Smithsonian Folklife Festival Program To Highlight the Living Traditions of Indigenous Peoples of the Western Hemisphere

This year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival will celebrate the National Museum of the American Indian and the people whose voices the museum amplifies. The program “Indigenous Voices of the Americas: Celebrating the National Museum of the American Indian” will highlight living traditions of Indigenous peoples and honor contemporary and traditional creative expressions, celebrations and community connections. This festival also marks several anniversaries for the museum, including the 20th anniversary of the museum on the National Mall and the 30th anniversary of the museum’s location in New York City.

The festival will take place Wednesday, June 26, to Monday, July 1, on the National Mall between Third and Seventh streets. All events are free, and the festival will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. On select evenings, live music on the festival’s Four Directions Stage will run until 7 p.m. The festival is co-presented by the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Park Service.

Over six days packed with programming, the festival will feature more than 250 participants from 60 Indigenous communities from across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.

The program is organized around four themes: relevance, resistance, representation and reclamation. Indigenous artists and makers, professional chefs and home cooks, musicians, dancers, athletes and storytellers will demonstrate multigenerational traditions, as well as new, innovative approaches to cultural expression.

Highlights of the sports program will include skateboarders performing along Jefferson Drive and offering lessons to any young visitors with their own helmets and protective gear, skateboarders including Di’orr Greenwood who turns skateboard decks into works of art, lacrosse players from Onondaga Nation who will teach visitors about the sport and explain its origins, and Arctic games demonstrated by Yup’ik and Inuit athletes.

There will be plenty of traditional crafts—demonstrated every day by 46 craftspeople—including basket making, silk weaving, featherwork, ceramics and wood carving. Visitors can watch artworks grow as artists create murals and large-scale Guatemalan kites.

For young visitors and their families, storytelling will be presented throughout the day, along with hands-on creative activities to engage children and adults. On stage, 20 performing artists and groups will showcase the exciting range of traditional to contemporary Indigenous music and dance. Concerts begin at 4 p.m. (indoors) and 6 p.m. (outdoors) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

After 20 years of representing the Western cardinal point of the National Museum of the American Indian, the volcanic rock named Kānepō will return to its home on the island of Hawai’i. A commemoration of its time at the museum will happen July 1 at an 11 a.m. ceremony. To honor Kānepō’s time representing the western reaches of the hemisphere, a delegation of Native Hawaiian culture bearers will be present.

Food Demonstrations

The foodways stage on the National Mall will have 45-minute food demonstrations throughout the day featuring Mesoamerican plant-based dishes, Oaxacan cooking from Mexico and traditional Argentinian cuisine. Bricia Lopez, a Los Angeles-based restaurateur and author, will show visitors how to make Oaxacan mole verde. Claudia Serrato, chef and Indigenous culinary anthropologist, will demonstrate plant-based recipes such as raw cacao avocado pudding. Additional Indigenous chefs will demonstrate dishes such as succotash, Three Sisters Soup, mazamorra (Colombian corn porridge) and more. In addition, Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota Sioux chef and author of The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen, will host a presentation inside the museum.

There will be two food concessions outside for visitors to purchase a native food selection featuring Latin American and Caribbean flavors. Inside the museum, the Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe offers a range of Indigenous-inspired food, including frybread, bison burgers, Southwest lamb stew and dishes demonstrated at the festival.

Accessibility

The festival strives to maintain an accessible and inclusive environment for all visitors. Accessible seating and assistive listening are available at all festival stages. American Sign Language interpretation, real-time captioning and audio description services will be offered for many events. Additional accessibility supports such as wheelchair loans, Braille and large-print materials and a festival sensory guide can be found at the accessibility tent onsite or by visiting Accessibility Services on the festival’s website. On Sunday, June 30, the festival will host “Morning on the Mall,” a sensory-friendly program for children, teenagers and young adults who are neurodivergent and their families. For more information and to register for the event, email access@si.edu.

Support

“Indigenous Voices of the Americas” is made possible by support from Bank of America, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies and Ford Philanthropy. The program also received federal support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool and the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. Promotional support for the festival is provided by Dulles International and Reagan National Airports, Outfront Media and WMATA: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

About the National Museum of the American Indian

In partnership with Native peoples and their allies, the National Museum of the American Indian fosters a richer shared human experience through a more informed understanding of Native peoples. The museum strives toward equity and social justice for the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere through education, inspiration and empowerment. Through two locations, it features exhibitions and programs in New York City and on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. For additional information, including hours and directions, visit AmericanIndian.si.edu. Follow the museum via social media on Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

In addition to the 20th anniversary of the museum on the National Mall (2004) and the 30th anniversary of the museum in New York City (1994), the festival also celebrates the opening of the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Maryland (1999) and the signing of the National Museum of the American Indian Act, the legislation that created the museum (1989).

About the Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Inaugurated in 1967, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival honors living cultural traditions and celebrates those who practice and sustain them. Produced annually by the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and presented in association with the National Park Service, the festival has featured participants from all 50 states, every U.S. territory and more than 100 countries. Follow the festival on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.

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