I had children, I've been reconnecting with my culture and becoming homesick all night and learning, and that's a lot of why I will bring in other culture keepers to teach students, because we're all learning together and I am learning and finding my place in the culture where I'm also able to teach. But it's a journey and I'm very humble and really proud of the work that I can do with the youth.

Speaker 1: 4:29

I am too spirit and I probably hard to identify that way to use that I serve so that they're able to see that they can identify that way too and let them know what that means to me. You know, whether you are part of the LTV, things like granny, or you're gendered as first or you're transgender, you can identify as, too spirit. So just making that known to you is letting them know that we can take this identity and only make it our own. This is for us because we've always had burdens like genders ancestrally. So just making sure that they understand what that means and how that can apply to them.

Speaker 1: 5:11

There's a lot of colonization that's kind of woven into our history, right, because, too, spirit people, we were not taken to boarding schools or reservations like we were killed immediately on the spot, and so a lot of that oral history and teachings were lost. So reintroducing ourselves into the community, explaining what that means, explaining that we have always been a part of these communities, has been important and also pretty scary. To educate your own community, too, spirit people used to be the caregivers of children and they used to be really sacred caregivers and a lot of other really sacred responsibilities and identities and I don't want us to lose that. I think we are seeing a big push to reintroduce these identities into our ceremonies now and our traditions and supporting this identity. The push that I get from Native community is probably the most challenging piece of doing in a camp and identifying this way, because I am continuing to learn more about the culture of the Lakota, dakota and Lakota people in this area, but I'm also trying to learn more about the last few Native people, which is part of my identity as well, and that's pretty far away and it's not easy and so just kind of humbly trying to walk this path but also creating a path so that the younger generation have a way that they can see where they are able to go and what they can do and feel comfortable or as comfortable as they can. I have two children and so my oldest is 10 years old and when I had her I said I really need to get back in touch with my culture, I really need to learn more so that she will always know and it will always be a part of her life and she won't have to be trying so hard the way that I am as an adult.

Speaker 1: 7:17

I say that the river that pushes our camps throughout the week is music. It's learning an instrument and it's writing a song, forming a band, working together to come up with a band name and write a song, and creating this musical community, but also interwoven. And then our cultural teachings. So we will have somebody come in and teach us about plant medicines, love to be warm shots or dream catchers. We also do some like zine making, so being more independent in your writing, like no government is going to control what you write in these zines. You can put out your thoughts in your art and this way you become your own publisher. So teaching them ways of being independent people and showing them that there are other ways to do art or literature or songwriting rather than just some mainstream way that you normally see. We also share two meals together. We'll have a snack together. We're really just creating a safe space for the youth to expand their way of thinking, to create art, to be themselves fully and to find themselves how they want to identify.

Speaker 1: 8:37

When I went to camp the first year as a volunteer, I was a vocal coach just being able to watch the kids absorb all of this music and absorb the teachings was really inspirational. I feel like as a child I was really so conscious and I would have been really afraid to be vulnerable. In that way, being inspired by the youth and the way that they are able to tell stories through music or through their art and share what their future looks like for them, what they want to see in their communities, it's so inspirational. I have no fear when I watch the kids learn and come up with these ideas. I feel like the world is in very good hands as long as we keep cultivating their talents and their ideas. And so that's definitely.

Speaker 1: 9:32

My inspiration is it's the youth and their willingness to be open and create. I have a friend who was a volunteer at Rock the Rounds last summer and she introduced me to First People's Fund and said that we should really do some collaboration and then encouraged me to apply for the fellowship, and it's been so wonderful to have this community of people. I've met so many people through this just by being a fellow. To me, being a fan of Capital Fellow means sharing the knowledge that I have, that I'm learning, but also connecting others who have more knowledge to those who have less knowledge. I feel like we're all very I'm going to learn more, and so to me it means creating those connections and facilitating those moments for education.

Speaker 2: 10:37

The Collective Spirit podcast is produced by First People's Fund, whose mission is to honor and support Indigenous artists and culture bearers through grant making initiatives, culturally rooted programming, and training and mentorship. Learn more at FirstPeople'sFundorg.