Indigenous Peoples Celebration Comes to Portland State University

Native Theater Project is collaborating with Portland State University’s Native American Student and Community Center for We Are Sacred: An Indigenous Peoples Celebration on Saturday, October 12th, at Portland State University. 

We Are Sacred: An Indigenous Peoples Celebration honors Indigenous culture, resilience, and community. The daylong event features Indigenous vendors and live music by BlueFlamez, a current Fields Fellow with Oregon Community Foundation, and winner of Best Music Video from the Tokyo Film Festival (2023) and recipient of a Native American Music Award for Best Music Video (2016). The day culminates with a performance of a new play by Blossom Johnson, Diné Nishłį (i am a sacred being) Or, A Boarding School Play. 

Vendors include Many Stages LLC,  a Black Seminole and Ojibwe owned business that crafts handmade beaded jewelry and recovery goods and  RRB Native Jewelry, a business run by Diné and Hopi artists that specializes in southwest style jewelry and silver work, along with stickers. Wasco Fisheries is a Warm Springs entrepreneur that carries smoked salmon. A Diné business that specializes in Indigenized antiques and original jewelry designs, Love Adorned by Lori Tazbah also carries the work of Native pop artist Steven Paul Judd. Red Road is a business run by several generations of Lakota/Welsh/First Nations women. They specialize in traditional art made with bear, buffalo, moose, deer and Elk leather. 

The daylong event is free, with tickets for the evening performance available at www.bagnbaggage.org or from the Bag&Baggage box office directly at boxoffice@bagnbaggage.org or (503) 345-9590x1. Tickets are $5 for students and $25 for everyone else, with free tickets for Native people with the code Skoden.

Bag&Baggage (B&B) presents its 20th season “Expand the Canon” this year, the second season under  Artistic Director Nik Whitcomb. The season features a number of area and world premieres. Diné Nishłį (i am a sacred being) Or, A Boarding School Play is the second world premiere of the season, and is included in the “Expanded” & “Premium” membership levels at Bag&Baggage.