ART
Creative Continuities: Family, Pride, and Community in Native Art – through June 2027: The creation of Native American objects involves a deep understanding of cultural protocols, histories, and traditions. Featuring selected works from the Autry’s Native American collections, Creative Continuities: Family, Pride, and Community in Native Art explores the meanings embedded in three aspects of Native culture: Knowing, Create, and Transference. Three contemporary Plains Indian artists—John Pepion (Blackfeet), Brocade Stops Black Eagle (Crow), and Jessa Rae Growing Thunder (Dakota/Nakoda)―reflect upon their relationships with works created by their Ancestors. The three Native culture bearers have each curated a section of the exhibition, framing works that originated within their respective communities within one of the three concepts at the heart of the exhibition. Through this unique combination of cultural objects and stories, Creative Continuities aims to educate visitors about the diversity of Native American culture, history, and tradition that crosses tribal boundaries, past and present. Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, LA.
Future Imaginaries: Indigenous Art, Fashion, Technology – through June 21, 2026: Future Imaginaries explores the rise of Futurism in contemporary Indigenous art as a means of enduring colonial trauma, creating alternative futures and advocating for Indigenous technologies in a more inclusive present and sustainable future. Over 50 artworks are on display, some interspersed throughout the museum, creating unexpected encounters and dialogues between contemporary Indigenous creations and historic Autry works. Artists such as Andy Everson, Ryan Singer and Neal Ambrose Smith wittily upend pop-culture icons by Indigenizing sci-fi characters and storylines; Wendy Red Star places Indigenous people in surreal spacescapes wearing fantastical regalia; Virgil Ortiz brings his own space odyssey, ReVOlt 1680/2180, to life in a new, site-specific installation. By intermingling science fiction, self-determination, and Indigenous technologies across a diverse array of Native cultures, Future Imaginaries envisions sovereign futures while countering historical myths and the ongoing impact of colonization, including environmental degradation and toxic stereotypes. Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, LA.
COMMUNITY
Native American Heritage Month: Star Stories – 4 PM, November 25: Native Americans have looked to the night sky for answers relating to seasons, science, navigation, and storytelling. Learn some of these stories and then build models of constellations using chenille sticks and pony beads. For ages 12 – 18. Compton Library, 240 West Compton Boulevard, Compton.
TRUTHSGIVING Virtual 4 Miler – November 26-30: Sign up for the 2025 TRUTHSGIVING Virtual 4 miler to support Rising Hearts and efforts in informing every participant about what Truthsgiving is and means through the lens of our collective, and gain a new perspective, rather than celebrating so called Thanksgiving for the romanticized reasons we grew up knowing from textbooks and an inaccurate historical narrative. Expand your knowledge and become an ally/friend with Indigenous Peoples, support the voices, movements and heart work. We hope to also give more visibility and support those in the #LANDBACK movement and work, to uphold Indigeneous Sovereignty, Treaty Rights, and to protect the lands where Indigenous knowledge can care, protect, preserve and restore the lands to their most natural, thriving being. And we can all be part of that.
BOOKS
Book Spotlight: We All Play by Julie Flett – 4 PM, November 25: The Sunkist Library hosts a special, interactive story program centered on Julie Flett’s award-winning picture book, We All Play / kimêtawânaw. The event will celebrate the powerful Indigenous concept of wa^hko^htowin (kinship), which is the idea of being related to and connected with all living things. Sunkist Library, 849 Puente Avenue, La Puente.
Book Club Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Healer of the Water Monster by Brian Young, 2 PM, November 29: Join The Live Oak Library as they discuss the book Healer of the Water Monster by Brian Young. Synopsis: When Nathan goes to visit his grandma, Nali, at her mobile summer home on the Navajo reservation, he knows he’s in for a pretty uneventful summer. Still, he loves spending time with Nali, and with his uncle Jet—though it’s clear when Jet arrives that he brings his problems with him. One night, while lost in the nearby desert, Nathan finds something extraordinary. A Holy Being from the Navajo Creation Story—a Water Monster—in need of help. Now Nathan must summon all his courage to save his new friend. With the help of other Navajo Holy Beings, Nathan is determined to save the Water Monster, and to help Uncle Jet heal from his own pain. Live Oak Library, 22 W Live Oak Avenue, Arcadia.
