Still from Indian Alley (17 minutes, 2021). Courtesy Pamela J. Peters
Indian Alley: Pamela J. Peters on the Urban Migration of American Indians
GETTY CENTER
Museum Lecture Hall
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The multimedia work of Diné artist and documentarian Pamela J. Peters addresses the historical misrepresentation of Native Americans, seeking to correct and reframe the negative images and narratives perpetuated in the mainstream media, visual arts, and news. Peters confronts the complex relationship between Native Americans and the US government, exploring the history of coercive assimilation, displacement, and cultural erasure. In this program, Peters screens her short film Indian Alley (2021) to discuss the migration of American Indians to urban centers such as Los Angeles under the false promises of government relocation programs. She is joined in conversation by UCLA associate professor Kyle T. Mays as they deconstruct the impact of these laws and policies on Native identity.
Pamela J. Peters is a Diné multimedia documentarian. Her work focuses on ethnography and Native oral history, migration patterns and cultural dissonance, US government relations with tribal nations, and contemporary Native representation. As an artist, she identifies her work as "Indigenous Realism," often placing narratives within a nostalgic aesthetic.
Kyle T. Mays is an Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) scholar of urban history, Afro-Indigenous studies, and contemporary popular culture. He is the author of City of Dispossessions: Indigenous Peoples, African Americans, and the Creation of Modern Detroit (2022) and An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States (2022).
The conversation will be available on the Getty Research Institute YouTube channel following the event.
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